Spoon & Tamago

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Akebono Leads 1000 Zombies Through Tokyo

October 31, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

Photos by Shizuo Kambayashi for AP | click to enlarge

Yesterday in Tokyo former Yokozuna sumo wrestler Akebono lead about 1000 zombies up and around Tokyo Tower. They, of course, weren’t real zombies and the event was staged by Fox International to promote season 4 of the TV show “The Walking Dead.”

Organizers recruited the Hawaiian sumo-wrestler-turned-TV-personality and about 1000 beauty school students, giving them an opportunity to show off their makeup skills.

On a related note, check out our analysis on Japan’s zombie outbreak preparedness.

Reporters who were on the scene to cover the carnage got their brains chewed out.

Source: Yahoo News | lustik

Mamoris | a chair that transforms into a helmet

October 30, 2013 / Johnny / 2 Comments

Safety, right under your butt. That’s actually the slogan for this new helmet. But, the designers weren’t joking around when they created Mamoris, a chair that transforms into a helmet. The name comes from the words mamoru (to protect) and isu (chair).

“You never know when a natural disaster like an earthquake might strike you,” says Yuji Ikawa, one of the co-founders. “We thought about how best to implement safety into our daily lives.” Realizing that chairs are not only ubiquitous but that they could also take inspiration from its shape and form, the designers created a helmet that doubles as the backrest of a chair.

The helmet chair does have a lot going for it. Not only does it completely eliminate the need for helmet storage, it’s unique design offers protection to delicate areas like neck and back as well.

Even though it’s been 2 and a half years since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, safety continues to be a dominant theme in the Japanese design industry, whether it’s with unique helmets or conceptual pieces of furniture to remind us of the threat of radiation.

This post is part of a series covering the 2013 Tokyo Designers Week.

the9life | stylish cat-friendly furniture

October 29, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

In honor of National Cat Day and, and as a cat owner myself, I present you with one of my favorites from the 2013 Tokyo Design Week. The9life is a new Japan and Hong Kong based lifestyle brand that “explores the endless possibilities that arise when you combine 3 key elements – Cat + Human + Space.” They solve a key frustration that almost all cat owners face: cat furniture is just too damn ugly.

Taking their experience from living in dense urban environments where space is scarce, the designers propose a number of clever products that help to improve the quality of living for both us and our faithful feline companions.

Welcome Home Shelf serves as a perch for your cat to greet you when they hear your footsteps outside. It also comes with a built-in planter and a shelf for everyday items the mail and keys.

Afternoon Table turns your old magazines into a scratching post! When you finish with your magazine, add it to the pile in the storage compartments and you have a continuously renewing scratching post.

Cuckoo Clock is a functioning wall clock that doubles as a cat toy. “When kitty bats at the bird tail that hangs from Cuckoo Clock, the bird perched above will dance.”

They also make these adorable tote bags!

This post is part of a series covering the 2013 Tokyo Designers Week.

MEME9 | a modern take on vintage vinyl figurines

October 29, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

The term sofubi is a nostalgic one for those who claim childhood anywhere between 1960s – 1980s Japan. Spawning from a movement of superheroes like Ultraman and his counterpart kaiju, sofubi (an abbreviation for Soft Vinyl) figurines became ubiquitous in almost every household. However, sofubi, and the artisanal craft that gives form to these figurines, are slowly dying; they are being replaced by electronics and other high-tech toys.

But Yuta Osugi is not trying to reclaim his childhood. In fact, the 26-year old designer, after graduating from art school and spending 3 years at a toy maker, is trying to breathe new life into a lost art form. He just launched his new toy brand this year and is calling it MEME9, in hopes that his artistic line of futuristic toys will “element of a culture to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means.” All the figurines from MEME9 are made in Japan, the same way there were made 50 years ago.

MEME9 is being showcased during Tokyo Design Week 2013.

This post is part of a series covering the 2013 Tokyo Designers Week.

An Unusual Chair | Post-Fukushima Abnormalities Expressed Through Furniture

October 28, 2013 / Johnny / 1 Comment

all photos courtesy h220430

“Two and a half years after the disaster at Fukushima, one lesson to be learned is that danger lurks in the very foundation of our daily lives,” says Satoshi Itasaka (previously). The designer founded his studio h220430 in 2010 and has since been creating whimsical, concept-driven furniture that takes on heavy themes like atomic bombs or nuclear fallout.

“Despite this clear and present danger, abnormal conditions have become systematic and we are preparing to restart nuclear power plants across Japan without even addressing the problems.” We must always remember that these conditions are not normal, is the underlying message Itasaka has as he unveils his precarious-looking “Unusual Chair.” Entirely functional, the chair has a gaping hole in one of it’s legs, causing the user to intuitively cast doubt on it’s safety, or lack thereof.

Satoshi Itasaka’s “Unusual Chair” is part of Any Tokyo, a satellite exhibition going on during Tokyo Designers Week 2013.

All quotes translated from Japanese to English by author.

Although the designer doesn’t comment on it, the chair, with a vital piece missing, can also be interpreted as a genetic abnormality brought on by exposure to radiation.

