The man behind the masking tape
Tokyo-based PingMag introduces the world to the art of Shuetsu Sato. He’s a guard at Tokyo’s largest train station but sometimes he constructs huge signs directing the passengers where they need to go. He makes the letters for these signs out of masking tape.
His transient tape art became so popular that film artist collective TrioFour eventually made a documentary about Sato’s unique guide system. PingMag talked to TrioFour member Hikaru Yamashita about the making of their “The Shinjuku Gaffer Tape Guide” and their current exhibition of Sato’s work in Koenji.
Why does he do it?
“Many people create something because they long for attention from others, but Mr. Sato is different… He just wanted to offer more safety and better accessibility for the passengers. I really do respect that,” Hikaru Yamashita says.
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Images from water drops.
a physical water sculpture with 128 synchronized magnetic valves, so that a wall of falling water drops can be perceived as a graphical bitmap matrix. a computer application selects currently popular keywords from news websites, & displays them on the transparent ‘information curtain’. the ‘information flow’ metaphor literally demonstrates the dynamic & ever-changing character of continuous information streams from which users build their associated experiences.
A Monocle video report from Murmansk
Monocle’s Shaun Walker reports on the revival of Murmansk [wiki, map]. In the wake of the Cold War, the far-north Russian naval port went south; it seems to be doing much better now.
Video: Urban Sensing, Social Networking, And The Third Thing
From YouTube’s Google Channel: Urban Sensing, Social Networking, And The Third Thing.
Dérive
Dérive is a way of experiencing the city, put forth by philosopher Guy Debord, who said:
In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.
Can we trace the history of parkour [video] to Debord’s concept of dérive?
“Oh, Christ” is the new “Don’t tase me, bro.”
“Oh, Christ” is the new “Don’t tase me, bro.”