Are other people visiting the same site?
If so, when and from where are they accessing?
Such curiosity inspired us to create a mechanism that would make the answers to those questions visible.

The how and why:
In the winter of 2008, the ASP company YURAS consulted us through Masato Fuse (Noosphere Design Rays) about making a site-installation that would visualize live data on their website. Exchanging ideas with Shunichiro Kuriyama (KARHU), Yoshiaki Nishimura (LW) developed the plan. Drawing on the talents of Suguru Yamaguchi (Manual of Errors) and designer Senya Nemoto, we moved from plan to production, and in April 2009 launched the YURAS version, followed by the LW version in June.

Producer: NOOSPHERE DESIGN RAYS (Masato Fuse, Yoshifumi Yamai)
Incubator: YURAS (Kazuhisa Iura)
Planner and director: Yoshiaki Nishimura (Living World)
System engineer: Syunichiro Kuriyama (KARHU)
Sound designer: Suguru Yamaguchi (Manual of Errors)
Motion designer: Senya Nemoto

It contains no sand.
　

Here it stands on a shelf at Living World (the leather sheet shown is the one used at exhibitions).

Relationship is
a moment everlasting.
　　

Something immeasurable
never ending
between us growing
infinitely.
　

　
In this time: relationship is infinity

Sandglass H140×D57mm
This freestanding sandglass is one-and-a-half times the size of the Sunlight/Moonlight sandglasses.
Sand: none
Leather sheet: 150mm square

All prices in Japanese yen.
Please use your favorite currency conversion website to check values in local currency.
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To order from outside Japan, please send the following via our “Contact” form.

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Living World Inc.
4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823

A springtime view from Mt. Oawa towards Kamiyama Spa. (From the in Kamiyama Photo Album)

We were first consulted in summer 2007 and embarked on planning that autumn. After launching a test site at the end of March 2008, operations gradually gained momentum and by early summer Kamiyama’s day-to-day events were being conveyed to the world in Japanese and English.

A portion of the site access log is shown online, which as you can see comes from all over the world.

…

The site in brief

　
Photo Album
A giant photo archive of old photos of Kamiyama, scanned and stored as data before these fragile images are lost, plus new photos added from day to day. Photos can also be linked to flickr as an external form of storage.

Diary
Around 20 core members of the community post regularly, or in other words, blog. The curiously international influences at a mountain eatery, insect bites, the joys of fostering new forest…

Art in Kamiyama
Launched in 1999, the Kamiyama Artist in Residence (KAIR) invites three artists every year to live and make art in Kamiyama. The artists set about making new works in September, which they present in an exhibition held in early November.

The more recent Bed & Studio program was added to help artists organize their own art sojourns to Kamiyama.

These activities lie at the core of this small mountain community’s curiously international flavor. They also form the main contents of the English site.

Life in Kamiyama
Info about properties for people thinking about moving to/within Kamiyama. The town sees a fair share of relocations, several of which reportedly took place thanks to this site. (In Japanese only)

Flea Market
A bulletin board announcing roadside stands, and individual ‘selling…’ and ‘seeking…’ info. The seasonal fruits and veggies that appear from time to time sure look tasty! (In Japanese only)

All pages, except the Photo Album, are blog-engine (WordPress) based and with added, somewhat-intricate fine-tuning, serve as content management systems. They also coordinate with non-web media. For example, the print-based “Kamiyama Today”.

Map of Today:
A small map featuring seasonal highlights, and events and must-sees of the day.
Data is generated daily, semi-automatically, and the map is distributed to visitors at cafes and roadside stands. A selection of articles from the web is also incorporated automatically. A jpeg version is available for perusal on the top page of the site.

　
We were mindful with this project not to over-design.

We were struck by the personalities of the people of Kamiyama and Green Valley director Shinya Ominami, and did our best to make the design of the site a direct reflection their healthiness.

The blog-editing page (registered users only) includes a host of SNS features to facilitate communication between community and registered members.

This project meant assembling multiple technologies to create relatively complex communications ware, but as Alan Kay said long ago, “the music’s not in the piano.”

Do visit Kamiyama and in Kamayama!

…

Produced by: Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Kamiyama town, Green Valley Inc (NPO)
Co-direction: Shinya Ominami, Akira Nikishima, Yoshiaki Nishimura (Living World)

Special Thanks to: Fumiko Hasebe (Shikoku Bureau of Economy,Trade & Industry), Teiko Hinuma (Aomori Contemporary Art Centre)

The clock on the left expresses time in hours and minutes. The one on the right reflects natural time: Sun’s shadow as it appears in real time on a slowly rotating three-dimensional rendition of Earth.

For more on the concept and background of the production of EARTH CLOCK, please see design journalist Keiichiro Fujisaki’s ‘EARTH CLOCK Report 1: Natural time, artificial time’.

