The show featured our latest work, Waiting for the wind, along with Mind the World: Globe, unveiled one month earlier in Kyoto, and reconfigured versions of works shown the previous year.

Gallery 2. In the foreground is Mind the World: Globe. On the bay windowsill at the right is the video display A DAY; on the left, As the sun sees it; and just behind (hidden by) the globe, Beyond our solar system .

Against the back wall are two renditions of Living plant time .

This year we photographed and animated the processes of a sunflower dying and a potato sprouting new shoots. By the last day of the show, we had documented about two minutes of video. Below is the test take of the potato.

the Main Gallery. Members of graf up from Osaka relax and enjoy Waiting for the wind .

As night fell, Wind-lit: Solar – suspended in the surrounding treetops with the help of nurseryman Mr. Kamiya – took center stage.

Our Mashiko exhibitions have become somewhat of a summer tradition. That said, next summer’s show is yet to be slated. We should know by mid-winter.

Held: 2006.8.5 – 24

Special thanks to (in alphabetical order): 4D2U Project (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Kei Fukuda (maf*maf), Keisuke Hirai (NaK.pro), Ryosuke Kimura, Yasuko Seki, Sound Bum Project, Satoru Sugihara, and STARNET.

The place: efish, where we exhibited the prototype for Wind-lit in 2001.
The content: works we showed at our 2005 Mashiko (STARNET) exhibition +α, including our new work “Mind the World: Globe”.

We were at work in Tokyo during the show, but couldn’t help wondering how it was going… So we asked – over the Internet – and visitors sent photos! Thank you all! :-)

Outside the window, three Wind-lit: Solar hover above the Kamo River. On the windowsill are two renditions of Living plant time: Water Pennywort and wildflowers from the efish surrounds. Photo: Tabata-san (7.1)

Footage from the Kyoto efish exhibit (test takes included)

At the entrance is another rendition of Living plant time, and a sandglass from “In this time”. Photo: Uesugi-san (7.4)

Next to a large wall clock is the very scaled-down Kyoto version of the Earth Clock @ Kobe Airport. Clock time and natural time. Photo: Tabata-san (7.1)

Sipping tea, a visitor watches nightfall draw near.
Having always wanted Earth Clock to be seen in such a setting, this table for two to us is ideal. The right atmosphere meant fewer guest tables than efish normally provides, and for that sacrifice we are grateful.

Each table features a sandglass from In this time. Here a visitor tests his lungs against Jacques Mayol’s. Photo: Kawano-san (7.9)

Photo: Wada-san (7.7)

Our first mini display – here, a poster – of video stills from A DAY, developed for the Exploration of Time exhibition. Photo: Ishitani-san (7.8)

See also “Beyond our solar system” . Photo: Ishitani-san (7.8)

Our Pinhole Card (for the Solar Eclipse) sold only at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Is everyone prepared for the 2009 total eclipse of the sun, which will be visible from Shanghai and Amami-Oshima? Photo: Ishitani-san (7.8)

On the left is As the sun sees it: Powerbook version.Photo: Kakei-san (7.8)

Starting with this show, we created a “local stamp”.

Our new work, Mind the World: Globe .Photo: Kawano-san (7.9)

By donning a set of headphones, visitors hear sounds from the places they touch on the globe via their fingertips.Photo: Kakei-san (7.8)

In lieu of the usual background music, the only sound heard in the cafe during the show was the chiming of Earth Clock every other minute. The idea was proposed by efish’s assistant manager Y-san, and as it was right in line with our thinking, we were thrilled. Commercial spaces in Japan tend to overdo the background music, we think.

That aside, reading over the impressions left in the guest book, we were pleased to find traces of visitors from Kobe, Hyogo and even Fukuoka and Tokyo. And while here we can present only a few, a great many people also sent photos, which we truly appreciate.

This was Living World’s third exhibition at a cafe.
In our opinion the advantages of showing at a cafe include: getting people to see the show that came unintentionally; having more people experience serendipity; and having people spend a leisurely time in the space.

