krystian on 28 Nov 2000 17:36:31 -0000 |
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[rohrpost] Berliner Gazette, 29.11.[english version] |
4 1/2 Minutes or: >>The average time it takes a Tokyo resident to reach a convenience=20 store.<< [ ] Protocol: Sean Snyder, artist [1] The one hour and forty minute ride from Narita airport displaces any=20 preconceptions a western visitor may have about Japanese culture. A=20 cognitive placelessness occurs due to overlapping visual references from=20 elsewhere. The basis of my project during a four month residency in Japan=20 is to construct a sampled composite (an impossible task?) of hybrid and=20 non-Japanese aspects of the built environment and cultural landscape of=20 Tokyo and its periphery. Tokyo is constantly transforming and dissolving in photographic, animated,= =20 and virtual representations. The most dominant characteristics of the city= =20 are not it=B4s copied landmarks, but interconnected flows of electricity,=20 communication and transportation. Profuse above ground utility lines,=20 elevated subway, urban rail, high-speed train and the Metropolitan=20 Expressway connect Tokyo with the rest of Japan. Auto navigation technology= =20 [2] orients the vast expanses around the city through an endless network of= =20 transaction points; convenience stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations= =20 and shopping centers. Tama New Town, Play Station A5, and the DIY Architecture of Tokyo In 1971 Denise Scott asked the question >>in fact, where did the McDonald's= =20 parabola and the split-level ranch come from in the first place? << The=20 same year McDonald's opened their first restaurant in Japan. An examination= =20 of the roof angles of traditional Japanese architecture could provide a=20 hypothetical answer. So where did Tokyo come from? Fantastic architecture is everywhere: Pachinko Parlors, Love Hotels, and=20 Theme Parks. But the rooftops of the anonymous expanses of Tokyo's=20 periphery hold the most unusual examples. The depictions of cities around=20 the world with no commentary on late-night Japanese television and free=20 tourist brochures with collaged continents merge with aspects of Tokyo's=20 environment. Tama New Town/ Tama Center in suburban Tokyo combines=20 futuristic urban design and architecture with stylized urban symbols from=20 the great civilizations of the world. The Play Station video game A5 [3], intended for the Japanese market,=20 follows a similar logic as Tama New Town. Using simplified CAD=20 architectural renderings, the game begins with a topographic view of an=20 undeveloped natural landscape with a monument (the Houses of Parliament,=20 the Arc de Triomphe, the Pyramids of Giza, Tokyo Tower, etc.) as the focal= =20 point. The goal of the game is to develop a prosperous infrastructure=20 around the monument with the given vocabulary of non-spectacular components= =20 of the contemporary city. The elevated transportation network is the one=20 distinctively Japanese aspect of the resulting city. For Japanese=20 architects and individuals there are numerous references for sampling=20 architectural styles available. For practicing architects there are=20 extensive guides to non-Japanese architecture, picture books, exterior=20 details, dictionaries of western architectural terminology, etc. For=20 amateur architects home design software [4] is available. Using a=20 vocabulary prefabricated elements, individuals can create their own=20 'fantasy' environment [5]. This sort of 'do it yourself' approach [6] can=20 begin to explain the origin of the unusual architectural varieties. Project I have constructed a narrative guide in printed form, creating a composite= =20 of the city's surface through an excavation of ephemeral everyday visual=20 data (printed material, television and computer software) juxtaposed=20 against my own digital material. The material has been condensed at=20 low-resolution, re-assembled, categorized, clipped, scanned, ordered and=20 placed into a magnified random grid structure interpreted from Japanese=20 publications and cartoons. One focus of the research, through a process of= =20 scanning the city and its surroundings from rail lines with digital media,= =20 is to construct a sample archive of typological approximations and pseudo-= =20 classifications of the obscure architectural variants found in the region.= [7] 1. mailto: seansnyder@altavista.net 2. http://www.zenrin.co.jp 3. http://www.artdink.co.jp/japanese/title/a6/index.html 4. http://www.megasoft.co.jp 5. http://www.pophome.com/index.shtml 6. http://www.doityourself.com/ 7. http://itools.mac.com [open public folder with member name: seansnyder ] And here some Berlin dates for your schedule: Wed 29.11. W o r k s h o p : The workshop on Mobile Multimedia Communications=20 [http://mcp.fantastic.ch] will provide an international forum to discuss=20 innovative techniques to tackle the lack of resources by implementing=20 special optimization and coordination techniques, which support the=20 provisioning of particularly valuable services to users on the move and=20 especially in the vehicular environment=20 [http://www.comnets.rwth-aachen.de/~drive]. The scope includes optimized=20 interworking of mobile telecommunication and radio broadcast networks and=20 the layered interworking of network elements with adaptive applications in= =20 order to exploit the scarce radio resources in the most efficient and=20 demand-oriented way. Above all the workshop will provide a road map for the= =20 provisioning of the future mobile internet in the car. Place:=20 Heinrich-Hertz-Institut Berlin [http://www.hhi.de], Einsteinufer 37, 9 a.m.= =20 - 6 p.m. B o o k r e l e a s e : Friedrich Kittler presents his new book >>Eine=20 Kulturgeschichte der Kulturwissenschaft<< [ISBN: 3-7705-3418-2] which=20 traces the founders of cultural studies from Vico to writers as Flaubert=20 and cultural scientists like Victor Hehn to Nietzsche and his followers.=20 Place: Kiepert, Georgenstrasse 2, Stadtbahnbogen 182, 8 p.m. Thu 30.11. L e c t u r e : Berlin based theoretician Knut Ebeling (born in 1970), who= =20 studied under Gilles Deleuze and Friedrich Kittler will approach >>Madame=20 Edwarda<< by Georges Batailles from two different angles: By taking one of= =20 the most scandalous and mysterious pieces Batailles ever produced Ebeling=20 sheds light on his way of reading and positions his philosophy between=20 Hegel and Nietzsche. Place: Juliettes Literatursalon, Gormannstrasse 25,=20 8.30 p.m. Sat 02.12. O p e n i n g : Berlin based artist Hanayo [http://www.hanayo.com]=20 transforms the former Club 69 space at Kunst Werke=20 [http://www.kw-berlin.de] into a winter-style Kindergarten. The playful=20 fantasy area for parents and kids reflects the recent baby boom in=20 Berlin-Mitte and its new, growing social networks: As the artist herself=20 puts it >>Hanachambre is the room where u can feel free: a baby becomes a=20 worm; a man becomes a butterfly; a child becomes an alien<<. The indoor=20 playground by Hanayo opens daily between 10a.m. - 6p.m.; for the opening a= =20 special performance has been announced. Place: Kunst Werke, Auguststrasse.= =20 69, 8 p.m. Best wishes, Krystian Woznicki mailto:krystian@snafu.de PS: >>Dreams on the path to reality<< pumps up first when you enter the=20 site of the people's project [http://www.thepeoplesproject.com]. Founded by= =20 Axel Lapp, its intention is to stimulate and motivate people to create=20 public space with their own ideas: Public areas like streets, parks or=20 buildings are mostly perceived in their functional idea and less as a=20 creative or democratic space. The people's project wants to open this space= =20 for projects that transform places of our everyday life into places of=20 recreation and new ideas. There are several concepts being realized at the= =20 moment not only in Berlin. PPS: Im Zeitalter globaler E-Speed-Kommunikation ist vorallem Sprache=20 (Language) ein Medium, das die Globalisierung verlangsamt. Mit dem=20 Internet-Translator Systransoft [http://www.systranet.com] lassen sich=20 Dokumente automatisch uebersetzen, wobei die Moeglichkeit besteht, mit 21=20 spezialisierten Woerterbuechern zu arbeiten und damit eine hohe=20 Uebersetzungs-Qualitaet zu erreichen. In Wirklichkeit kann die vermeintlich= =20 unuebertreffliche Intelligenz der Software Sprache zu neuer Komik und=20 Poesie verhelfen. Um Sean Snyders Werkstattbericht aus Toyko auch fuer=20 deutsch-only LeserInnen verstaendlich zu machen, haben wir ihn mit so einer= =20 Uebersetzungskanone beschossen=20 [http://www.kulturserver.de/cgi-bin/view_korrespondent?id=3D420&layout=3D],= =20 raten allerdings kuerzere Abschnitte in den DIY - Uebersetzungsreisswolf zu= =20 werfen. [ ] Berliner Gazette The weekly E-Mailzine is published by http://www.kulturserver.de [ ] Editors Klaas Glenewinkel Ulrike Rogler Anne Schreiber Krystian Woznicki [ ] Subscriptions http://www.kulturserver.de/cgi-bin/newsletter -- ---------------------------------------------------------- # rohrpost -- deutschsprachige Mailingliste fuer Medien- und Netzkultur # Info: majordomo@mikrolisten.de; msg: info rohrpost # kommerzielle Verwertung nur mit Erlaubnis der AutorInnen # Entsubskribieren: majordomo@mikrolisten.de, msg: unsubscribe rohrpost # Kontakt: owner-rohrpost@mikrolisten.de -- http://www.mikro.org/rohrpost