future sound + future vision, week 1, day 4

Upon arriving at Launch Pad Gallery in the sweltering heat on Marine Day, I had no preconceived ideas about what I was going to do.  I walked into the space and saw that the works had proliferated even more in the gallery space with all the walls filled with works as well as the floor and objects hanging from the ceiling. 

I went over to my works from the first two days and took in what I had made as I cooled down from the walk from the station.  I ultimately decided to scrap the collage I made with paper remnants and the double sided tape holder.  From there, I grabbed the two bags of materials that I brought and stored at the gallery and my eyes were drawn to the roll of cotton muslin which I had originally bought to try and cover the walls of Sawatari Gallery last year.  I began cutting the muslin into curved forms similar to what I did with the paper on Saturday and started drawing directly onto them with my Daily Drawings vocabulary.  The marker pens were wider and the muslin offered a challenging surface to draw on so the marks were looser and larger.  I then took these muslin forms and started wrapping the large paper form with them.  I tried to respond anew with each form to the last form and the large paper form.  After four or five forms, I ventured into my bag and pulled out the paper samples which I got for the Takeo Paper Show at Spiral Hall earlier this summer.  I had been using these as supplemental materials for my Remnants of Memory collages, but seemed to be at a wit's end with them.  I began cutting the different paper materials and colors into long linear forms which I then wrapped around the large paper form.  In the early going, the color paper wrapped into the form started to look like a bad rendition of the Tokyo subway/train system which I quickly remedied with some colors which are not normally part of my palette.  After a couple hours of working while talking with visitors and other artists, I ended up with this form.

Marcos Fernandes organized a Sound Walk event for Monday at 3 pm, but the sweltering heat and sun led to a delay in the start of the event in hopes of clouds and slightly cooler weather.  With the extra time, I decided to return to the wooden blocks and paper.  I started to pile blocks in various configurations and attaching them together with wood glue.  I then took the forms and attached them to a piece of paper.  At first, it resembled an abstract architectural model which I quickly moved away from by creating a circular form in three-dimensions.  I also added tendrils of wood blocks extending from the circular form before starting to draw on the wood blocks and paper.  I did not get too far along before the start of the workshop.

Marcos gave a wonderful and easy to understand explanation about phonography as well as the various recording devices, microphones, data forms and applications used in phonography.  For me, the binaural and contact microphone quickly went up onto my wishlist.  One of the great things I learned was the ability to use my digital IC recorder to make field recordings AND simultaneously listen to the recording through earphones.

From there we prepared for our sound walk and Marcos gave me a chance to try out the binaural microphone which he attached to a pair of crossed chopsticks and we set off around the neighborhood to see what we could discover.  The ability to listen to the recording simultaneously provided an all together different experience of walking around the streets that I had been traversing this past long weekend.  My ear buds blocked out most of the ambient background noise while the narrow diameter of the binaural microphones allowed me to pick up very specific noises in the environment.  I was particularly intrigued by the ability of the microphone to pick up high pitched sounds of birds or wind chimes in the distance.  I also used the binaural microphone to make field recordings of everyday activities like buying a bottle of water from the vending machine.  I also placed the microphone in the narrow gaps between buildings to use the structures as echo chambers to see if I could pick up unusual sounds.  If I thought I looked conspicuous taking photographs of Interstices, making field recordings was even more conspicuous.  As a group, we elicited various puzzled glances as we searched high and low for nature and man-made sounds.

After returning to the gallery about half an hour later, we learned about some simple ways of manipulating the sound walk files with the Audacity program and listening to portions of each other's sound walk files.  With the start of the work week upon me, I packed up all my materials and headed out in the evening haze back home.  As I tried to stay cool on the train ride home, I thought about all the different ways that participating in this exhibition has created new possibilities.  I am particularly excited about taking this experience forward as I prepare for my field research presentation for the MULPA project with the Chigasaki City Art Museum.

future sound + future vision, week 1, day 2

I woke up on Saturday morning with the intent of trying something different from day one, so the first thing that I did was pack a different set of pens.  I usually use the brush pens, but started to wonder if using them on the balsa wood was taking an unnecessary toll on the brushes.  I also knew that I wanted to work with paper on day two using a stack of paper remnants that I used for the VF16 and VF17 printmaking exhibitions.  Instead of the brush pens, I brought my 48 color set of Faber Castell marker pens with me. 

