nonsense engineering » theo jansen

Flying along the rim of day and night

pablo ripolles — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:41:31 +0000

On the morning of the 27th the beginning of the end of this wonderful adventure was about to start… first Sakura Executive Lounge, second Mount Fuji and volcanoes, third amazing Japanese restaurant aboard and fourth this unbelievable eternal sunset as I was flying along the rim of day and night.

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Daito’s and Kanta’s workplace

pablo ripolles — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:31:49 +0000

In the evening of Sunday 25th, I went to Shinjuku where I had an appointment with Hiroko, from there we would go to Daito‘s and Kanta‘s workplace where we would meet Alvaro. There is a funny story about how close we all where connected already before the real meeting. I met Alvaro last year at Medialab by the time of Interactivos08?, before coming to Japan my friend Marcos from Medialab introduced me Kanta by email as he had already done with Rie (who further introduced me Hiroko). Before coming to Japan I had already made an appointment with Kanta and Hiroko, and I would try to get invitations for them for The Opening. The same invitation went to Alvaro. At this initial point, these people were, from my point of view, completely unrelated. Hiroko couldn’t come, but Alvaro came as Kanta did but with a friend. What happened next was fantastic. Alvaro knew Kanta! and Kanta’s friend happened to be Daito, who I missed to meet in Linz (before the opening of the new AEC), my interest was because of this. They already knew each other! Next day I met Hiroko who did already knew them as well, amazing! What we did in their fantastic workplace was trying out the myoelectric sensor system on my skin. Later we had a wonderful meal!

The night view from within a Taxi in Tokyo…

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Tewo, Kiborio and friends

pablo ripolles — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:47:02 +0000

During the exhibition I met many, many people… but not many contacts developed into something more interesting. Tewo and Kiborio where really nice and sweet from the very beginning, later we crossed emails and finally we enjoyed this great meal. They introduced me to Kaz, Endo, Makishima, Masui Kun and Shoko. I’m very grateful for having shared this wonderful meal and fantastic conversation with them. Even we are coming from different cultures and different backgrounds it was a beautiful surprise to see how close we were in our reflections…

Kiborio made this portrait of me… it was the first time! arigato gozaimas!

This is a casual picture I took by Shibuya station. It is a traditional Japanese instrument recovered!

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Moving to Alvaro’s & Monica’s place

pablo ripolles — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:43:54 +0000

On January 20th our work for the exhibition had ended and we had to check out the hotel, a new adventure was about to begin. This was the day I moved my luggage to Alvaro’s & Monica’s place. The live in a cozy little apartment in the neighborhood of Komagome. Before meeting Alvaro, I spend the morning in Akihabara buying a couple of things and visiting ICC (by the Opera Palace) which is indeed very impressive! Not many pictures I took that journey.

It is interesting to observe the differences in the metro/train “world” such as the following illustrates.

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Akihabara “Electric souq”

pablo ripolles — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:00:55 +0000

Monday 19th was the first day we had completely free. By noon I met Hiroko Myokam who kindly was willing to show me the geekest face of Akihabara which is a special area of Tokyo very popular among the geeks, but also among many new media artists (ain’t they geeks?). In this area there are many big department stores essentially dedicated to the electric and electronic devices ready to be mass consumed. These are some casual pictures I took during my walk with Myokam sen.

However, apart from the big department stores above mentioned, it is not difficult to find a semi-hidden network of low celling narrow tunnels distributed among different levels of the big buildings that conform a block. Sometimes these tunnels go from underground floors up to a third or even fourth floor. They are very labyrinthian indeed! Well, as you can see, these tunnels are full of little shops where they sell quite low level electronic components.

Actually, wandering the streets of Akihabara can be very fascinating as it is easy to spot some otaku walking by or maids promoting cosplay restaurants.

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The Opening

pablo ripolles — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:46:09 +0000

A private inauguration occurred on January 16th, the public opening happened on January 17th. Almost 1000 people visited the hibiya-patio the first day as well as the second day.

The private inauguration was not more than a formal mutual acknowledgement of the exhibition that was about to be opened, but of course with delicious sushi!

The opening day started as sunny as it could be. The manifestations of fascination and excitement on behave of the audience occurred performance after performance, not only the first day but the second day too. What a wonderful experience!

The performances driven by Theo, Loek and me continued the second day. Many people I met during those two days, amazing!

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Eating and walking in Hibiya/Ginza

pablo ripolles — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:44:10 +0000

Although during the days we spend setting up the beast we had almost no free time, we still had to eat and walk between the hotel and the tent. These are casual pictures I took in the different quotidian situations we experienced.

A van in Japan can be really small and compact but still a van.

He spoke very little English and she was very natural as if I were not there taking the picture…

A mobile coffe shop very cozy indeed…

This Chinese restaurant was very popular, you could eat really good!

Many contrasts and differences, some very dramatic, some very subtle but all make this country very exotic and fascinating…

And thanks to Loek! this illustrates the interaction I had with him…

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Setting up the beasts and meeting the staff

pablo ripolles — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:06:34 +0000

During the following four days, we spend mainly all our time in setting up the beasts. There were many more fossils than in Madrid plus the two alive ones we had in Madrid: Animaris Ordis and Animaris Modularius. One of the coziest parts of the exhibition was an intimate reproduction of Theo’s Delft old studio.

The firsts days while working in the tent it was really cold and it was amazing how the staff were using warming patches. These warming patches were a kind of sticker that once opened and sticked on one of your inner layers of cloth it would make you warm.

Once the beasts were almost finished we were introduced to the staff that would be informing the visitors about Theo’s work for the coming months. They were quite curious about many details as well as fascinated, it was an anticipation of the reactions we were about to observe.

The staff were supplied with a production limited fleece which had Theo’s name stamped on it, this was a signal of how a big event this was going to be.

Explaining and understanding the working details of Animaris Sabulosa is not at all so easy…

Theo spend some time explaining the working details and evolution ideas behind each and every one of the fossil beasts.

Finally some time for autographs…

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Dai-ichi Hotel at Ginza (16th floor)

pablo ripolles — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:44:32 +0000

At our arrival to the Dai-ichi Hotel we had about an hour to rest and organize our stuff. Later we enjoyed a splendid chinese dinner with the organizers.

It is hard to describe the hotel, the room itself and what I could see from my window. I’ll just put some pictures…

Very impressive indeed…

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Driving to Tokyo

pablo ripolles — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:08:25 +0000

Once we arrived at Narita airport, some of the Dentsu staff picked us up and brought us to what was to be our Hotel. The raid to Tokyo takes about an hour, these are some of the pictures I took from the running van. The light was awesome but I reacted too late…

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