Origami Apartment in New York by Eric Schneider

The bed / living room divider looks a little unwieldy but the result is terrific and there’s even room for guests with plenty of storage space. I especially like the kitchen configuration and lack of visible light fixtures. Checkout this even smaller‘shoebox’ apartment in Manhattan that goes one step further.

Lego Apartment in Barcelona by Christian Schallert

My favourite thing here has to be the way the balcony connects to the rest of the room which all neatly folds away, leaving an empty box. The polished concrete floor complements warmth of the bespoke wooden panelling and looks easy to keep clean. When things are folded out it starts to look cramped.

Transformer Apartment in Hong Kong by Gary Chang

An amazing amount of thinking must have gone into how all the different components in this apartment fit together with such a high-quality finish. The use of floating walls and mirrors to create separate spaces within spaces is especially ingenious. Smart but perhaps a little over-complicated and fiddley.

Modern Hanok House in Seoul by Simone Carena

This modern take by an Italian on a traditional Korean Hanok house captured my imagination since it updates centuries old sensibilities with modern conveniences. An interoir courtyard maintains privacy while still allowing light into the building via huge windows and mirrors. More photos here.

Feng Shui Cube in California by Liu Ming

This “compact mobile dwelling cube” which can be moved around on wheels takes things to a different level with a study, bedroom, and tea room within a tiny box which sits itself within a large loft apartment. Possibly more philosophical than practical but a pretty cool talking point all the same!

‘Kyosho Jutaku’ Micro Houses in Japan

Many people mentioned Japan as a source of inspiration for their compact designs and the video above gives you some idea of the extremes micro houses have been taken to over there – many sit on barely the footprint of a car parking space! While they may have been born out of necessity, demand for ultra-compact homes, known as ‘kyosho jutaku‘, is apparently rising.

The Potential of Emptiness

The Japanese have a unique philosophical take on the sense of space with its ability to take on multiple forms and thus an empty space is seen to have more potential than a cluttered space. Author and art director of MUJI, Kenya Hara, elaborates on the importance of “emptiness” vs “simplicity” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan, and its application to design -

“The concept of simplicity is only a very recent part of human history in the context of creating our environment… What [the Japanese] found pleasing was a concept of emptiness which is different from the simplicity that was later discovered by Modernism… It seems that being constantly exposed and becoming familiar with various cultures, Japan has actually created a sensibility of ultimate plainness that is liberated from all cultural styles…

In the tea ceremony a principle of emptiness is at work. It serves as a resource of ideas that communicate with and ignites any of a vast range of possible situations, either among people or between the person and the object.

Behind MUJI’s thinking is the idea of applying the simplicity of the products as emptiness… Within the MUJI concept is the idea of discovering within simplicity a luxury that rivals meer appearance.

To create is not just to create an object or a phenomenon. Coming up with a question is also creation. In fact, a question that has huge receptive capacity doesn’t even need a definitive answer… Questioning is emptiness… Emptiness is itself the possibility of being filled.”

You can watch the full and fascinating presentation he gave at Google or again at W+K.

MUJI sells a number of prefabricated houses which are designed to be small but function and environmentally friendly. While “prefab” might be a dirty word for some, these seem to be very well thought through and exemplify the Japanese concept of “emptiness”.

DIY?

Philosophical ideals aside, the core theme when designing for a compact space seems to be creating areas of functional overlap. To live comfortably in such a space careful consideration must be given to ensure that everything is meaningful and has a reason to exist. I can’t help but feel we’d all be a lot happier if we simply had less space to fill with meaningless junk.

While most of these projects have been professionally designed by architects I don’t find them outside the realm of something which could be achievable and maybe before too long I’ll start putting some of the ideas in my head down on paper. As for cost, that’s an entirely different matter!

A stunning time-lapse video by Spot On Idea (a production company in Hong Kong). Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I actually live here.

Related posts you might like:

1. Recreating Ghost in Hong Kong
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide
3. Hong Kong Moments V

My first impression of the festival was one of pessimism; with so many installations containing works that would probably be thrown away at the end how could it live up to its ambitions of promoting sustainability?

Luckily I was proven wrong – while the installations were a mixed bag, most of them seemed to have taken the theme seriously and raised some interesting questions about how we contribute to environmental issues as consumers.

Indeed, many works were repurposed from recycled materials themselves, like these lamps made from old taxi light shells by Handsome Co. (俊記) who make simple bags and other products from old discarded Hong Kong taxi parts.