I arrived at the gallery and saw a proliferation of works on the wall as well as on the floor.  I had spent the entire first day working on the floor and that took a toll on my lower back, so I decided to take up residence on a stool for the second day.  I pulled out paper and began cutting them in to long and curved forms which I then curled, twisted into new forms attaching different portions of the form together with double-sided tape.  Each of the forms was about 6 x 6 x 6 cm and I began creating more and more forms and then attaching the modules to each other to create a larger form.  The final form reached a size of about 40 x 40 x 40 cm which I placed on the floor.  While working on this form, a steady stream of artists came into the space to continue or begin the works while listening to the sound work files that Marcos had put on.

At the suggestion of a couple of artists, I decided to hang the form from the ceiling.  The paper I used was rather thick and the tight curls and rolls that I used added tension to the forms which could not be sustained by the 100 yen shop double stick tape.  Over the course of an hour, the form started to become unglued with modules dropping away from the form onto the floor.  Eventually, I decided that piece was better left on the floor.  I reconfigured the modules and ended up with this form. 

My next sketch was to make another form using different sharp angled edges, almost star-like.  Barely two forms in, I decided that it was not working and started drawing on one of the forms, but in complete dissatisfaction crumpled the two forms up and started over.  By that time, the cardboard holder for the double sided tape had completely fallen apart and the floor around my stool was littered with paper remnants from the cut curved forms.  In the vein of my Remnants of Memory collage project, I used the paper remnants and the cardboard holder for the double-sided tape to create this.

Throughout the afternoon, the space was quite lively with eight artists working at one time for several hours and more artwork filling up the space.  As the afternoon turned to dusk, there were still four or five artists working in the space.

With the live performance of Still-Life coming up at 6 pm, I had little less than an hour left after finishing those two sketches.  I settled down on a stool and started making a pair of drawings using my marker pens while consciously responding to the sound work files through color choice, type of mark-making, and speed of mark-making which resulted in these two drawings.

Still-Life, which consists of a pair of artists,  set up their performance space on the gallery floor and laid out a variety of everyday objects as well as an intriguing wooden box which kind of looked like an accordion (you can see a portion of it in the left hand corner of the image below.

Artists were invited to make work during the course of the performance much like we had been doing with the sound work files.  I grabbed a piece of paper and put my marker pen set next to me.  It was a very meditative and minimal performance using objects as percussion and wood instruments while also running taped sound works or radio frequencies during the course of the performance.  I did my best to respond to the sounds quickly and adapt with changes in sounds and feeling.  I ended up with a rather chaotic drawing that was full of colors and unfinished forms.  For those you interested in seeing the end result of this drawing, you will have to come to Launch Pad Gallery to see it!

After the performance, Still-Life talked a bit more about their project and process and we were also able to ask questions about the objects that they used.  The wooden accordion-like box turns out to be a shruti box with origins from India.  I ended up picking up one of their CD's which I uploaded to my computer and have listened to while doing work, trying to keep one ear focused on the sounds generated from the duo.

By this point in the evening, I knew I was finished for the day.  I put up my drawings and rearranged some of the pieces and headed back home after a very satisfying second day at Future Sound + Future Vision.

future sound + future vision, week 1, day 1

With the start of Future Sound + Future Vision happening last Friday, I spent the latter part of last week gathering materials that I wanted to use for the exhibition.  Over the last six years, I have accumulated a surplus of materials that resulted from my anxiety about running out of necessary materials at the last minute in preparation for an exhibition or project.  There is nothing worse than running out of a specific type of hook at 2 am on Sunday morning when the installation takes place at 9 am.  With almost no storage space left in my studio, I was happy to begin the treasure hunt for materials to bring to Launch Pad Gallery and I was not disappointed!