Photo: momoko japan

　
Producer: BeGood Cafe (Jun Shikita, Maiko Kataoka), gift_lab (Fumiko Ikeda, Toshikazu Goto)
Production: AEON Lake Town

Special thanks to: Senya Nemoto, Haruo Okada
　

Our preference is generally for freestanding, purely glass sandglasses, however we were seduced by the attractive contrast of white sandglass and dark walnut frame.

Thermonuclear fusion reactions are generated in the sun’s core, then apparently it takes around a million years for this energy to reach the surface of the sun and be radiated into space as light.

If the diameter of the sun was say a meter, then that of the earth would be about a centimeter.
The distance between them would work out to around 100 meters.

Light spreads out from the sun in all directions at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second.
A few minutes later, it arrives on earth.

The light received by the earth is only a tiny fraction of that radiated by the sun.
But this tiny fraction of sunlight is all it takes to create phenomena such as wind and ocean currents, and enable plants to make organic compounds and all the life forms on earth to live.

This sandglass marks the length of one segment of this chain.

In this time: sunlight reaches earth (wooden frame)

Sandglass W:65×D:33×H:100mm
Frame: Walnut
Leather sheet 100mm square
Sand: Natural white sand (Australia)

Frame design: monokraft (Toru Shimizu, Ken Katsumata)
monokraft are a pair of furniture makers whose photo frame designs are used for the Living World sandglass series. (The frames are manufactured at a separate workshop)

Price: 12,000 JPY

All prices in Japanese yen.
Please use your favorite currency conversion website to check values in local currency.
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To order from outside Japan, please send the following via our “Contact” form.

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We will contact you by email, after reviewing your order, with the total price including tax and shipping, and payment methods.
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Living World Inc.
4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823

A laser was used to etch around 80,000 of the stars in the Milky Way, using three-dimensional data from the Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory.

Production of the cube was motivated by the urge to see a galaxy in three dimensions. In encyclopedias and such, galaxies can only be viewed in two: we wanted to do so from all directions. Even the Magellan Cloud, comparatively close to us, is outside this cube. Space can be sparsely filled, one could say…or rather, there are great extremes in density.

The first cube was produced for the “Window” exhibition at Mashiko/Starnet in 2005.

Due to government stipulations governing the use of observatory data, we were unable to release the cube for commercial sale immediately, however thanks to the tireless efforts of all those involved, it can at last be offered for sale.

In this version the overall dimensions of the cube have been reduced from the 15cm square of 2005, to 12cm. (Previously the glass block was too heavy and difficult to handle.)

The reason the galaxy is positioned slightly to one side is that the Solar System (in other words, Earth) has been placed in the exact center. This is where the title “Beyond our solar system” originates.

Nobody has ever seen our galaxy from outside like this. And it is unlikely that mankind will reach anywhere with this sort of view for a very long time.

The same could once be said for Earth. Nobody had seen the overall view of our planet from outside. The first view of the Earth by humans from space was apparently via footage shot from an unmanned V2 rocket in 1946.

In any case, it was about 60 years ago. However world maps depicting the whole of the planet have been around for centuries. This for example is a map of the world drawn in France in 1760. Note the parts here and there where unfortunately they didn’t get it quite right…

MAPPE MONDE Joseph Delisle“The Image of the World”

A world map in which imagination makes up for what experience and measurements fail to reveal.

In fact the three-dimensional data for the galaxy is apparently of a similar accuracy to world maps from the Age of Exploration. No one knows it all. There is a gas cloud at the center of the galaxy, and even using technology such as radio telescopes, we are still unable to build an accurate picture of what lies on the other side.

All the star data obtainable using the latest observation apparatus, and theoretical calculations by computer. Add some imagination to fill in the missing parts, and you have the maps of our galaxy that researchers around the world draw and compare among themselves. When it comes to galaxies, this is as far as mankind has come.

“Beyond the solar system” was built using data from a project dubbed 4D2U. The galactic data for 4D2U was produced by Eiichiro Kokubo, Assistant Professor in the Division of Theoretical Astronomy at the National Astronomical Observatory, and Kato Tsunehiko, now at Osaka University, based on the latest results of theoretical simulations.

This data is acknowledged internationally as some of the best-quality galactic data currently available.

Next we have the 42cmΦ black velvet cloth on which the cube stands. Light refracts to create three-dimensional reflections. The galaxy is laid out so that the tabletop aligns with the ecliptic and horizon.

We usually see this galaxy from the inside, as the “Milky Way”. In it are the Sun, the Earth, and us.
Our world has a center. Outside it extends all this space.

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Beyond our solar system
Milky Way galaxy 3D model

Glass cube W:120×D:120×H:120mm (about 100,000 light-year length)
weight 5.3kg
Black velvet cloth
Original data: NINS, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan 4D2U Project
Eiichiro Kokubo, Kato Tsunehiko (→Mitaka++)
Data designing: Yukio Ando (exa)
Laser marking: L-TEC Inc.