The video above tells the story of how they came into existence.

The real success of DETOUR to me though was its utilisation of the old PMQ premises which is comprised of two parallel accommodation blocks with a large courtyard in the middle (where a stage had been setup at one end for performances).

As with the Victoria Prison and the Central Police Station (which I snuck into earlier in the year), PMQ is another relic of the British Colonial period which had been left to rot while the government endlessly debated what to do with it.

Before it was built in 1889, PMQ was the original home of the former Central School which was the first government school to provide primary and secondary Western education in Hong Kong. After being destroyed by bombing during World War II it was redeveloped as the PMQ in 1948.

While the site had initially been targeted for redevelopment (i.e. bulldozed and turned into a shopping mall / luxury apartment complex), PMQ is now slated to be turned into a ‘landmark‘ hub for creative industries by 2014 where artists and designers can showcase their products to the public.

Judging by Hong Kong’s previous attempts there is a big question mark hanging over how well this will be executed but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Of note, an underground museum will give visitors access to the ruins of the Central School which should be fascinating in itself.

Most of the installations were housed in the identical single-room flats which lined each corridor of the buildings. While they have now been stripped bare of their former inhabitants decorations you can still get a sense of their lives from the markings on the walls and the small balcony / bathroom at the rear of each room.

A broken view through a broken window.

Washing-lines were strung between the walls of the corridors which today feel hauntingly barren.

Kitchen windows bear the marks of years of accumulated oil and dirt on their fading floral facades.

I managed to sneak onto the roof which, as with much of Hong Kong’s skyline, yielded magnificent views of the surrounding neighbourhood. Amid all the dense buildings its hard to imagine that you’re actually on the edge of a small island.

Looking down on the rooftops of nearby buildings you can spy many high-rise gardens being kept by green-fingered tenants.

The roof of PMQ is covered by an elaborate network of pipes, all of which now lie disconnected and rusting.

The building stands as a precursor to the even taller apartment blocks which were to be built around it.

As well as plants you’ll also notice a forest of tv aerials pointing in every direction. I’d love an apartment somewhere like this so I could do BBQ’s on the roof!

Aberdeen street sweeps steeply downhill creating a deep gorge between the buildings on either side.

Look closely and you’ll notice that there are workers clinging onto the bamboo scaffolding, inside the green netting, renovating an adjacent building – not a single safety harness in sight!

North of Hollywood Road you can see the historic Wing Lee Street (永利街), the shooting location for the acclaimed film “Echoes of the Rainbow” (歲月神偷主題曲), that was also recently saved from redevelopment and is now being restored.

The film tells the story of a working family in Hong Kong during the 1960′s whose eldest son, a popular boy and star athlete, becomes ill with leukemia.

In Hong Kong, where land is scarce and expensive, the government profits hugely from real-estate deals and hence the fate of history often comes down to money. It’s a really rather sad state of affairs.

Since most of these historic sites in Hong Kong are usually off-limits, this is one detour I was please to have taken.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide

Below is some footage that comes from a 1995 interview conducted by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association, in which Jobs succinctly outlines his vision of life and how to broaden your horizons. I wish they taught this in school, the world would be far more interesting if more people thought a little differently.

“When you grow up you, tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

[via Brain Pickings]

Related posts you might like:

1. I Want My Life Back
2. Revised Thoughts
3. Life Without Language

I don’t want things for the sake of having, but for the sake of needing and making life easier. For this reasons I have grown an intense dislike for being forced to wade through the sea if mediocre choices every time I go shopping. In a world where the population is growing fast and resources are becoming scarce things have to change. There is however a glimmer of light from the few companies which dare to do things differently.

Below I’ve taken a look at five of the best companies driven by principles of good design, who I admire, and tried to dissect what makes them tick and ultimately what makes them succeed.

MUJI

Born in Japan in 1980, MUJI (無印良品) was conceived to be different from the start. Its name means “no brand quality products” which encapsulates its aim to simply to make what is necessary, nothing more and nothing less. They achieve this by surveying thousands of customers to understand what they need, and then they try to meet these needs in the simplest, cheapest ways possible. Today they have over 200 stores in 20 countries with more than 7,000 household and consumer items sold as MUJI products:

Not a fancy towel, but a useful towel. Socks with right angles like feet. Comfortable sheets for a comfortable bed. Beautifully simple bicycles. Functional but never boring writing accessories. Cutlery that fits your hand like a glove. – MUJI

These principles extend to their stores which provide a pervasive sense of calm and order as the backdrop to their neutral nondescript products (some even include tasty cafes). I find it a welcome break from the usual in-your-face logos and over-the-top design found elsewhere. MUJI’s natural, simple, and anonymous design proposes rational lifestyles for today’s world while also being forward thinking – their recently introduced iPad apps that continue these ideas beyond material goods.