There are balsa wood blocks from the 2013 Setouchi Triennale, paper, string, and glue from the Tokyo Art Book Fair, and cotton fabric from the Nakanojo Biennale as well as some of my current favourite materials.  

Arriving at Ishikawacho in the sweltering 35˚C summer heat, I headed over to Launch Pad Gallery along the canal with the expressway overhead buzzing with cars and trucks.  I arrived at the gallery to a largely empty space except for one painting leaning against the wall on the ground.  There were stools lined along the walls with a listening station as well as various recording devices on the table.  Two speakers were pointed into the gallery space with sounds being played from a mixing station on a large table at the back of the gallery.  Two visitors/artists were sitting in the middle of the space talking with one of the gallery directors.  

As I cooled off, I sat down on the floor against the wall and on the side of the air conditioner and began to unpack all my materials.  I knew that I wanted to work with the balsa wood blocks as a starting point so I unpacked those first along with my brush pens.  In the background, various sound works were being played through the speakers.  These sound works are field recordings that are either processed or unprocessed and resulting from sound walks in which artists capture sounds from the natural and urban environments in a practice known as phonography.  Marcos Fernandes is well known phonographer and organiser for Future Sound + Future Vision.  During the gallery hours, sound works are being played through the speakers as inspiration, source material, or background sound for the artists to make work in response to.  Sometimes the response is conscious, while at other times the response is unconscious.

As I walked with the visitors, I began to fuss with the wood blocks getting a feel for them again.  I grabbed one of my brush pens and started to draw on cube block to get going.

The contrast between the dark wood flooring and the balsa wood blocks made the floor a natural working surface.  I began to play around with the blocks, piling them on top of each other in a Jenga / house of cards manner.  The lightness of the balsa wood allowed the individual blocks to vibrate due to the air conditioner.  As I built up piles of blocks, they would repeatedly tumble from the cool air blowing from the air conditioner.  

This pile of wood blocks became the starting point of the first "sketch" I made.

Working around this pile, I began laying down various shapes of wood blocks and over the next hour or so, it began to take the shape of one of my Daily Drawings with the result being this.

In the spirit of experimentation, I took some images of the sketch and then sent the pile blocks tumbling and cleared my floor space.  From there, I began to make some more drawings on the wood blocks with my brush pens and noted the difference in the way the ink flowed on different faces of the blocks depending on the cut of the wood grain.  StudioDeanna and another gallery visitor were in the gallery while I was making these drawings and I invited them to draw on a block or two.

Here are the results from my second sketch after drawing on numerous wood blocks and playing Jenga / House of Cards with them.

After sending this tower of blocks tumbling, I noticed the strong late afternoon sunlight pouring in from the windows of the gallery and started arranging the blocks to create a pattern of shadows.

As I worked on the arrangement, I quickly realised that it was a race against time as I could see the shadows disappearing from the left side as the sun lowered in the sky.  A time lapse video would have been an interesting way to document this third sketch.

I decided to attempt one more sketch before taking a break and began building up a structure with the wood blocks including the ones with the drawings.  As I was on the tail end of finishing up this sketch, Kanako Iriguchi came to the gallery.  She is an artist that works with wood, modularity, and geometry.  I had see Iriguchi's work at the Artcomplex Center of Tokyo and then her solo exhibition at Jinen Gallery, but had not yet met her in real life though we are connected through social media.  She introduced herself and we chatted a bit as my hands continued to play with the wood blocks.  Knowing her work, I invited her to play around with the wood blocks and add to my piece or create something separately and happily, she accepted the invitation.  After about half an hour or so, this was the result of this collaboration.

Happy with the results of the afternoon, I took a break and got some food and drink.  Upon returning to the gallery, I took again took down this fourth sketch and began to start a new.  This time, the starting was a bit more difficult since I was quite happy with the results of the collaboration.  

I pressed on by making more drawings and playing Jenga / House of Cards with all the drawn upon wood blocks.

From there I decided to continue trying things that I normally would not try and grabbed the wood glue and string and ended the first day with this sixth and final sketch.

This piece is the only piece that remains from my first day at Future Sound + Future Vision and it sits on the ledge of the gallery window.  I made prints of all the other sketches and have installed them in the gallery space as documentation of the first day.  I left the gallery that evening satisfied with what had transpired and looked forward to day two.

from led's to arduino to artificial intelligence

Thinking all the way back to the fall of 2015, I was thinking about my exhibition for HAGISO in the spring of 2016.  One of the ideas that came to me during that time was the idea of creating sculptures from my receipt in the shape of a hemisphere.  Since my graduate days back at the beginning of the millenium, I have been collecting all my receipts with the idea of using them as source material for future artworks.  Admittedly, they have become more of a project in hoarding rather than anything productive creatively.  However, the receipts seem to be an important touchstone for me in my studio practice.

The initial idea I had for that exhibition was an interplay between my Memory Walks and these receipt forms which would have a one to one correspondence with the Memory Walks Drawings.  In addition to this interplay, I wanted to install LED lights underneath each of the receipt hemispheres and create a coordinated display of flashing and colors which was based in my daily spending.  As discussions developed for the exhibition, we decided that it would be too much information as well as work within the given timeline.

However, the interest in LED's led to a slow cooking interest into Arduino and the Maker movement.  Art Byte Critique organized a two day Arduino workshop at the beginning of 2017 where I got a taste of some of Arduino's possibilities.  Entering an entirely new space of learning and technology, the learning curve was quite steep.  Beyond acquiring endless volumes of texts and manual which sit unread, I have not been able to devote the necessary time and focus to delve deeper into that field.  I also think part of the challenge for me is to develop enough background knowledge in the field to have a stronger sense of what can be done so that it becomes more of a nature part of my toolbox.  Rather than thinking about how I can incorporate the technology into my work, I want to be thinking about how and if this technology can better express the ideas I am thinking about in my studio practice.

By the end of 2017, I found myself with a deep interest in science fiction, particularly dystopic and/or speculative stories.  Podcasts such as Alice Isn't Dead, Tanis, and Rabbits; movies such as The Arrival, Interstellar, Annihilation, and books such as the Three Body Problem Trilogy had me thinking about the future, time, consciousness, reality, and on and on. 

With all of that material, I began to think more about artificial intelligence and realized that my knowledge about the field was scant, if not, non-existent.  Predictive algorithms and Pepper seemed to be the extent of my knowledge.  But as I have been thinking about my Daily Drawings Project and my overall studio practice, I have a tingling intuitive sense that artificial intelligence might have some implications or practicality for me. 

While browsing through the SNS space, I came across a posting for the ALife 2018 Conference on Artificial Intelligence.  I decided rather quickly that this would be an opportunity that I could not miss.  So my summer holiday will consist of spending a week at the Miraikan listening to a wide array of topics about artificial intelligence.  Inspired by my registration, I spent the last month and half reading the book Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom which was a theoretical text about the implication of arriving at human level artificial intelligence and the super intelligence which is theorised to quickly follow the achievement of human level artificial intelligence.   Beyond the implications for technology, the possible implications and various scenarios are discussed.  Once through the book is insufficient, but I think it will give a small base of knowledge heading into the conference which starts on July 23rd.

The program and schedule for the five day conference was recently published and I have been looking through the itinerary and settling on which sessions to attend beyond the keynote speakers which include Rodney Brooks, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Hyejin Youn, and Elena Antonova.

I am most interested in discussions about the impact of artificial intelligence on society and the current state of artificial intelligence and where the researchers, philosophers, and artists see it heading in the future.   Other topics that I am going to check out are hybrid life, neurons, social dynamics, neural controllers, evolution and networks and information theory / information flow.  

I am looking forward to immersing myself in a full week of learning about the current state of artificial intelligence while mulling about how it might or might not play a role in my studio practice.

future sound + future vision at launch pad gallery 7.13 - 7.23.2018

"Future Sound + Future Vision" at Launch Pad Gallery starts in a little less than a week.  The information for the exhibition is now up on the website with introduction, concepts and participating artists.  Just click on the image above.

Additional information about the events and performances should also be up over the next few days and I will add them to this post as they become available.

Here is the information from the Launch Pad Gallery website

“The Tokyo Phonographers Union in conjunction with Launch Pad Gallery present “Future Sound / Future Vision” for World Listening Day 2018. This is a collaborative art exhibition between sound and visual artists. Sound walks, workshops and performances will be included.

More experiment than exhibition this unique collaboration between sound artists and visual artists will be continuously growing and changing with artists working on site at the gallery. Visual artists will create artwork based on inspiration from the sound artists recordings.

We will have special hours from 14:00 - 22:00 each day to accommodate artists and visitors. Guests are free bring beverages (alcohol ok) and food anytime to visit, listen, observe and discuss sound and vision among themselves and/or with the artists.

While most everyone understands what visual art is here are some key points regarding sound art:

* Phonography is the art of field recording or the use of field recordings with the intent of creating a work of art as opposed to the pure documentation of natural sounds. Both processed and unprocessed (straight up) field recordings are used to create phonographic works.

* The Tokyo Phonographers Union is just one of the many phonographers collectives worldwide dedicated to the art of phonography, acoustic ecology and generally concerned with listening or attending to the world around us. 

* World Listening Day is co-organized by the World Listening Project (WLP) and the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE). July 18 was chosen because it is the birthday of Canadian writer, educator, philosopher, visual artist, and composer R. Murray Schafer. His effort leading the World Soundscape Project and his seminal book, ‘The Tuning of the World’, inspired global interest in a new field of research and practice known as Acoustic Ecology.

* A soundwalk is a walk with the intent of listening to the sounds of the environment, discovering and enjoying the natural soundscape of a given area or neighborhood. (landscape : soundscape; landmark : soundmark)

We look forward to your visiting the gallery and participating in the many events we will be posting quite soon.

SOUND ARTISTS:

STILL LIFE (TAKASHI TSUDA/HIROKI SASAJIMA)
MARCOS FERNANDES 
CARL STONE
HIROSHI SHIMUZU
YOSHIKO MITSUI
HARUO OKADA 
YOICHI KAMIMURA 
TADAO KAWAMURA

VISUAL ARTISTS:

SATOSHI SAEGUSA
SHISEI HASHIMURA
MASAAKI IWAMA
YUSAKU SAKAI
KAORI MIURA
AKIRA SHIKIYA
ERIKUSA TEI
TOBBY
ARTHUR HUANG
MUNENORI TAMAGAWA
RISA TSUNEGI
FRED VEE
YOSHIE UEKI”

I have been wandering around my studio gathering possible materials to use for creating works in response to the sound files, sound performances, and sound walks.  There is a surprising amount of materials which I have acquired for previous projects dating back more than five years which I am looking forward to using in this exhibition/event.

Beyond the gathering of materials, I have purposefully not given much thought to what I will create to try and let the work happen spontaneously and intuitively.  What I can say is what it will not be which are Daily Drawings or Memory Walks eggshells.  The only other hints that I can give you are the artists that I have been thinking about leading up to Future Sound + Future Vision.

Julie Mehretu
Sarah Sze
Yuko Mohri
Matthew Ritchie
Marco Maggi

I will be at Launch Pad Gallery and the nearby vicinity for five of the eight days as I listen, make work, participate in lectures and sound walks, possibly collaborate and talk with visitors and other artists.  Here is my schedule for "Future Sound + Future Vision"

Friday July 13th - 2:00 - 8:00 pm
Saturday, July 14th - 2:00 - 8:00 pm
Monday, July 16th - 2:00 - 6:00 pm
Friday, July 20th - 2:00 - 8:00 pm
Sunday, July 22nd - 2:00 - 6:00 pm

It is not a fixed schedule, so I maybe there a little earlier and a little later than those hours depending on the day.  But If you come by Launch Pad during those times, you will have a good chance of seeing me there.  

Finally, here is the access information for those of you making your way to Launch Pad Gallery for the first time.

