Meeting the bubble people

[imomus]

Without Tokyo Art Beat, Love is the End of Art, my art show in Chelsea, would never have happened -- or at least, would have been totally different, and sadly Aki-less. It was this TABlog piece, containing a video interview with Aki Sasamoto, that made me aware of Aki, her performances and her interesting ideas.



Last night Ashley Rawlings -- a critic who used to live in Tokyo and write for TAB, but has now been headhunted by Art Asia Pacific and lives in New York -- introduced me to the two editors of Tokyo Art Beat's New York sister site, Kosuke Fujitaka and Aneta Glinkowska. They now live right next door to my favourite Japanese home cooking joint, Hiroko's Place in SoHo -- actually in the same apartment where Andrew Maerkle (who's now in Tokyo writing for the art section of the Japan Times) lived when he wrote for Art Asia Pacific.

Are you following all this? It's complicated, like trying to find an art show in Tokyo. And that's why Tokyo Art Beat -- an excellent art listings website run on a coding system called BeatCMS -- came into existence. Before TAB, there was really no way to find out what was on in Tokyo, and certainly not for non-Japanese speakers. After TAB, you could map the galleries, find out what was on in the vicinity, read staff and user-generated reviews, see the most popular show rankings, and use the site's quirkiest and possibly most exciting feature, the Bubble Machine, a flash media visualisation of art shows accompanied by strange, mottled, stilted guitar music.



Tokyo Art Beat quickly expanded to Kansai and then, rather surprisingly, to New York. I'm delighted to see that my show is currently one of the bubbles bouncing around the New York version of the Bubble Machine. You can actually play the page like a musical instrument, and the results sound uncannily like the record I made with another brilliant female collaborator, Anne Laplantine. Anne and I have talked about making Summerisle 2 this year -- perhaps we can do it with the Bubble Machine!

Comments

[alexthai.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

Sumerisle 2?

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent.

street food

[(Anonymous)]

might interest you for your street food interest
http://backspace.com/notes/2009/05/vendor-power.php

Nice soup we have there...

[(Anonymous)]

I really like pictures of soup-filled plates, and yours is gorgeous. Which kind of soup was it?
I'm gonna make a photo gallery consisting entirely in pictures of soup-filled plates.

e-flux talk is tonight not Wednesday

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, the e-flux talk it tonight, as of NYAB http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2009/3910 and I checked the PR.
Hope you'll get this in time.

aneta
NYAB

Re: Nice soup we have there...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's Japanese curry!

[(Anonymous)]

momus, what's the name/youtube link of the high japanese form of walking you've mentioned before?

[subalpine.livejournal.com]

wow, the Bubble Machine is great, and it is reminiscent of Summerisle. and a continuation of Summerisle, or any further collaboration between you and Anne Laplantine, is something i would love to hear.

oh, and speaking of things sounding like other things, i thought i heard a little bubble of Widow Twanky melody yesterday afternoon in the keyboard part of this Ana D song, Me Quedo Contigo (rtsp://media.elefant.com/elefant/audio/04%20Me%20Quedo%20Contigo.rm) (opening as RealAudio file), starting at 0:21.

glasses of the masses

[(Anonymous)]

thats a nice pic of you and friend with the two editors.suitably contented in the discussions of things that matter.all very nice until you notice the glasses..
why o why have you not turned your acerbic fashion critiquing on those ubiquitous rectangular monstrosities that every "cool" or in deed uncool person must wear.if ever anything will sum up these times in fashion its got to be them.remember the seventies when platforms were the things to wear and how you didnt really notice them at the time but now are lampooned in too oblivion. with every student ironically wearing a pair for the freshers "discotheque".well twenty years down the line those freshers will be wearing rectangular glasses for the naughties dance. make a stand now, break them, steal them just save your friends from future retrospective embarrassment.
to think you dissed the yanks and their vulgar fashion as well tut tut.

Re: glasses of the masses

[(Anonymous)]

very good point about he glasses. i thought of it myself. however in my defense, i'm wearing the monstrosities because they actually are quite cheap, aquired in tokyo ebisu station "zoff" two, three years back. i'm very short sighted and must wear them or else i'll get lost in my own neighborhood. at the end my point is: if momus were to critique anything in our attire, he'd probably first go for the hipster skinny jeans we were all wearing.

aneta

Re: glasses of the masses

[(Anonymous)]

thanks for that aneta.
im responsible for that comment "glasses for the masses".ive been feeling bad about it since i posted it.momus has now screened my comments( i think )so as they dont come up immediately.this incidentally is not groveling im honestly sorry i was personal.its ok to critique en mass i guess.actually you wear those glasses well. i suppose there is some validity to my comments but in context it was really a gentle dig a momus and his opinions on others .as lennon once said "were all entitled to our opinions...harold" so sorry.