Japanese Face Masks: Senseware Designer Collaboration Project

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 8, 2009 at 2:21 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS | No Comments

Senseware is a project that teams up chemical and material manufacturers with designers of all walks to create new, compelling uses for synthetic materials. The most recent edition features major manufacturers like Asahi Kasei and Toray Industries alongside creative luminaries like architect Jun Aoki and industrial designer Nendo.

The results vary from practical structures to purely artist creations—and to fashion items. This year Japan Fashion Week design duo Mint Designs incorporated their Senseware contribution into their catwalk show. The “To be someone” mask project was created from an unwoven material using long polyester fibers called “Smash” by Asahi Kasei Fibers Corporation. The highly thermo-dynamic material can be easily molded into 3D forms—here resulting in a pollen mask press-formed into the shape of a perfectly balanced face.

Photos courtesy of Japan Fashion Week

For the show, the masks were decorated with prints to match the clothes on display, giving the models an eerie mannequin-esque sameness. Except of course for the ones that got the contrasting chimpanzee version of the mask.

But joking (and social critique) aside, why not? Pollen masks are a common sight in Japan, especially now as hay fever hits its peak. We’ve looked at previous attempts to make the mask more fashionable, namely the Maskore (Mask-erade) campaign from fashion website GirlsGate.com that instructed women how to dress up their mask to suit their look. Why not one that is more than just tolerable, but actually enhances your appearance?

While Mint Designs created the masks purely as prototypes for the project, PR representative Naoko Jensen noted that a number of buyers and press expressed interest in them—suggesting that in this case Senseware has succeeded in pushing the discussion and potential of an average, accepted product to another level.

From Aprill 22-27 Senseware will travel to the Milan Triennial. This year marks the third edition of the annual series, Tokyo Fiber/Senseware.

Tags: Art, design, Fashion
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE

Tokyo Art Week Gets Green & Comical

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 7, 2009 at 4:14 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

Much is happening recently with vertical gardens and other urban architecture, including some high-end, self-contained models we’ve seen recently.

Hokkaido Sanyu Corp. has developed a system for green walls called River Re Wall that looks like a miniaturized riverbed or garden turned on its side. Behind the moss-covered wall panel is an irrigation system that ensures all-around healthy greenery and generates a faint, trickling sound of water. The sound is designed to create a sense of real, living nature, as well as encourage relaxation.

As part of their campaign to demonstrate the applications of such a system, Hokkaido Sanyu has established the Miino Brand of indoor fine art green walls. A number of these were on display at the recent Art Fair Tokyo. Priced at ¥700,000 to ¥2,600,000 ($7,000 to $26,000) these painting-sized “living” wall panels draw inspiration from traditional temple-style meditation gardens.

Meanwhile up the road at Tokyo 101, another art fair part of the loosely organized Tokyo Art Week, Sony Digital Entertainment had a booth to display the Charart project. Under the slogan “digital comic to real art” Charart takes popular characters from Sony Digital Entertainment comic series and turns them into the subject of fine art collectibles by the original artists. Sony Digital Entertainment was a main sponsor of Tokyo Art 101.

Tags: Art, design, Eco
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Ecology Art: The Green Island Project at the Media Arts Festival

Written by: Rebecca Milner on February 16, 2009 at 4:19 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 1 Comment

What would Tokyo look like if the pavement were suddenly replaced with grass? A simple and inviting, yet laughable, prospect but one that the creators of the Green Island project are taking seriously.

The project is a collaborative effort between creative director Tag (Ryo Taguchi), photo retoucher IMKW (Imakawa), and contemporary artist cum coder Immr (Yuichiro Imamura). The initial result is a series of photographs that cleverly turn Tokyo streets into fields of green. Here is an example of the instantly recognizable Shinjuku.

While new development projects in Tokyo are increasingly prioritizing green space (Tokyo Midtown Shopping Complex is an oft-cited example), existing developed space is notoriously grey—something which is taken as matter of fact. The Green Island project aims to encourage the reconsideration of these existing places and remind us of the potential that these already developed areas still offer.

The Green Island project participated in the recent Japan Media Arts Festival held February 4-15 at the National Art Center Tokyo. The well-attended 12th edition of the annual event included juried entries in the divisions of art, animation, manga, and entertainment. Excellence prizes were picked up by Marcio Ambrosio for “Oups!” (art), Kunio Kato for “The House of Small Cubes” (animation), Makoto Isshiki for “Piano no Mori” (manga), and the Tenori-On development team for the popular Tenori-on game (entertainment).