Price: 84,000 JPY …SOLD OUT

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Please use your favorite currency conversion website to check values in local currency.
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To order from outside Japan, please send the following via our “Contact” form.

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We will contact you by email, after reviewing your order, with the total price including tax and shipping, and payment methods.
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Living World Inc.
4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823

John Cage (Wikipedia)

On a day in 1952, Cage held a concert at Woodstock, at which he intended to unveil a new composition. The new work was to be performed by pianist David Tudor.

An enthusiastic audience filled the hall, eager to hear Cage’s latest composition. The lights dimmed, and the pianist appeared on stage.

Sitting down at the piano, he closed the lid (the lids on concert pianos are opened in readiness for the performance), then after four minutes and 33 seconds, returned the lid to its original position, and left the stage.

A silent composition, with no performance: this was Cage’s new work.

Cage’s Woodstock concert sent shockwaves through the musical world, and since then, 4’33” has been covered by many different artists.

So just what was so shocking about Cage’s composition, that reverberates even now?

Confronted with a pianist who simply sat there with the lid closed, the hearing of the people gathered in the concert hall that day must have immediately grown more acute.

The sound of someone coughing discreetly in the silent hall; the faint chirping of birds from outside; the sound of dishes being moved in the foyer; distant car horns, the buzz of bafflement that gradually grew inside the hall.

Cage did not create music, he created the experience of listening.
He expanded sensory perception, without using drugs.

He succeeded in creating an open window on the world already here.

If music is the “enjoyment” of “sound”, then it must center on not just the side making the sound, but the side listening. In fact, really it is listening that is music.
As we savor the sound of rain, music is being created within us.

The frame is made of Japanese walnut, with just the right mingling of subtle hues.

4’33” demonstrated in the most extreme way the essence of the idea that music is all about listening, an idea that still has the power to shake musicians in the 21st century, and those of us who are not musicians.

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In this time: the silent musical work 4’33” was first performed
(August 1952; composed by John Cage)

Sandglass W:85×D:45×H:130mm
Wooden frame: Japanese walnut
Leather sheet 130mm square
Sand: Ironsand

Frame design: monokraft (Toru Shimizu, Ken Katsumata)
monokraft are a pair of furniture makers whose photo frame designs are used for the Living World sandglass series. (The frames are manufactured at a separate workshop)

Price: 11,000 JPY

All prices in Japanese yen.
Please use your favorite currency conversion website to check values in local currency.
Yahoo! finance

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To order from outside Japan, please send the following via our “Contact” form.

1. Name
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4. Name(s) and number(s) of the product(s) you’d like to order
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We will contact you by email, after reviewing your order, with the total price including tax and shipping, and payment methods.
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Living World Inc.
4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823

The star Eta Carinae（Sep.1995/Hubble space telescope NASA）

The lifespan of the Sun has been estimated at 10.9 billion years.
It has now been around for 4.6 billion years, near the halfway mark.
Eventually, the Sun too will expire.

The Sun is a relatively small fixed star in the galaxy. In addition to the Sun, the Milky Way galaxy to which we belong contains over 200 billion fixed stars, and beyond that, the universe contains countless galaxies.

In that vast expanse, at this very moment there are stars whose lives are coming to an end.

The dust that falls from space that we spoke of in connection with another sandglass, the “Space dust…” glass, is generated by the death (explosion etc.) of such stars.

Various elements, e.g. nitrogen and carbon, scattered as dust form large clouds in which organic materials such as amino acids are said to form.
We’ve been taught to view the oceans as the cradle of life, but an even more primeval source is these clouds of dust spread throughout space.

NGC3603

Eventually material begins to coalesce in the clouds,
gravity is born,
little by little the mass begins to rotate under its own power,
and over many, many light years, a new star is born.

Our Sun, born in this same way, will come to the end of its time in around six billion years, then after many long light years, a new star will emerge.

From the demise of one generation comes the next, the previous generation becoming part of it.

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In this time: 100 stars cease to shine

Sandglass W:65×D:33×H:100mm
Frame: Walnut
Leather sheet 100mm square
Sand: Natural white sand (Australia)

Frame design: monokraft (Toru Shimizu, Ken Katsumata)
monokraft are a pair of furniture makers whose photo frame designs are used for the Living World sandglass series. (The frames are manufactured at a separate workshop)

Price: 8,000 JPY

All prices in Japanese yen.
Please use your favorite currency conversion website to check values in local currency.
Yahoo! finance

‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥

To order from outside Japan, please send the following via our “Contact” form.

1. Name
2. Email address
3. Address / Telephone
4. Name(s) and number(s) of the product(s) you’d like to order
5. Method of payment (PayPal or Credit Card)
See other products

We will contact you by email, after reviewing your order, with the total price including tax and shipping, and payment methods.
→ How to order

Living World Inc.
4-8-22-1F Eifuku, Suginami-ku, Tokyo JAPAN 168-0064
Fax: +81-3-5930-9823