Philosophy: ”No Label. Good Products”

• MUJI is not a brand whose value rests in the frills and “extras” it adds to its products
• MUJI is simplicity – but a simplicity achieved through a complexity of thought and design
• MUJI’s streamlining is the result of the careful elimination and subtraction of gratuitous features and design unrelated to function
• MUJI, the brand, is rational, and free of agenda, doctrine, and “isms”
• MUJI aspires to modesty and plainness, the better to adapt and shape itself to the styles, preferences, and practices of as wide a group of people as possible

UNIQLO

UNIQLO (ユニクロ) is Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer whose aesthetic is clean, simple, organised, and vibrant. The name is a contraction of “unique clothing” and far from being a lifestyle brand, their stores offer a white box on a white background filled with thousands of UNIQLO items stacked floor to ceiling, arranged in a rainbow of colours. UNIQLO has ~1000 stores worldwide (90% in Japan) and is aimed at the urban basics shopper, promoting a kind of no-fuss individualism.

By producing a relatively small number of styles in a large number of colours it enables them to attain economics of scale while at the same time disguising this fact through the multitude of colours on display. It delivers a low-cost product that shares qualities of high-end retail. Unlike contenders such as H&M, UNIQLO customers expect to wear their clothes until they wear out.

Over the past few UNIQLO has run a string of innovative projects as marketing campaigns: MIXPLAY, UNIQLO JUMP, UNIQLOCK (my favourite), UNIQLO Calendar (for iPhone/iPad) and most recently 88 COLORS in Shanghai which have successfully combined music + physical expression to create a communication vehicle which works across cultures globally. UNIQLO also runs competitions every year to and select designs for their popular UT t-shirts contributed by artists and photographers online.

Philosophy: “Made for All”

• UNIQLO makes clothes that transcend age, gender, ethnicity and all other ways that define people
• UNIQLO clothes are simple and essential yet universal, so people can combine them with their own styles
• UNIQLO aspires to excellence in quality, design and technology while remaining affordable to everyone
• UNIQLO is a way of thinking that’s about constant change, diversity, and challenging conventional wisdom
• UNIQLO believes that everyone can benefit from simple, well-designed clothes

IKEA

Synonymous with cheap flat-pack furniture, IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 and has grown to become the largest furniture retailer in the world with over 300 stores in nearly 40 countries. While self-assembly enables IKEA to reduce costs and make transportation easier, beyond this the company maintains an almost religious belief to improve not just the lot of people, but the people themselves by encouraging them to take control:

We have decided once and for all to side with the many. What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us… Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. - The Testament of a Furniture Dealer by Ingvar Kamprad

IKEA stores are easily distinguished by their very large blue buildings with yellow accents (Sweden’s national colors) and few windows. They are designed with a one-way layout, leading customers through the whole store in its entirety with a series of showrooms upstairs and a “Market Hall” downstairs. It’s common for families to make a day trip out of a visit to IKEA and many stores have restaurants serving traditional Swedish food alongside varieties of the local cuisine in each country.

In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the past century, IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture, a concept which its founder Ingvar Kamprad refers to as “democratic design”; the combination of attractive form, inexpensive production, and high function. The intended result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings, scalable both to small apartments as well as large houses. The higher aim is freedom in all senses of the word.

Philosophy: “To create a better everyday life for the many people”

• IKEA focuses on good design and function at a low price
• IKEA has something for the romantic at heart, the minimalist and everyone in between
• IKEA products are designed meet your day-to-day needs and eliminate the unnecessary
• IKEA is constantly trying to do everything a little simpler, more efficiently and always cost-effectively
• IKEA maximises the use of raw materials in order to fulfil people’s needs and preferences

Dyson

Britain has a proud tradition of lone inventors coming up with new ideas in their garden sheds and Dyson’s founder, James Dyson, famously created 5,127 prototypes of his first machine, the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, in a workshop behind his house, before developing one that he considered worked perfectly, the DC01.

