Day 1 | 7 November
Arrival
My first thoughts on arrival to the airport were chill and polite security and the first advertisement I saw was for a toilet. Here we go.
Day 2 | 8 November
3331 Introduction
Today we walked to 3331 Arts Chiyoda, our studio and study space for the project. With the declining youth, The building is a renovated junior high school (7-9) now used for art collaboration.
We then made our way to a museum which turned out to be closed. However the upside was that we wandering through back streets, saw all different kinds of buildings on our way to the Watarium museum of contemporary art.
I appreciated being around abstract art that on the surface is was strange to me, but hearing others interpretations and reading about the installations introduced some interesting concepts to me, and how some would communicate an idea in a physical space.
See Alvero’s Studio and projects was a real inspiration, everything he worked on felt like something I have an interest it. Solving problems, innovating, collaboration, combining technology and design. It reinforced the idea of the agile company of the future. Bring creatives in for specific projects, people working remotely, only working on the things that matter.
Day 3 | 9 November
Project Immersion / TeamLab Plants
This morning we made our way to TeamLabs, an interactive immersive art museum. I’m interested in motion graphics, 3D visuals, real time rendering and of course music. Each immersive experience in here really set a specific tone using these tools. It was inspiring seeing it executed. I sat in each room that incorporated motion graphics, breaking it down and thinking about how it was technically done. It was more than an instagram stage.
However the room has moved the most was the mirror string light room with the etherial music. It made me think of 2001 a space odyssey or the ending scene of Interstellar. Standing there and taking in the visuals and music was really special the longer I stayed in one place.
the Tsutaya Book Store was a melting pot of art, design, pop culture, movies all displayed in the most unmistakably Japanese way soft earth tones, I was really amazed walking around the book store and the accompanying lanes filled with coffee shops.
We made our way down to a dog adoption area with tiny cute dogs well groomed dogs, we spent time in their playing with them but this reenforced how much the Japanese care about small, cute, well groomed animals.Speaking to people and interacting non verbally in public has given me the impression that the Japanese people are so quiet and polite.
Day 4 | 10 November
ICC + Media Shinto Shrine
Today we went to the ICC museum with a series of interactive exhibits. It was interesting seeing the exhibits, I could feel like excitement for technology. Projection art on old paintings making them interactive was interesting. 3D printed motion mesh with thin light planes moving through them to create motion. Haptics lab that shares the heartbeat of users over FaceTime to create a more meaningful connection. Haptics being used on pillows and seats to rumble and create an immersive movie experience. Different surfaces evoking different emotional responses.
We managed to get outside and see some nature and a Shinto trine.
We stopped by a Hedgehog Cafe, where you pay for a set amount of time to sit in a cafe and play with and feed tiny Hedgehogs. Again, the Japanese really value cuteness and are wiling to pay for small experiences related to it.
I love walking around with a camera because it makes me more observant of my surroundings. Even if I don’t take any photos, I feel like i’m taking things in more.
I was looking for a bin to put my banana peele in, in the lobby of the accomodation. As I was wandering around aimlessly looking at the recycling bins, I notice a women running towards me and snatch the banana peele in the most polite smily way, she continues running and puts it in a rubbish bin for me. Very kind, very surprising.
Day 5 | 11 November
Eri Matsui, Basquiat Exhibition
Visiting Eri Matsui’s studio today was a huge inspiration.
I’m not somebody who is very interested in fashion or high fashion in the traditional sense but seeing this in the context of a medium of expression was enlightening. It was Interdisciplinary collaboration working
Sometimes talking to or listening to traditional artists or creatives can be regressive because of the tight cling to the past.
Eri is a creative not afraid of the future, embraces it despite her age and collaborates with those that know things that she doesn't pushing everybody upward.
Eri has a mission in her art, she wants girls to be happy and unique through procedural fashion generation despite size or shape. Pushing against mass production.
Combining randomness of nature and fashion through AI.
Music, created with water droplet sounds. Chaotic, random.
Skeptical about looking at paintings Basquiat
Basquiat had complete authenticity through his work, nothing was precious.
Observing artwork that I don’t usually analyse with other creatives gave me a different perspective.
Notebook of observations
Visually showing sound
Capturing his surroundings abstractly
I found his some of his work to be a puzzle, and I tried to piece the sections together to cohesively understand.
Basquiat’s work made me think about when i’m creating something, how I sometimes planning too much stops me from attempting in the first place.
Day 6 | 12 November
Edo Museum, 3331 Workshop
Visiting the Edo museum was an insight into the history of Japan.
The building itself is a massive block on stilts which made me assumed that it was something else before booming a museum. We were told that the building itself was created to be a museum after an economic boom allows the architects to go nuts.
We noticed a wall of elderly people looking at us as we approached the desk. After we got our tickets they asked us if we spoke english, we said yes, and one of the elderly people stood up booming our tour guide for the museum. The guide was a great storyteller, we could feel how proud he was about the Japanese past.
We learnt about the different social structures of the Edo era with the commoners, the 300 Futile lords ruling over the 300 domains of Japan and the shogun above them all. The long journeys of the Japanese people between cities
Our guide told us a story about a shogun and the conflict caused in his family after they picked their favourite as successor, from this they learnt to always pick first boy to avoid conflict in peaceful time.
Having such a great person tour made me almost feel guilty considering he was a volunteer, we walked and spoke with us for almost an hour and a half. He also wanted to know what our areas of interest were and what we wanted to find out. He was very to the point in order to give us the right information. When we mentioned vending machines, he sounded proud of the convince they provide and hadn’t thought about the sustainability, in fact didn’t even know what it meant in the context.
Day 7 | 13 November
Team Meeting, Advertising Museum, Hamarikyu Gardens/ Solidify concept
Today we wanted to get our foundation on the project before moving forward. I was feeling very unsure of our direction, especially with Tom seeming to be on a different page to the rest of us. He kept talking about what we could do and the technical manufacturing process where as most of us wanted to get an understanding of why we wanted to do the project.
We set a timer for an hour to make us more consist in our thoughts which forced us not to ramble and waste time. We brainstormed at 3331 focusing on the things we’ve learn so far opposed to thinking about what the the deliverables. We all had a a break through moment in the project once we reiterated our goals and research. We want to incorporate the culture of protection and care for the city to extend into sustainable vending machines. Connect the people of Tokyo to their city
Visiting the advertising museum was interesting seeing the the history and and designs over the years and how they related to current events and culture. I was hoping to learn more about the Japanese people from this however.
AIG pride jersey - combing all colours in the thread to create a black rugby guernsey, which pulled and stretched, colours are shown. Promotes diversity in sports.
Blending frames over one another to create abstract motion. Long exposure with strobe?
We visited Hamarikyu Gardens, my take away from this was that the Japanese people deeply care about tidiness and protection of
Day 9 | 14 November
3331 Sprint/ Practise presentation/
Today was a long day of ideation and was about figuring out the physical project and how it can be achieved.
Today was ups and down, getting angry at tom, snapping at him and hurting his feelings but making things right by the end of the night.
Our group seemed to be lagging behind everybody else because of our ability to get on the same page. Sometimes it feels like walking through mud, hearing details rambled about that don’t matter and move the project away from an art project to something else. Everybody is starting to get frustrated.
Before we started presenting what we had so far Tom suggested he would do it and bullshit it, to where I snapped and said no and starting thinking about what to say when the other groups were speaking. All our ideas were scattered and not cohesive, making it really difficult to explain as we stood up. Especially when one of us had different priorities in the project.
After this Tom gave me a smirk and said something along the lines of “you were giving me crap for talking about all that stuff”. Being proud of it. This is where I snapped and said he was rambling about nothing.
Previously Tom and I had disagreements on content for the projects he liked to pad things up to try to trick the audience into thinking he/we were more thoughtful than we actually were. Whereas I try to be a bit more transparent and honest.
By the end of the night I had a chat with him, apologised but told him where my priorities lie.
