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October 30, 2006
I Wasn’t There
But from the looks of it Takagi’s live show has gone way high-art. Beautiful photography by Michael Rubenstein.
Posted by shane at 01:16 PM
October 29, 2006
Scarcity
I don’t find that many people in the world are very similar to me. But chances are that Sean Talley and I are very similar, though we haven’t talked much. Sean found me through my podcast, and then there was the realization that we had met before; he was once a roommate of one of my best friends and favorite human life forms, Ricky Rivas, during their San Francisco Art Institute days. Anyhow this is perhaps of no interest to anyone, but what is of interest is Sean’s beautiful new blog, and gentle, lush, and lively new podcast, the inaugural episode of which has just been released. Oh yes, and furthermore you should listen to it. Thanks.
Posted by shane at 12:06 AM
October 27, 2006
Shift Two, Start!
I have two working shifts. One starts when I actually go to work during the day, my W+K hours. The second starts now, when I come home, and do things like write this entry (very rare), or, as is more likely the case these days, work on Riow Arai’s music video for the track Death Breaks on his forthcoming album, Survival Seven.
I’ll come back to that later. John Jay is in town now with some journalists (writer Brian Libby and photographers Michael Rubenstein and Kosuke Okahara) and he gave a presentation to them about TokyoLab. In fact, they are probably just finishing with Takagi Masakatu’s live show which started around 7pm today. Hearing John Jay speak this time, it really hit me that yappari he does have the exact job that Digiki wants to do (or sort of does do on a really DIY level without getting paid). And what that entails is basically overseeing a huge range of creative activities across all media and almost all nations, and networking with a vast group of creators in varying fields (Graphic, Advertising, Music, Architecture, Product Design, Illustration, Photo, Fashion–hey I just listed like every Art Center major), as well as with media people writing for influential publications.
He goes on to show all the work produced by the Lab, talking about it in a larger social context, and as a uniquely Japanese (Tokyo) form of expression that could and does not exist in the same form in any of our other offices. I agree with everything he says, and he says it with such simplicity and impact. What can I say, people talk, we play a selection of our video works off the DVD player, they get a hands-on with all of our products. Everyone surely goes home impressed... This is how media is made.
It seems so simple, but to get to this stage a huge amount of work has been done in advance. Three years of creating this particular body of commercial work, and more time before on Nike projects in the late 90’s experimenting with pairing visual artists and musicians to create expressions that become advertisements––a prototype for what the Lab has become (minus the advertisement, other than being PR for Wieden+Kennedy itself). Multiples of expression across a broad media range have been utilized, there is an interplay of art, music, strategy, events, marketing, etc. that will inevitably have touched people at a multitude of disparate points in a wide variety of ways. I never really anticipated participating in this kind of project as someone studying graphic design, which seems as finite a term as ever.
Recently, in New York, after Hifana’s performance for Theme magazine, we were all taken to dinner afterwards by Jiae Kim and John Lee, its founders (and also a married couple). There was something really simple that Jiae said which I found quite apt, and that was that, as a graphic designer (she studied graphic design and creative directs the magazine) you are not really contibuting to culture. That’s why she wanted to start Theme. I guess that is to say, a magazine is something that does contribute to culture. Well, much more so than sitting behind a desk and making logos. Graphic Design is a part of a magazine, or any modern form of communication, but it’s just that––a part. All the kids out there in typography classes at this moment have a long way to go to arrive at a truly nuanced understanding of this notion.
Am I saying that new pop objects of the current century must be attractive and well-executed across all media; some kind of big conglomerate expression that reaches me no matter what I do or where I go? This is obviously not the case. Historically (and even recently) I have been highly enthralled by many things that were probably being enjoyed by only 50 other people in the world, that lived in only one medium, and weren’t bombarding my mental space constantly. This is what sublime advertising should do, shouldn’t it? It just needs to hit you once, and make an emotional impact in that single moment. Easier said than done of course.
As pop as I can be in a sense, in a much truer sense I am probably strange and perverse. That is why it seems very natural to do a video for Riow Arai, an artist who is never going to go mainstream, no matter how fucking awesome much of his output is. Not in this lifetime will it gain much momentum past the relatively small crowd of maniacs that already know about it; even in an imagined scenario such as the good folks like us at W+K picking it up and pushing it––the packaging, the videos, the media placement––it is simply not going to be adopted large-scale because it’s not that kind of expression. I completely accept that this is the case with the large majority of media that I enjoy partaking in the consumption of.