Trend Potential

Ecology was a major theme at the Media Arts Festival, and has been a growing consumer and production trend in Japan for several years now. For more information on Eco trends in Japan in products, branding, marketing, and behavior, check out our Trendpool innovation database.

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Tags: Art, Eco, Events, Urbanism
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

BEAMS TOKYO CULTuART aggregates Tokyo urban culture & art

Written by: Michael Keferl on January 5, 2009 at 2:46 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 4 Comments

If you wanted to sum up your city in one room without making it cluttered, what would you put in there? This is precisely the challenge that TOKYO CULTuART, a new project and shop from BEAMS in Harajuku, is taking on since its opening two weeks ago.

While their main business is design and apparel (ranging from casual to business to t-shirts), culture is also a valuable commodity, a point not lost on BEAMS RECORDS. CULTuArt is in the culture business, taking the best of Tokyo’s art and design scenes and letting it all play together, regardless of medium or genre.

Recently we were lucky enough to spend some time with Nagai-san, the General Manager of CULTuART and a mainstay at BEAMS for over two decades. According to Nagai, CULTuART is an aggregator of urban Tokyo, bringing its many faces and artists into one place that acts as both retail outlet and museum.

YAMANAYA pieces from famed figure-maker M1GO

From the Gundam figures of Akihabara to design books and prints found in Ueno, CULTuART spans the urban landscape of modern Made in Japan, shows it to the world, and makes it available to the masses all at once. The contents reflect the tastes of modern Japanese, but also those of its curator who values a piece’s cultural and aesthetic qualities at once.

The shop is decidedly down-to-earth in its sensibilities, but that doesn’t mean it comes with a small price tag. While Modoka Morikawa’s Peloqoon stuffed figures can go for around $150, one-of-a-kind pieces like the Doraemon stained-glass lamp from Pucci (seen in the slideshow) can exceed $7000. This is surely the nature of bringing in the best of the best, and makes it a great stop for both foreign and local visitors to get a solid overview of Tokyo culture and design in a very pop-culture kind of way.

Technology certainly has its place in CULTuART’s space as well. Aside from multiple Mac models open for use, they’ve also created a special browser-based application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Each item has its own number which, when clicked on, brings up detailed information about the piece and its artist in both Japanese and English. If you have one of the devices yourself, click here to browse on your own, and check out pieces like MODERHYTHM’s very cool CHUBU 01, pictured below.

Gadget-less customers can get loaners to use during their browsing time, but Nagai-san notes that devices integrated with the shopping experience are going to expand even more in the coming years, incorporating RFID and other technologies to better provide interactive information about the displays.

For the next step in its evolution, CULTuART is expanding to bring the best of Tokyo to other major cities around the world, though they haven’t made any firm plans yet as to where they’ll be going. Since they’re interested in spreading culture, a unique or unusual location (in our opinion anyway) would be far more interesting than the usual suspects.

However, the concept can work both ways as well, as many Japanese are increasingly travel-minded and appreciative of other cultures. TOKYO CULTuART would be interesting in Brooklyn, but how about a BROOKLYN CULTuART version in Paris or Cairo?

To visit for yourself, click for a map from Harajuku Station.

Tags: Art, Beams, Culture, design, Retail
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Okamoto’s Myth of Tomorrow at home in Shibuya

Written by: Michael Keferl on November 21, 2008 at 1:47 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 2 Comments

Taro Okamoto’s famed (and once lost) mural “Myth of Tomorrow” now has a permanent home in Tokyo’s Shibuya Station. To be quite honest, it was a bit shocking at first without context, but the 30 meter long work depicts the moment that the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima during WWII in all the fury of hell unleashed.

This is interesting for several reasons, not least of which is the choice of location. Shibuya is far from being a somber place to reflect on the tragedy of nuclear warfare, but perhaps that’s what makes it a good location. It shocks people and makes them stop, which was a nice surprise for me (who always assumed Tokyoites stop for nothing). Despite the rush hour traffic of people scrambling away from the office, crowds gathered in front of the mural taking photos and talking.

After being lost in Mexico for decades, “Myth of Tomorrow” was rediscovered and restored at the behest of Okamoto’s widow who died only a couple of weeks before it made the journey to Japan.

Tags: Art
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS