[lang_en]Living World[lang_en][lang_ja]リビングワールド[/lang_ja] » LW Essays

Winter Leaves

tariho — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:33:05 +0000

　
It was cold morning sprinkling snow.
I met some tiny winter leaves of Japanese Loquat(Eriobotrya japonica).

In the small forest of a hill,
Steadily they start getting ready for coming spring
In a gentle pace.

Dragon

tariho — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:17:50 +0000

　
Dragon emerges anywhere in this world when needed. In the air, High up mountains, At water fall …　
Also It keeps the preciousness in our heart.

Dragon is reminder. It tells ‘The preciousness is here forever and ever’. Even when no see any Dragon, ‘Do not forget about The preciousness is here forever and ever’.

Larus ridibundus

tariho — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:33:08 +0000

Yurikamome / Black-headed Gulls (winter pelage) had cached the sounds of a plastic bag that yummy scones in it. Silently they came across behind me, just gazing the plastic bag. so I crushed one scone and served to them.

Soon many of Black-headed Gulls fly in and quickly pecked it and flew away.

Black-headed Gulls knows how to get what they wants. Guess what they asked someone to serve them something to peck around that pond today?

Winter branch

tariho — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:44:39 +0000

High up in the air
Winter branch has hover above
Seem as roots as deep in the earth

What Happens to the Sun at Night?

LW — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:00:52 +0000

We’ve had this idea for a book for a while, and we’re going to start pursuing it.
If you asked some children aged 5 to 9 “What happens to the sun at night?” what do you think their answers would be?

Our idea is to ask this question to children all over the world, and edit the results into a book.

We will probably discover several opinions that would have never occurred to us adults. In fact, I’m sure we will. This idea has its origins in a survey that our friend Mariko Takahashi, who works in a planetarium, did ten years ago. Now what kind of answers did she get? Well we will keep that under wraps for now and wait to see what our project results are!

Incidentally, the theory of the sun-centered solar system is not taught in Japan until junior high school.
We think that children’s relationships with the sun are going to be different depending on where they live, their culture, and environmental factors. Now…

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How to Participate
- Print out the survey (PDF).
- Ask children, “What happens to the sun at night?”
- Write their answers on the sheet, and send it in. It would be wonderful if the children themselves could write an answer and also include explanatory drawings. Please write down answers for children who are not yet able to write.

Send to:
Living World Inc. 4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
*It would be great if you could use a large envelope and send the papers flat.
*If scanning the responses to send via e-mail, please scan at 300dpi and full-color.
*Responses without illustrations, which have been written down by an adult, may be sent as text via e-mail: taiyo@livingworld.net

　
Use of Submissions
- Submissions will not be returned
- Submissions will be posted online so they can be shared with everyone.
- A selection of submissions will be collected and published (currently planning to self-publish)
- A selection of submissions will be displayed as part of the Touch the Sun exhibit at graf mouth in Osaka from July 9 to August 21.
- Submissions will be used only for the purposes listed here.

About ten years ago we were making some online educational materials for senior elementary classes and we surveyed approximately 1,000 elementary and junior high students. This project was not about the sun: it was on the subject of auroras.

“When do you think auroras come out?”
“Where on earth do you think they appear?”
“Why do you think they appear?”

I don’t think there are many adults who know the correct answers to these questions. We were the same.

Then, we decided to ask some fifth and sixth grade students directly, and paid a visit to a certain elementary school. When we asked the class, their hands went up one after another, saying “Those are clouds!” and “The sun has gone around to the other side of the world and the light is spilling over.” and so on.

The following is a response to that survey, written by a student in Hideki Suzuki’s class at Keio Yochisha Primary School.

Aurora Survey
You’ve probably heard of the aurora phenomenon. Please tell us a little about what you think by answering the following three questions. This isn’t a test, so it’s OK if your answer isn’t the right one. (^_^)

Question 1 – When do you think auroras appear?
At night in winter.

Question 2 – Where on earth do you think auroras appear?
North Pole and South Pole, cold places like that.

Question 3 – Why do you think auroras occur?
The light of the moon reflects off the ice and makes auroras.
They appear when snowflakes gather near the mountains.

Gender: (Male) Female

We think that people begin to learn about science when they form their own ideas based on observation of natural phenomena.

How do children who haven’t yet been taught about it grasp the workings of the sun? How do they think about it? We’d like to create an opportunity for children and adults to learn from each other. Please help spread the word about this project.

In order to find out what children inside and outside Japan are thinking, this project is being conducted simultaneously in Japanese and English.

Thank you for your participation! :-D

Prayers

tariho — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:54:41 +0000

祈り手は...Prayers are here and...

Warmth

tariho — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:57:11 +0000

Deep breath in orange

Package design

LW — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:00:12 +0000

The smaller, palmtop version of ‘Beyond our solar system’ is ready for release, the only remaining task being to update the sales pages on our website. Allow us first to explain a little about how the packaging was made.

‘Beyond our solar system’ consists of a laser-etched galaxy inside a glass cube. For this new version, we tried laser-etching the packaging as well.

To begin with, a plain black craft box.

The laser starts to etch the central image: our solar system.

Shone from above, with a quiet pish-pish-pish sound the laser beam burns a trail.

Smoke is removed to the vacuum on the left. A slight burning smell hangs in the air.

Finished! All ink-free (although it does require electricity). In this sense it resembles processes such as stamping and embossing, but the sharpness is in an entirely different league. At this point both we and the boss of the company doing the etching are feeling rather pleased with our efforts.

　
Something that often strikes us about package design is that all too frequently, packaging suffers from too much design.
Wagging its tail, so to speak… The Shakers would dismiss it all as unnecessary frills, no doubt.

We’re not quite that minimalist, but we do try to remember that if the relationship between maker and buyer (and thus user) is good, in extreme cases you could hand the product over personally, with no packaging at all.
But in these days of complex distribution systems and weak links between craftsman and purchaser, experiences such as taking your container to the local tofu shop to be filled are very rare indeed.

Still, one suspects that getting a kick out of buying something, feeling that warm glow of satisfaction, is more likely when design is absent, than when buying something in a meticulously designed package.

That hot sweet potato wrapped in a piece of newspaper is just right. And when you buy a freshly baked baguette on a Paris street corner, they give it to you as is, or at the most, with a small strip of paper wrapped around the middle.
We want to use just the right degree of design. Not design that makes things ‘look’ tasty or ‘look’ good, but that’s just right for the job.
　

Our galaxy in a cube will be sent by post, and stocked by retailers, so we can’t leave it completely bare.
Still, we were convinced there must be a way to package it that was ‘just right’, and spent six months working to achieve that. We came up with this design in mid-September just before the product was ready to launch, and Mr. K from Eltech made a trial version for us; the result of his, and LW’s experiments and explorations.
So what do you think? Of course we hope you’ll want to see the real thing. :-)

Incidentally, the solar system etched on the box and the galaxy inside are in parallel.

七つの時間の砂時計

LW — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:14:20 +0000

リビングワールドの砂時計シリーズ「In this time」のラインナップが揃いました！

graf・kurkkuでの展示につづき、このウェブサイトでも取扱いをはじめます。
いまお求めいただける砂時計は、この６つ（７種類）。
…English page is in preparation
Please see →Works index

What do we make things for?

nish — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:29:34 +0000

Recently we ran an event dubbed the Living Science Cafe. Over the course of an hour and a half, we introduced a number of our projects, and fielded questions and comments from the audience.

One question was “What do you make things for?”
Somehow I managed to dodge that one, and leave without answering.

I can talk about the thoughts that run through my head as I make things. You’ll find that written on the Works pages, here on this site.
But “What for?” Now that’s a tough one.
It’s a question I occasionally encounter at lectures and such, and it’s always hard to answer. I do my best, but am invariably left feeling slightly unsettled.

On this occasion I found myself muttering on the way home… Ummm, now why was it?
When I mentioned my hesitation to our chairman (cat, aged eight), and Tariho-san waiting at home, this was the response.

“No one ever asks someone who sings why they do it, do they? But we do get asked that question. To some people I suppose our work looks like the kind of thing one “thinks about” to do. But as far as we’re concerned, we’re no different from singers.”

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

→Works index