We too wanted to be at the exhibition space in the most natural possible of roles – working at the cafe – so we could observe people’s reactions in detail (!), but we didn’t have the guts to make the proposal. (^_^:)

However, every night after closing, the efish staff jotted down and faxed us their observations. For this too we are truly grateful.

with Yoshihiro Kawasaki (NADI), Hiroshi Kanechiku, Shunichiro Kuriyama (KARHU), Takashi Nishino, and efish.

Special thanks to (in alphabetical order): 4D2U Project (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Yukio Ando (EXA), Kei Fukuda (maf*maf), Kyo Ichinose, Ryuichi Iwasa (GK Tech), Kansai Electric Power Company, Kiyosato Education Experiment Project (KEEP), Kobe Airport Terminal Co., Ltd., National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Shin and Tsukasa Nishibori, Yoshihiro Shimomura (SDK), and Shobunsha.

→ Wind-lit: Solar
→ In this time
→ Beyond our solar system
→ Living plant time
→ Starry day
→ As the sun sees it
→ Freeze fired
→ Table of sounds

Held: 2005.7.23 – 8.25
Planned and produced by Living World (Yoshiaki Nishimura, Tariho Nishimura)

Special thanks to (in alphabetical order): 4D2U Project (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Kazuko Baba, Boctok, Kaoru Fujita, Kei Fukuda (maf*maf), Hideko Hatta, Keisuke Hirai (NaK.pro), Emiko Hoshi, Ryosuke Kimura, Toru Morita, Haruo Okada (Pioneer), Pine Forest, Yasuko Seki, Sound Bum Project, Satoru Sugihara, Hideki Takada, Junko Takayama, Yuichi Tsukada (Onshitsu) and STARNET.

This was our second Sound Bum installation developed for a museum in collaboration with Yoshihiro Kawasaki (NADI); the first being Listen! for the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. On a wall four meters in height and 27 in length, we created a minimal rendition of a world map, and hung headphones linked to sounds from 24 locations around the world.

The photo above shows the wall ten days before the exhibition’s scheduled opening. The wood benches made by IDEE had already been delivered.

October 9: the museum opens with Encounters in the 21st Century: Polyphony – Emerging Resonances, which sees some 30,000 visitors the first two days.

Circular in plan with a diameter of 113 meters and exterior walls made entirely of glass, the museum designed by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) has no front or back, no property walls, and is open to the city much like a public park. The photo is a view from the south, of the library.

The view from the west shows the 27-meter wall of the Sound Bum exhibit space. To the far right is the Issey Miyake APOC exhibit space.

We placed the bench against the wall, and above it mapped sounds from 24 locations. Kawasaki reedited all the sounds expressly for this exhibit.

A visitor holds the London headset in her hand. Members of the art, design, and architecture fraternities came from all over the world.

The sounds of Japan included those from Mogami (Tohoku), Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Arima, and Yakushima. The sounds from around the world included not only those recorded by Kawasaki, but by Sound Bum Haruo Okada, and others as well.

Visual information was restricted to linear renditions of coastlines and rivers, place names, and recording dates only.

The exhibit title. This was Sound Bum’s third exhibit design following Listen! (2003) at MeSci.

Kawasaki spoke for 30 minutes in his Artist Relay Talk on the subject of sound design, starting with St. GIGA. He ended by opening the doors and inviting participants to open their ears to the sound of the space.

The world map was laid out in a horizontal orientation; the sounds positioned according to longitudinal data. Still, we suspect, there were very few visitors who envisioned this schematic upon seeing the exhibit.
Comparing the relative position and scale of the different locations is interesting too, but that’s a story in itself.

Mind the World (Mind the World: Wall)
Held: 2004/10/9 ~ 2005/3/21

Special thanks to: Yumiko Haruki, Kaname Okajima (IDEE), Ryosuke Kimura, Tsuyoshi Iwasaki, Tomoo Kawasaki, Ryuichi Iwamasa (GK Tech)

Along the back wall a line of wooden benches was set up. Here, apart from listening to the sounds issuing from the 24 speakers, visitors could don headphones and listen in their own time to six different varieties of sound (sea, city streets, people, morning forest, radio, birds) recorded at various locations around the world.

