July 14th, 2009 HJGHER
On a recent trip to London, we were greeted by pianos all over. Some whispered silently in a park, some cried under the infamous drizzle but most made us passers-by listen and bear witness in awestruck wonder. From Tchaikovsky to The Beatles to Ten Little Indians, the crisp summer air was filled with music at every turn on the streets. A rare sight it was, for cold Londoners to slow their pace, listen for a while, and cheer for the playing strangers.
We later found out it was a project by Luke Jerram, who installed 30 old, unwanted pianos all over the city, “to get people talking to one another and to claim ownership and activate the public space”.
Street pianos are appearing in cities across the world. Located in skate parks, industrial estates, laundrettes, precincts, bus shelters and train stations, outside pubs and football grounds, the pianos are for any member of the public to enjoy and claim ownership of. Who plays them and how long they remain is up to each community. The pianos act as sculptural, musical, blank canvas’s that become a reflection of the communities they are embedded into. Many pianos are personalised and decorated.
Our friend Msxi had her take on Chopin by the Millennium Bridge.
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May 21st, 2009 Jerry
We are not sure if it’s the P-winged pigeon or the nostalgic smell of letter pads, or simply the obsessive attention to detail, that drew us away from the Muji universe into this little planet of leather stationery.
When chanced upon No.10038 in Graf (Osaka) last year, we had a hard time deciding between Ash Gray and Black, now we’re just glad that they can be found at Strangelets, although, Black was never in stock.
Like any of you who feel romantic towards the dying art of craft and tactile, we got almost teary-eyed carrying a Postalco Legal Envelope, after all, it started as part of a research by Mike Abelson, one half of Postalco, into the human behavior of carrying-something in our daily lives. A Starbucks paper cup maybe? A laptop? Or your daily Herald Tribune?
Regardless, the elegance of Postalco is all in the details. The neat threadworks, subtle curves, meticulous craftmanship, Mike and Yuri (ahh a japanese, now the perfection makes sense) make products that don’t shout for your attention, but sit naturally in your bag, on your table and in your hand. Naturally.
Watch this interview with Mike and Yuri by the cool folks at Tramnesia.
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January 29th, 2009 Jerry
This road trip in Malaysia reminds us of how we tend to forget the small things in life. When stopping our car off-road in no-man’s-land in the dead of the night, it is so quiet we can hear the leaves breathing. And the night sky presents us with what us city-dwellers don’t see in a very long time: stars.
Meteors fade across the sky in abundance as we walk across a vast field, with bugs orchestrating a prelude to the approaching springtime. Getting lost has never been this fascinating. We then recall a time-lapse video we watched some time back, The Sky in Motion by Till Credner, composed from a series from 7,000 images illustrating wonders of the sky above us.
Please, do watch the HD version on a fullscreen, and remember to pick up all the little things that you’ve lost along your way; and now, we shall try to find our way home.
Watch The Sky in Motion here.
“Sun, moon and stars show up with their daily rise and set. The beauty of our celestial phenomena is increased by the accelerated time lapse technique showing the apparent motion of the sky due to earth’s rotation.”
- posted using a HP Mini 1000, in the middle of nowhere.
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November 5th, 2008 Jerry
They are the Hidden People from beneath the mythical frozen land, they are the sound of melting ice and breathing sky, they are the emotions that perpetuate every before, during and after. On a chilly evening in Osaka, Sigur Rós played those icelandic folklores to us, one after another, and all we did was weep uncontrollably, inside our heads, like the artificial snow on stage.
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February 12th, 2008 Justin
We detail where every cent of our yen went in our contribution of this month’s Catalog magazine, (pg 38-45).
Ripe for picking now.
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November 16th, 2007 Justin
26 artists designed the 26 letters of the alphabet used as key elements for DesignTide 2007.
We really like the letters D (ASYL), N (Donny Grafiks) and W (Gento Matsumoto) for their well thought out simplicity.
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November 9th, 2007 Jerry
So we’re back from the land of extremely polite and the insanely good looking, where we had our first ever out of Singapore exhibition. Still overwhelmed by the whole experience, we’re taking our time to sort out the 3 million amazing people we met and 5 million cool things we saw. We’ll do our best to write as much as we can over the weekend. Meanwhile, check out some of the photos from the opening night of DualCity Sessions: null.
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October 31st, 2007 Justin
We’re all set to fly off to Nippon right now.
In a couple of airline packed meals later, we will be running amok down Tokyo town, especially National Stadium where it is the main site for DesignTide. This is the third year running for DesignTide. Based on the continued ideology that is the necessary things in life, the exhibition will show work from the fields of interior, products, graphics, fashion and art. We’re already planning to hit the ground running so if you do catch us hyperventilating in glee, don’t worry… we’ll still stop/chat/take pics with you and then drag you along with us.
As part of DesignTide, our contribution for DualCity Sessions: null is now being exhibited at the giulianoFujiwara store at Minami Aoyama, Tokyo. This is Masataka Matsumura’s first ever flagship store in Tokyo, and we are proud to be within space of his Milanese crafted label. The exhibition is coordinated by design studio, Artless and architectural firm, Upsetters Inc.
“Null” is the brainchild of Shun Kawakami who also is the founder of renowned design studio, Artless. This is the seventh exhibition of “null” which also includes the collaboration of 13 other artists from Singapore (14 including us).
More to come about all things Nippon when we return. And we promise no less in translation.
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October 1st, 2007 Jerry
Along with 14 other artists/designers from Singapore, we were invited to participate in Dual City Sessions: Null.
We were tasked to produce a visual artwork using elements found in Singapore, based on the theme “- = +” (to subtract is to add). We finally submitted our artwork few days back, having worked on it for the past few weeks and were told earlier today that it had been sent to print.
Curated by the ever progressive Silnt, Dual City Sessions is a platform for international collaboration and cross-pollination from the diverse creative disciplines. It aims to showcase the collaborative effort between two creative communities, bringing together emerging and innovative practitioners in the field of art, fashion, design and music.
Having exhibited throughout Japan in cities such as Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka and Nagoya. The first installment of Dual City Sessions marks the first overseas collaboration for null. This is the first time they are exhibiting out of Japan and also the first time it involves foreign artists.
Dual City Sessions launches at DesignTide Tokyo on the 30th October - 4th November 2007, and we’re crossing our fingers that we”ll be able to convince our clients that we”ll still be able to work from Tokyo during this period.
Read more at:
Dual City Sessions” official site.
DesignTide Tokyo’’s official site.
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