Day 10 | 15 November
Tama University
Tama University was a delight. It was nice to see an international uni form the inside and look at all the art on the walls. But was amazing seeing all the presentations from the students. The projects were so varied, some abstract, some more academic, but most of the project felt really authentic and even funny. One project in particular was in a way quite politically incorrect, shocking and funny. From this though it felt like the students weren’t holding back, which was refreshing.
I appreciated getting closer to some Japanese people even though most of the students were international. Our experience so far has been observing and learning about the Japanese people from an outsider perspective without much interaction. Especially talking with Alvaro, he has some great insight, but it can sometimes feel like we’re studying aliens. I took the opportunity to talk to some of the Japanese girls from the university who claimed they didn’t speak english before speaking to me about their country for like 30 minutes.
Spending time with the Tama students/staff was a real highlight over dinner and drinks.
Day 11 | 16 November
Free Day - Takao
Today we wanted to get out into nature, so we headed up Mount Takao. We prepared with a sleven sesh getting snacks from 711 to go on our hike. As we moved upon the mountain we noticed that the crowds and commercialisation didn’t disappear, we were overwhelmed with food vendors, gift shops and vending machines all the way to the top. Beautiful view of the sprawling veins of jungle and city mixing together. I even managed to see a little glimpse at mount fuji.
Later that evening I had a chance to wander around on my own taking photos. I saw less of the polished and tidy side of Tokyo. City workers working in the dead of the night directing traffic and people, homeless people, people littering, girls on the street handing out flyers, and multiple guys trying to get me into their massage parlours.
Once back at YMCA I walked past the guys at the desk, as I walk in they immediately snap back to their computers and bring up spreadsheets as if they were pretending to do work.
Day 12 | 17 November
3331 work day
Things I learnt today after being stuck was to communicate ideas visually, gives us more to show people outside of our discussions, plus can be understood better by group members. Restrict how long to think about an idea and move onto the next thing and start collecting images.
Day 12 | 18 November
3331 Prototyping
Our feedback has been that while our project has a lot of cool concepts, it’s been hard to communicate with without core images and diagrams. We got down on some paper and started sketching through the user flow of using the vending machine. As we walked through that and got our ideas to paper, we were able to resolve more about the UX.
More feedback - Japanese people don’t like touching things, so we were suggested an app that would vibrate when your phone is placed on the vending machine. This was a great idea, but I found it hard to add another layer to communicate under the time constraint.
Our ideas are still scattered but we’re going to embrace that because it’s authentic to much of our progress.
So far we’ve got low fidelity visuals of the UX of the vending machine and started animations of the core concepts of the heart beat, drink mixing and connection.
Day 14 | 20 November
3331 Prototyping
Today was heads down and doing work, no more discussions. We each roughly had a role and section to finish. Our communication was non existent today, everybody was tired and just wanted to be creative. Frustratingly it was hard I had no preference on what to produce, I just wanted to make the underlying concept clearer. I had just been doing animation at work so the tools were fresh in my mind so I chose to communicate our ideas with motion. This took much longer than I thought because of all the moving parts in my animation. So it got quite messy in the backend that stressed me out. After completing this section I began putting things into perspective and regretted not enjoying the process of creating more.
As we started slowly putting things on the wall tom started planning as well. He had a particular vision about the wall that didn't make sense to me, but at this point I didn't want to argue which made me indifferent and passive (unlike me). Maria was there to kick us in the ass and from my memory, went with what I thought made sense in the first place. With a lot of Maria's help we began telling our story of process on the wall.
Day 15 | 21 November
Finishing work and Exhibition
Today was crunch time, and things were finally coming together. A mess of ideas funnelling into concise notes that ironically were confusing. Spanning into our emotional story and our learning about the culture into the solution and each of our seperate contributions.
Aluminium cans have plastic because of long term storage, eliminate long term storage by dispensing drinks in the vending machine, use city water lines. Then motivating users to use the machine with the social connection of haptic heartbeats represented by purchases of sustainable products, humanising the city itself.
The concept could never fully validated because of the time constraints, but I looked at it as a fun creative solution that could inspire more research into deeper solutions.I was also quite proud of the concept of the heartbeat.