Apologies for the shocking lack of posting activity recently, but I’ve been on holiday in Japan. And guess what: the internet access there is surprisingly limited. Wireless: forget it. Internet cafés: if you ask, they look at you like they’ve seen a ghost. Because wifi is sooooo 2004-5-6, sir. Everybody over there is on their mobiles, surfing the worldwide wap web. Interesting. 

Anyway, Japan is a crazy, beautiful, funny place with lots going on. And they have good beer. So I’ll try to filter the creative info in my head into a few posts over the next few days. 

The first pleasant surprise came straight when we arrived. 

It turned out that the Tokyo flat that we had rented through a friend of a friend belonged to French ‘conceptual stimulator’ Item Idem. Not just a flat, more like a 3-room-installation-stroke-gallery. Thanks Cyril, for letting us stay in your crazy place. 

Yes, it’s true. Everything and everyone in Japan (or at least in Tokyo) is designed. Even the local laundromat looks cooler than the average London flat. Definitely cleaner. And technology’s everywhere.

So a company like Kenwood happily experiments with the design of their speakers. Check out these 2 beauties, which we saw at the Morphonics launch. The left one is meant to be hugged, so the bones in your body enhances the sound or something strange like that.
And the right one, designed by Claudio Colucci, was completely made in corian and costs something like €60.000.

Colucci is a pretty interesting designer. Some of his stuff is a little too organic for me, but at least he has a sense of humour, lacking in most design. I particularly enjoyed his Mutant Attack chairs, which were shown at the very nice Clear Gallery, next to some Japanese 60s/70s design classics from Shiro Kuramata.  
And he’s a funny chap in real life too. Him, his girlfriend and producer/curator Laurent took us out a few times and fun was had by all. I’ll never forget Claudio’s karaoke rendition of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’.
Yes it’s true, everybody does karaoke in Japan. 

Reading the words “audio-visual” and “experiment” in the same sentence always makes me a bit cynical and respond with a sentence that includes the words “moving” and “wallpaper”. But the Advanced Beauty project, conceived and curated by London-based digital design studio Universal Everything is well worth a look.

One: because they’re setting creative parameters to their artists. Technical as well as creative. And in my opinion, limitations are always a good thing in an art-type project like this. 

Two: because they’ve created their own platform. Where normally this kind of work would end up in festivals like onedotzero and, if they’re lucky, on a DVD that sells a few copies in the ICA to fellow artists and some agency creative directors, these guys have taken it in their own hands and distribute the work through a podcast. This way, they must reach people that they wouldn’t reach normally. And the DVD will follow later, which I guess will make them some money. 

And three: because I think some of the work is actually quite good. Especially the film by UV & Minivegas, which put a smile on my face. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the rest of the series.