I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison

Dyson’s breakthrough idea was to use cyclonic separation to create a vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt and didn’t require a bag. At the time, in the early 90′s, manufacturers didn’t want to touch his design since the market for disposable cleaner bags was enormous so he started his own company and after much effort eventually became the market leader.

The company has since gone on to create radically new designs for washing machines (ContraRotator), hand dryers (Airblade), fans (Air Multiplier) and heaters – while not all have been hits, their ability to reinvent entire product categories is almost unparalleled.

Dyson’s background was in industrial design, rather than engineering – a fact which is strongly reflected in the sculptural nature of his products which outwardly reflect their functional nature while being strangely attractive in their two-tone bright grey/yellow colours. He has stated the source of his inspiration comes from frustration – if a problem exists, then logically a solution must too.

Philosophy: ”Solve the everyday problems others seem to ignore, whatever it takes”

• Dyson emphasises function over form; products are only truly beautiful if they work well
• Dyson keeps on failing till they find the right solution through rapid prototyping
• Dyson products express the technology used, so that people understand it
• Dyson encourages differences; be deliberately obtuse and intentionally illogical
• Dyson products repurpose ideas from other applications

Apple

Apple and its founder need little introduction, but while Steve Jobs made design a chief element of the company’s product strategy, it was British designer Jonathan “Jony” Ive who establish the firm’s leading position with a series of functionally clean, aesthetically pleasing and remarkably popular products that started with the introduction of the iMac in 1998. The success of the original iMac helped pave the way to many other iconic designs such as the iPod and eventually the iPhone.

We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both, to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use, so that they really fit the users – the users don’t have to come to them, they come to the user. — Steve Jobs

Like handcrafted Shaker furniture each Apple product is just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside and feel almost inevitable or undesigned since they defer to how the user interacts with them in a natural and essential way. Apple products are far more than a collection of parts though – their simplicity belies the complexity of the processes which are required to make them.

The work and principles of Dieter Rams, the former Chief of Design at Braun (1961-95), is said to have influenced Ive’s work, and Rams publicly states that Apple is the only company designing products according to his Ten principles of “good design”. Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase “Weniger, aber besser” which translates as “Less, but better”, something that Apple has clearly embraced with its tightly curated product lines that don’t reserve their best innovations for their most high-end products.

Philosophy: “The intersection of technology and liberal arts”

• Apple products are as beautiful internally as they are externally (craft)
• Apple understands what people need before they know they need it (empathy)
• Apple understand that people do judge a book by its cover so first impressions count (impute)
• Apple understands the hierarchy of what is and isn’t important (focus)
• Apple refines every detail in the service of the user to get rid of complexity (simplicity)

Conclusion

As creators, consumers and conservators we shouldn’t accept shoddy design. Companies, like the ones above, which focus on providing what people need now and in the near future in the simplest possible fashion will stand the test of time – their legions of fans stand as testament to this.

In homage to Mr. Rams (who I saw speak at BODW in Hong Kong this week) I’ve put together my own list of what good design is derived from the principles of MUJI, UNIQLO, IKEA, Dyson and Apple:

1. Good design is simple
2. Good design is pure
3. Good design is self-sufficient
4. Good design is essential
5. Good design is iconic
6. Good design is seductive
7. Good design is reactionary
8. Good design is intuitive
9. Good design is democratic
10. Good design is universal

I’d be interested to hear what other companies you think would fit into this list?

Related posts you might like:

1. MUJI Design in Taiwan
2. Apple
3. UNIQLO & 3M in Harajuku

Despite being only a matter of ten minutes apart by MTR train the communities on either side couldn’t be further apart psychologically and it’s not unusual that people on either side of the harbour rarely cross over. I once met an expat who told me the only reason he ever leaves Central is to go to the airport – Hong Kong Island is to Manhattan, as Kowloon is to The Bronx.

While cramped living conditions generally persist on both sides due to the constrained land space, buildings on the Kowloon side often appear to be in a constant state of urban decay with the effects becoming more clearly visible the further north you head.

All the photos here were taken around Sham Shui Po (深水埗) which is in northwest Kowloon. Much of the housing stock here consists of public housing estates built in the 1960′s (after a massive fire in 1953) and a few even older Chinese Tong Lau (唐樓) tenement buildings.

During the 1980′s mainland China’s reform and opening up led to the decline of the textile industry in Hong Kong and the area became notorious for its poor living conditions which included caged bed-spaces and wood-plank divided apartment cubicles. There were also racial tensions between local residents and Vietnamese refugees.

Today Sham Shui Po is best known for its markets and in particular The Golden Shopping Centre where the upper floor, Golden Computer Centre (高登電腦中心), mainly sells games and software, while the lower floor, Golden Computer Arcade (黃金電腦商場) focuses on the sales of computer hardware. Think of it as Hong Kong’s answer to Akihabara in Tokyo.

The are a number of urban renewal projects taking place in the area funded both publicly and privately including The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) which was converted from a former factory building (opened in 2008). It’s situated right next to Shek Kip Mei Estate (石硤尾邨) which was the first of its kind and currently undergoing regeneration also.

In addition to studio space for artists, the centre features a theatre, galleries and communal workshops for resident artists and the community to use. Members of the public are free to wander around inside and it’s a nice space to get away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the nearby markets.

Since moving to Hong Kong I’ve visited Sham Shui Po on numerous occasions, often for great dim sum at the weekends, but have become increasingly fascinated by the sights and sounds of the area which provide a glimpse into another side of the city.

If you’re looking for a break from the uniformity and homogeneity of the many modern shopping malls in Hong Kong then Sham Shui Po is well worth a visit. Even though the area is undergoing renewal you can still find a slice of life here which quietly persists much the same way it has for decades. SSP is easily accessible via the Tsuen Wan Line, just 15 minutes from Central.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. Hong Kong Wetland Park
3. Hong Kong Accelerate

The epitome of this has to be the London Underground or ‘Tube’ map which has evolved over the years from its original incarnation as a geographical representation of the actual line routes to the abstracted schematic diagram version we see today.

1932 Edition (Geographic)

1933 Edition (Henry Beck)

Beck’s map was groundbreaking for its time as it abandoned true geographic layout in favour of a style similar to electrical circuit-digrams. It relied on the notion that the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another.

2011 Edition (Official Current Version)

I’ve written at length previously about how the map has become over-complicated in recent years and whilst Transport for london made some improvements in 2009 it seems they’ve lapsed back into bad habits with the latest edition (above). Given the number of new lines and additional information which is needed to be presented this isn’t perhaps surprising.

2011 Proposal (Mark Noad)

Recently British designer Mark Noad has tried to address some of the problems of the current version with a new beautifully designed map which goes back to a more geographically accurate representation using 30- and 60-degree angles instead of 45 as in Beck’s which “shortens the extremities of the lines to make it more compact”.

At a glance the changes are striking, yet not totally unfamiliar to anyone used to the current incarnation. Despite more than double the number of lines there is a definite similarity to the 1932 edition. Most impressive is the custom-made font – New Underground Condensed – which is based on Edward Johnston’s original.

Some first impressions:

Pros

• Better integration of DLR (turquoise) and overground lines (orange)
• Iconographic representation of interchanges with network rail services
• Sense of distance between stops (not sure how accurate this is)

Cons

• The Circle Line isn’t a complete circle which is accurate but feels wrong
• Zone 1 looks very spaghetti-like (technical term) and hard to follow at busy junctions
• Some places where lines cross over each other feel jarring (e.g. Waterloo & City line)

This is probably the best attempt at overhauling the map which I’ve seen, but to my logical mind moving away from 45° angles makes the whole thing less easy to read at a glance, even if it does provide you with a better comprehension of the geography above ground.

Apparently an iPhone app version of the map is in the works and it’ll be interesting to see if it catches on – I wouldn’t be surprised if TFL will be watching this one closely. Feel free to let me know what you think below.

Related posts you might like:

1. Tube Map Evolution: 2009 Edition
2. London Calling
3. Tube/Subway/Metro

I do however believe in taking note from those who have the integrity of purpose and imaginative vision to try to do things differently; whether it be for the sake of improving something or just pure experimentation. This is why I was intrigued to see that the founders of 37signals (Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson), makers of Basecamp and other excellent web apps, had written a book called REWORK.

All of 37signal’s products are built on the premise of providing the core basics in a well-designed package that allows you get stuff done and nothing more. It’s a philosophy which tends to divide groups into those who love its simplicity and those who get frustrated by their lack of features (often likely due to that fact that they don’t have complexity to hide incompetence behind anymore).