Travelling light is a notion that also applies to Sound Bum.
For the show a few basic necessities for a voyage in sound were displayed along with items such as maps and tickets unique to each the country, and recording notes.

The story of Sound Bum since 1999 was presented in a slide show. MeSci kindly supplied a few of the round worksheets, left over from their show, to hand out to visitors.
As well as comments on the sounds, these were crammed with enlightening fragments of the lives of those who visited the show, such as the person who wrote, “I dropped in while out job-hunting, and found it very relaxing!”

Planning-stage sketch

With the energy it receives from the Sun, our world lives and breathes.
This world runs on a 24-hour cycle: night and day, repeating ceaselessly, day after day.

This exhibit takes as a theme one of the almighty biological clocks: the circadian cycle, and is composed of 11 videos ranging from the Sun and tides, to the weather, bacteria, plants, insects, animals, the human body, and city life.

Eleven fast-motion videos, in which one day has been compressed into 96-seconds, play simultaneously, side by side. A space that provides a glimpse at cross sections of our world as they proceed in parallel: wildflowers in the fields begin to blossom, as children run about a school ground before the morning bell; and the ocean reaches high tide, as lights go on in apartment windows…

Special thanks to Masami Sasaki, Masao Ono, Akira Hiratsuka, the Sakura Mansion superintendent, Haruka Yazaki, Kyoko Matsuda, Hitoshi Takahashi, Yuichi Inomata, Kazunori Fujimoto, Mariko Takahashi, By the Sea, Tenkachaya, Takuya Shimada, Maholo Uchida, Asyl Design

Installation view at the MeSci Time! Time! Time! exhibition, where we used three video projectors to create a seamless band of frames.

9:25am: Soccer goals are carried out onto the pitch.

2:25am: Around the same time women’s blood pressures begin to nosedive, a llama at a ranch in Okinawa takes a stroll. Does he not have a sense of night and day? (The diurnal rhythms of domestic animals are actually closer to those of man).

The turntable on the console rotates in sync with the projections. One revolution covers one day, repeating thereafter. As an interactive feature, rotating the turntable by hand gives rise to scratch, reverse-play and fast-forwarded sound and imagery.

Visitors watching the repetitions of “a day” in the life of eleven different phenomena.

A young boy, on his own, remains mesmerized for minutes on end.

A couple, eyes fixed to the screen, as they manipulate the turntable.

The console also features brief commentaries on the imagery.

Professor Kenji Tomioka, a researcher of biological clocks, conducting a gallery tour. The exhibition was held from 19 March to 30 June 2003, and during the latter half, Living World visited Keio Gijuku Yochisha Primary School and conducted the workshop Time looking glass , and idea that stemmed from the production of A DAY.

The worksheet handed out at MeSci. There, sounds from 24 locations around the world were arranged on a circular carpet 16 meters in diameter, likened to a map of the world. Here, we reduced the map to 1/10 scale and presented it in the form of a table.

By placing tiny speakers made of cardboard tubes on the tabletop map, sounds of the world can be heard. There in the palm of your hand birds start to sing, or the music of a street-corner band starts to play.

A photo taken during production showing the inside of the paper-tube speakers.

Visitors could also listen to “the sound of themselves” with stethoscopes in a separate corner of the gallery.

Held 2002/10/2 – 21
Organized by the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (MeSci)
Planned with the Sound Bum Project (Yoshihiro Kawasaki, Haruo Okada, Yoshiaki Miyata, Yoshiaki Nishimura)
Supported by: Pioneer Corporation, audio-technica Corporation
Planning management: Mahoru Uchida, Shoko Mitsuishi (MeSci)
Exhibit operations: MeSci volunteer staff

Special thanks to: Hiroki Kobayashi (NTT West, Okinawa Branch), Jotaro Shibuya (musegram), Yoko Yokouchi, Tsutomu Nagaoka, Taichi Ano, Reiko Shiga, Tsuyoshi Suenaga, Shinohara, Takuya Shimada (MeSci); Soichi Ueda, Chizuko Sami (Think the Earth Project); Asyl Design

The exhibition was set up in the Earth Lounge looking up at the Geo-Cosmos globe with its changing video images. Sounds from 24 locations around the world were arranged on a circular carpet.