This post is part of a series covering the 2013 Tokyo Designers Week.

Wooden Carrying Bags from DonguriCo

October 28, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

all images courtesy dongurico | click to enlarge

Wooden bags always sound like a neat idea, but when put to use they always seem kind of heavy and bulky. But this new kiri-bag from designer Hikaru Yamaguchi of DonguriCo may very well change my mind. It’s elegant form is crafted from lightweight paulownia wood and reinforced by a hardwood frame. All the wood comes from Yamaguchi prefecture, a location steeped in the tradition of Hagi pottery. Stripped of any bells and whistles, the minimal carry case has 2 simple leather straps that secure it together.

Last year the designer also showcased a carrying carrying bag, this one made from the same aluminum sheet metal used on Japan’s bullet trains.

The company also made a smaller-sized moku-moku bag, perfect for a notebook and an iPad. The bags a currently on display at Tokyo Designers Week 2013. There’s no indication of what these bags will cost as they have yet to hit the shelves of the company’s online shop.

This post is part of a series covering the 2013 Tokyo Designers Week.

source: TDW 2013

189 spinning CDs as phenakistoscopes used to create Sour’s new music video

October 24, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

After successfully crowd-funding their campaign on Kickstarter and GreenFunding (a Japanese equivalent), the band SOUR has released their latest music video. With the help of directors Masashi Kawamura and Kota Iguchi, the band filmed 189 spinning CDs as phenakistoscopes to create their entire animated video, “Life is Music.”

The song is about “the circle of life, and how music is its rhythm maker,” says the creators. “We took this concept, and came up with an idea to use the spinning CD disc as a Phenakistoscope.”

Supporters of the project who pledged $70 or more were entitled to receive one of the actual CDs used in the filming. Leftovers are being sold for 3,000 yen (about $30) on the website.

Masashi Kawamura & Co. are responsible for several other highly creative music videos that prove you don’t need million dollar budgets to create a great music video.

source: @kota_iguchi

6 Months of Tonal Vibrations of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Expressed in Crystal

October 23, 2013 / Johnny / 10 Comments

unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy Tokujin Yoshioka

“Nature shows us a beauty that exceeds our imagination,” says Tokujin Yoshioka. “The forms of nature are unique and cannot be reproduced. This endows them with mysterious beauty and makes them fascinating to us”.

As part of the Japanese designer’s large-scale one-man show at MOT in Tokyo, Yoshioka has installed a peculiar work he calls “a painting.” Looking much more like a bed of water than a painting, the piece is actually 6-months’ worth of crystal that have been growing, layer by layer, inside a glass tank. It’s truly a work of art that has been ceded to the hand of mother nature.

image courtesy phenomworld | click to enlarge

But the crystals haven’t just been sitting there quietly. Throughout the whole time they’ve been exposed to the music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Swan Lake. The tonal vibrations and pulsations materialize within the crystal, dictating its final form.

According to Phenom World, a Netherlands based manufacturer of electron microscopes and other high-tech imaging tools, “crystals exposed to music showed differences in size, form and structure of the surface. But what exactly about different frequencies and rhythm vibrations causes the change still remains a mystery.

“I believe that a design is not something that is completed through being given a form, but rather something that is completed by the human heart. I also feel that incorporating the principles and movements of nature into ideas will become something important in future design.”

Pachelbel’s Canon in 700 samples of dripping water

October 22, 2013 / Johnny / 1 Comment

Make sure you go to the bathroom before watching this new ad for Sony’s image sensors. A creative team of cinematographers, sound engineers and recordists ventured into the riverhead area in Kumamoto, Kyushu, a lush, tranquil location renowned for its high quality of pure natural water. There they recorded both audio and video of over 700 samples of dripping water – everything from droplets falling off of stalactites onto limestone and rainwater dripping off leaves to the underwater sounds of a gurgling brook. They even captured the sound that water makes when a frog hops.

Back in the studio the engineers remixed the 700 samples of audio and 1500 cuts of video to create a “rock version” of Pachelbel’s Canon. “Water Rock” is the work of Morihiro Harano and ad agency Mori Inc., who also brought us the extraordinary Forest Xylophone commercial. “We simply drew upon the natural beauty and scenery that can always be experienced in Kumamoto,” the creators explained. “We wanted viewers to sense the whole cycle of nature.”

Source: @I_am_Mori

Trick or Treat? 281_Anti Nuke Creates Halloween Stickers

October 22, 2013 / Johnny / Comments Off

Tagged as the “Japanese Banksy,” 281_Anti Nuke is 40-something contemporary artist who began making nuclear protest and anti-TEPCO stickers in the wake of the March 11th disaster. His imagery usually features children, the trefoil symbol for radiation, and a simple, direct message, like “I hate rain.”

As Halloween approaches, the active twitter user has been posting a new series of stickers featuring children in costume and other spooky images. “Stickers are better than graffiti,” he says, in an interview in the New Yorker, “because they are faster to apply. You just stick them on and run off.

If you want to learn more you can follow 281_Anti Nuke on twitter and watch this teaser for a documentary on the artist by British expat photographer and filmmaker Adrian Storey.