Archive for July, 2007
July 27, 2007 at 10:15 am · Filed under Experiences
Despite previous experiences that left me with nothing good to say about participating in boat parties, I went to a boat party last night. But this time it was actually enjoyable. We had a small 10-person karate club party on a ferry from our side of Tokyo Bay, to the other (somewhere in Chiba) and then back again. The women all wore yukatas for a discounted ferry ticket and to participate in a raffle. Four out of the 7 women who came in yukata won and I was one of them – yay! But knowing that I will go back to Canada soon, I gave away most of my prize – except for the detox tea. That could be useful.
But what was best about the party was after getting off the ferry. We bought fireworks from the combini and made a lot of light. Pictures next post.
July 26, 2007 at 10:49 am · Filed under Dreams
A phone conversation about weddings with a friend before going to sleep might have had something to do with it but, last night I dreamt of a wedding, my wedding – I was marrying a guy from highschool. I won’t say who it was but he was a nice, funny, popular guy who I probably didn’t talk to a single time throughout those four years. Why him I don’t know.
Anyway, we met again in Japan and for some reason that my dream didn’t bother showing, we really hit it off and decided that we should marry before either of us went back to Canada. One day after work two friends took me to a large, dark church and I was really nervous because I didn’t have anything to touch up my makeup with and my hair had not been cut in a while. They took me to a dark hall in the basement – low ceilings and izakaya tables. My fiance’s friends were already into the beer. In a side room I met him, he was wearing a gray tuxedo and also looked a little nervous but determined. “My mother came”, he said. “Oh wow – mine didn’t can I borrow yours?” She came into the room and after introduction we talked about all the places we might have met before.
I didn’t dream about the actual ceremony. I don’t know if there was one. There might have just been some introductions, drinking, the signing of a document and then suddenly I was in a large kitchen helping my new mother-in-law prep things for dinner. I was cutting something, I can’t remember what, into small cubes but it seemed to me an endless impossible task because no matter how many times I cut piece after piece in half, they seemed to stay the same size.
“When is he coming back?” I asked my mother-in-law. “I don’t know”, she responded, “but this is very important to him”. I then came to know (my dream-self knew this already) that immediately after the wedding my husband left for Alaska. He was Jewish and in Alaska a sacred mineral or scripture related to the Jewish faith had been found. The journey was dangerous but they said that he who comes into contact with this mineral or cave or scripture or stone or whatever it was will have something amazing happen to them. That I also can’t remember even though my mother-in-law talked about it with great detail and reverence while washing vegetables.
I understood that he had to be gone and I understood that maybe I would never see him again. Until he came back or until I received papers confirming his death or a request for divorce, I would stay in the kitchen cutting food endlessly.
I woke up thinking about how I can divorce him. He was a really great guy but we were just an odd couple.
July 24, 2007 at 10:30 pm · Filed under Art, Theeeeeeeeeeesis
I am reading about Myron Krueger’s “VIDEOPLACE“. Myron Krueger is the guy who coined the term “artificial reality” and VIDEOPLACE was one of his artworks from the 1970s that is sort of labeled as “the first” in interactive artwork. I don’t know if that is too accurate but I guess the point is that the work was/is very influencial, especially for video- and camera-based interactive systems that track participant movement and gestures.
VIDEOPLACE is an artificial reality environment consisting of a video camera and other sensors to track a participant’s movement in front of a projection screen. Video displayed on the projection screen responds to participant gestures with over 50 compositions that include the person’s shadow as a base. The compositions manipulate participant silhouettes, create graphical worlds around them, and produce virtual objects and lively organisms that interact with the silhouettes. A participant in turn can interact with movement of their whole body as well as direct manipulation with elements of the compositions.
I’ve read about VIDEOPLACE a lot but I think that tonight is the first time that I’ve really looked at imagery from the video compositions and I must say that they really attract me. I kind of want mini VIDEOPLACE aesthetics on my computer at work. Some images from this guy here (who took them from some of Krueger’s publications I think so we both apologize if they were copyrighted):
…and from a Golan Levin paper…
Graphics from the 70s – simplistic shapes but amazing colour schemes. It makes me nostalgic for a time before I was born. A time when people who experienced this artwork would be absolutely amazed by the technology. It would be like magic for them.
From what I read VIDEOPLACE is still up and running somewhere but I don’t know where. I would really like to see it. I imagine that it could still be a really engaging experience given the playfulness of the interaction compositions.
Why are similar video/camera interactive pieces made nowadays not very engaging? Is it because the experience is convolved with social, political, environmental, etc. messages and it is no longer based on pure interaction with the media and reflection of the participant?
UPDATE: I woke up in the morning thinking about what I said in that last paragraph. About pure interaction with the media…Well that was in a day when the technologies used were not woven into the fabric of life. When what was being confronted was the technology itself and what it meant for our future. Now many of the same technologies are still used in artworks but in an exploration of current-future issues such as our social networks and behaviours as constructed with current communication technologies and environmental consequences of current human practices (much supported by computing devices).
July 24, 2007 at 12:21 am · Filed under Photographs
July 23, 2007 at 8:30 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff
A great thing about Japan is that wherever you go you can find some place that will show you how to make something. Experts will have the lesson down to a T so you’re thrown an apron, given the supplies, pulled through the steps and in 50 minutes out the door proudly holding your finished product.
Ok the fact that it is so assembly line makes it a bit frustrating for us creative types who like to add our own finishing touches but it does make everyone leave happy and then you can show your friends and they gush “oh you are skillful aren’t you?!”
When I was in Niigata we went to such a place and learned how to make sasadango.
sasa = bamboo grass
dango = sweet dumpling
To start at the end, this is a sasadango:
But what is inside? Well, we started with glutinous rice flour and added what I think was a water and mudwort mixture to get a doughy rice paste.
Then we took the rice paste in chunks and wrapped it around balls of sweet red bean paste.
Then came the complicated part – wrapping the dumplings in bamboo leaves and tying them up. Unfortunately my hands were so busy, I couldn’t take pictures. But there is a method and next time I see you I can demonstrate with some kleenex, string and golf balls.
After getting wrapped the sasadango were taken away from us for steaming and returned on a large plate below:
Actually this was the really great part – eating one hot. A lot of Japanese sweets are made from combinations of bean paste and rice paste and they do manage to do a lot of different things with the same ingredients plus variations but you get used to the taste and texture after a while. Eating a fresh sasadango was very different. The inside was very warm, almost hot and the bean paste was not liquid-y but almost and the flavours of bean paste and rice paste melted together so well.
Mmmm….I want dango now.
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