At this point in my life I find myself in the awkward position of having a foot in two worlds that might naturally be thought of as irreconcilable, and it is a strange and yet often delightful mindspace to be in. Vast and miniute. Under and overground. How they are similar or different, and why. I guess I’d wager to say from where I stand, they simply aren’t. Perhaps especially in Tokyo, where pop can be perverse, the under is overground and vice-versa, there’s no real point thinking about it––as long as one has a strong sense of what they like.
Posted by shane at 10:05 PM
October 21, 2006
Obsession
A word that’s been tossed around a lot lately. Some frames from a piece we just finished a couple of days ago based on the topic. Big shout out to Mark Okon who interned with us and labored intensively on this project.
Update: I forgot to say what’s up to Sun, who made the music which accompanies this piece, and whose conversation (with +cruz) the words are based on.
Posted by shane at 02:49 PM
Not Language, But Sound!
There are many things I want to write about write about now but there’s no time!!! So let the music do the talking. Over a month late, it’s fresh and sweet, Podcast Volume 10! Czech it on the podcast page.
Posted by shane at 02:37 PM
October 06, 2006
On Returning
I was sent on assignment to New York for the past five days. Last night, straight from the airport after a thirteen hour flight, on top of an hour car ride to the airport, and a couple hours waiting, and finally the infamous limousine bus into Tokyo, I went directly to the office, and worked for 27 hours straight. Now I wake up unneccessarily early, somewhere in between sleep and waking, somewhere between timezones and nations. I don't think I’m quite adjusted to where I am or what I am doing yet. I can remember a surreal, half-conscious conversation with my girfriend somewhere in those hours.
A couple days ago following a link from Marxy I read this recent Tokyo Travel article from the Guardian. Nevermind the mentions of Bape and Billionaire Boys Club for the time being, what was important to me was this quote: “The trip made such an impression on me that I’ve developed a prejudice in favour of anything that comes from Japan. I’ve even had the urge to go up to Japanese people on the streets of London and say, ‘I know, I’ve been there. No one else knows how to do anything.’” To a certain degree this rings true coming from New York to Tokyo. From a place full of many loud and angry people who seemingly hate their jobs (not to say there aren’t countless others who are nice and love their jobs), to somewhere in which everyone is overly polite, friendly and soft.
I don’t know what to call it other than vicarious pride, but coming back to Japan was like going back into one's home. A sense of relaxing comfort and peace comes over you. Something that makes you think: “It’s nice to be back where things are done my way.” All bullshit notwithstanding, I am a generally a soft person, living happily in the softest (and that’s not to say shy, indirect, or unexciting) of nations.
At the airport, a certian someone travelling with me gets a certain positive reaction from marijuana-sniffing dogs, and I get taken back into an interrogation room. All of my belongings are meticulously taken apart and searched through, and I am asked all kinds of questions. Not for one moment however do I feel that I am being violated or treated any way other than softly and respectfully. The officers and interrogators even make friendly conversation with me about New York, and about being a foreigner in Japan throughout the whole process. I tell them living in their country is wonderful despite the fact that I cannot read books and magazines fluently. At the end they apologize profusely and send me on my way. Even if they had found drugs on me, I find it impossible to imagine any negative or violent reaction from any of them. I imagine an alternate situation in which I am politely kicked out of the country with a smile, never to be let in again. It’s quite laughable.
Now I am listening to 69 Lovesongs repeatedly as it’s been continously raining outside. It feels like a very New York album to me somehow.
Posted by shane at 06:00 AM
A Few Weeks Ago
I commuted almost two hours from where I live to Yokohama every morning to shoot a three day live painting by Doppel, whose work is being used in an up and coming Nike campaign. The video produced from this session will also be part of a series of films on DVD which I am currently producing at work. Doppel are two painters, Monmon and Yamao, and a lot of their work can be seen here at their website. They have done many commercial projects, as well as live painting for a lot of hip hop related events with people like Shing02.
Posted by shane at 05:40 AM