Visitors were handed a circular worksheet (map) by volunteers at the site.

This visitor pressed his face right up to the cylindrical cardboard speaker trying to concentrate on a single sound. The round card in his left hand is the map/worksheet.

Girls listening to the sounds of the Fiji islands. There were speakers of three different heights: this was the lowest.

Part of a world map was drawn on the upper surface of each speaker.

MeSci attracts a wide range of visitors: even babies can be sound bums…

Visitors could sit on the sofas placed around the carpet and enjoy a 20-minute audio circumnavigation of the world by theme, for example people, seashore, cities, or forests.

Once again, MeSci does attract a wide range of visitors: even granddads can be sound bums.

Forest sounds delivered via internet from Iriomote Island brought live to Tokyo scenes from islands far to the south where the weather was still warm.

Listening to the sounds of cities around the world on headphones while gazing up at the huge globe suspended in the atrium.

Listening to animals in the Malaysian forest…

Straining for sounds in the snows of Alaska…

Straight down the west coast, to whales off the coast of Baja California…

Swinging round to Europe, and the sounds of a port in Provence.

From DAT decks for professional use to compact MD recorders, the recording equipment actually used by staff was also on display.

Someone even brought a mike into the venue to bum some sounds of their own (^_^:)

Setting up two nights before opening. Half the carpet was lifted back at a time and wired to the relevant speakers.

On 10/13 a lecture was held at THINK ZONE in Roppongi, attended by around 60 people. Sound designer Yoshihiro Kawasaki’s entertaining and easy to follow tales of his many experiences prompted a stream of questions.

On 10/11 a DJ event inspired by the ambient St. Giga sound was held at the Sputnik Dome at the Tokyo Designers Block design festival. Clubbers gathered for a great party that lasted from sundown to low tide in Tokyo Bay late in the night, with sound and visuals courtesy of Yoshihiro Kawasaki/Hiroshi Kawasaki / Akira Ishii / Kyo Ichinose / Tsutomu Shimada / O:g (Yasunobu and Aki Kasuga) / Overhead / Shinya Takaoka. (Video: Tsutomu Shimada)

The back of the worksheet looked like this.
An elementary school boy let us take this shot of his sheet: following a few additions. Thanks bud. :-)

Wind-lit is the prototype of a small lantern that lights in response to the breeze. As evening approaches, and darkness falls, the lamps begin to flicker on.

The prototypes were exhibited for nine days each at two breezy cafes: Caffe @IDEE in Tokyo’s Minami Aoyama district and at efish in the Gojo Rakuen district of Kyoto. We hung around 200 Wind-lits in and outside the cafes, and gazed at the wind passing through.

Tokyo
10/06窶錀14 IDEE CAFFE (Minami Aoyama)
10/10窶錀14 Takeo Aoyama Showroom (Jingumae)

Kyoto
10/20窶錀28　efish (Gojo Rakuen)

For the design and engineering we engaged Kei Fukuda and Yoshihiro Shimomura.

→ Making of Wind-lit (2001)
(Text in Japanese only; forgive us!)

Planning/direction: Yoshiaki Nishimura (LW)
Design/engineering: Kei Fukuda (maf*maf), Yoshihiro Shimomura (SDK)
Art direction: Tariho Fujimoto (LW)

Special thanks to Ken Katsuta, Teruo Kurosaki, Yuri Nomura, Takeo Okuma, Yuichi Tsukada, Yoko Dobashi, Shin and Tsukasa Nishibori, Kyosuke Sakakura, Katsumi Sakurai, Keiko Akiba, Masayuki Kuramochi, Hiroshi Yasutomi, Tom Vincent, Kazumi Udagawa, Ayako Fukuda, Tetsuya Kadowaki, Chihiro Tanaka, Shinohara

VIDEO: at IDEE CAFFE, edit: Kei Fukuda

VIDEO: at efish, edit: Kei Fukuda