As you  might imagine the book follows the same basic mantra: Keep it simple, stupid, but expands upon this by looking at the way it can be applied within a business environment. In keeping with their philosophy it’s a quick easy read and I jotted down a few notes in an attempt to try to distill the key takeaways:

1. Ignore “real world” constraints – they’re just an excuse for not trying
2. Do things which matter to others by providing value that improves lives
3. There’s always enough time if you spend it right – it all depends how much you want it
4. Always look for stuff to remove, simplify and streamline – curate, stick to the essentials
5. Copycats follow instead of lead since they skip the process of understanding - be influenced, don’t steal
6. Get into the habit of saying no by default to keep your priories straight – keep things simple
7. Don’t  be afraid to show your flaws – nobody is perfect and people can relate to that – be genuine
8. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking – you want people who make things easy to understand
9. Change creates waves – resist the urge to panic or make knee-jerk responses, let things simmer
10. Ideas are immortal, inspiration has an expiry date – don’t wait, do it now while you’re high on inspiration

In terms of applying this to real-world decision-making it’s useful to ask a number of questions each time you’re faced with requests to do something which falls outside your focus:

• Why are you doing this?
• What problems are you solving?
• Is this actually useful?
• Are you adding value?
• Will this change behaviour?
• Is there an easier way?
• What could you be doing instead?
• Is it really worth it?

I’d hesitate to guess that most people could probably cut out about 80% of the things they regularly do currently and end up getting a lot more done. Productivity, however, is only half of the story since no amount of it can make us happy or fulfilled. Doing interesting work and solving challenging problems in creative ways is just, if not more, important. The video below outlines 29 ways to stay creative:

To be honest I’ve written the above mainly as a reminder to myself since I’ve been dealing with an enormous workload of late and sometimes a reality check is in order. If you can spare a couple of hours then REWORK is well worth a read for anyone wanting to simply get stuff done.

Related posts you might like:

1. Five Principles To Live By

On a related note - Project Obangsaek is creating what looks to be an interesting documentary and website that looks at Korean identity though art, history and culture (directed by Benson Lee) with a focus on preserving what is in danger of being lost due to modernisation:

I’m looking forward to heading back to SK for a week or two in early July

Related posts you might like:

1. South Korea
2. South Korea Invaded by Kpop Groups
3. Korea Train eXpress (KTX)

Yowayowa Camera Woman

Natsumi Hayashi lives in Tokyo with two cats and posts daily self-portraits of herself levitating in various places and poses (cats not levitating). The combination of her almost comically natural expressions and well-framed surroundings create such a surreal feeling that brings a smile to my face every day:

Adorable.

World Order

Genki Sudo is a former Japanese mixed martial artist and kickboxer who after retiring became a singer, dancer and actor in Japanese dramas (like you do). His group, WORLD ORDER, has a marvelously choreographed hypnotizing robotic dance style which has to be seen to be believed:

The music is also pretty catchy!

Totally awesome.

The video above was made especially to show world solidarity with the people affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It’s quite a marvel of synchronized precision.

Meywa Denki

Meywa Denji is a Japanese performance group, an art collective, and an educational organization created by Nobumichi Tosa. He makes nonsensical instruments from random electronic parts which he deems ‘products’ that are then used in live ‘product demonstrations’ (or performances to you and me). Check out this BBC report on what they do:

Sadly most of the ‘product prototypes’ are not for sale although you could pick up a Otamatone.

Love Exposure

WARNING: The video below is not for children, Catholics, or the morally sensitive. If in doubt do not watch.

Every now and then the Japanese create a film that is so outrageous that it almost defies belief. Directed by Sion Sono, the premise of Love Exposure (愛のむきだし) is quite simple; a Catholic priest has an affair which causes him to force his son, Yu, (from his previous wife who died) to confess his sins daily. The priest gets mad if Yu doesn’t confess anything so he commits increasingly bad sins to provide him with something to say to his abusive father. To make matters worse the boy falls in love with an equally messed up girl who he mistakes for the Virgin Mary. At four hours long this is just the tip of this crazy iceberg.

Phew. Now for something completely different…

Nyan Cat

While not technically 100% from Japan, Nyan Cat, also known as Pop Tart Cat, is an 8-bit animation depicting a cat with the body of a cherry pop tart flying through outer space in a repeating loop. The animation and music were separately produced by different artists but it wasn’t until they were combined together that it really took off:

Addictive right? The cat reminds me of a certain friend of mine

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short trip from the top to the bottom of Japanese artistic endeavors, hope you’ve not been too badly shocked!

Related posts you might like:

1. The Japanese Tradition
2. Japan – The Strange Country