LAUNCH PAD GALLERY (click to the left for Google Map link)
5-186-8 ISHIKAWACHO NAKA-KU
KANAGAWA-KEN, 231-0868
JAPAN
045-641-0511

VIA JR KEIHIN TOHOKU NEGISHI LINE
Arrive at Ishikawacho Station and head towards South Exit
Use the right side exit opposite the canal
Walk straight for five minutes

VIA YOKOHAMA SUBWAY BLUE LINE
Arrive at Isezaki-Chojamachi Station and head towards Exit 3
Turn left and walk straight for 10 minutes

VIA MINATO MIRAI LINE
Arrive at Motomachi/Chukagai Station and head towards Exit 5
Turn left and walk straight for 20 minutes

where has my mind been, part iii

As the year has progressed, I have received invitations to participate in several group exhibitions.  The first one is currently ongoing through the end of June at the World of Glass in St. Helens, England.  The Size Matters group exhibition consists of works that are 20 cm x 20 cm or smaller.  I had originally planned to submit some Daily Drawings, but they fell just outside the size parameters. Mulling through alternatives, I decided to send three of my Daily Drawings Cells that were exhibited at the 2017 Nakanojo Biennale. 

Photo Credit:  Paul Cousins

Displaying the Daily Drawings Cells on the wall opens up another format in which I can create installations with this work.  In fact, this idea is much closer to the original exhibition plan that I had submitted for the Daily Drawings Network with the Daily Drawings Cells and Memory Walks covering all surfaces of the gallery space (walls, floor, and ceiling). 

From July 13 – 23, 2018, Launch Pad Gallery will be holding the exhibition/event “Future Sound / Future Vision” in conjunction with World Listening Day on July 18th.  This project will consist of sound artists and visual artists where the visual artists will be creating work in response to works created by the sound artists.  With my work with elementary school students and Artfull Actionin Musashikoganei, I have had a revitalized interest in sound and visual arts which originated way back with my love of Wassily Kandinsky’s work.  For this project, I am planning to create work at the gallery over the course of one day.  While I could anchor this work along with the lines of the Daily Drawings Project or the Memory Walks Project, I am going to take an open ended approach to what I will do.  Beyond two-dimensional works, I am considering elements of sculpture, installation, and performance for this project.  This will be a very experimental work that will probably fall more in the place of being a work that opens up other possibilities for my studio practice.  I am grateful to Launch Pad Gallery for the opportunity to play with listening and making.

Last year, I had the opportunity to exhibit my Memory Walks Project with Jill d’Art Gallery at Art Nagoya 2017 which was then followed up with the three person exhibition “New Face” at Jill d’Art Gallery where I exhibited another iteration of my Memory Walks Project and some drawings mounted on panel.  2018 is the 10th anniversary for Jill d’Art Gallery in Nagoya and the gallery is organizing an group exhibition which will include 28 artists whom have exhibited with the gallery over the ten years.  I am excited to be invited to be part of this show.  With so many artists participating, it will be primarily and exhibition of small works.  For this exhibition, I have been thinking about the possibilities for these small works.  I have many stretched paper A5 panels which I have had the intention of working on over the last year, but almost all of them hang blank on my studio wall.  I am hoping to combine elements from my Daily Drawings and Memory Remnants Projects with these new works.  

And finally, it has been more than five years since I last exhibited my work in the Bay Area and I received news earlier this month that a curatorial proposal in which my work was included in was accepted for exhibition in April 2019!  Details are still forthcoming, but I am happy and excited to have the opportunity to share my work in the Bay Area after so many years. 

And with that I can conclude part iii which seems to be a long overdue news and update portion of my posts.  For "parts iv" and beyond, I hope to return to sharing more about what I am seeing and thinking in the studio.  Thank you for reading and stay tuned.

where has my mind been, part ii

At the end of 2017, I headed down south from Tokyo to the Chigasaki Museum of Art to see an exhibition by Michiko Fujita whom I had the pleasure of exhibiting with for the "Endless Dialogue" three-person show at Hasu no Hana.  During my visit, I was introduced to the curator of the Chigasaki Museum of Art who was interested in learning more about my studio practice after hearing about my work from Michiko Fujita.  The Chigasaki Museum of Art is working with other Kanagawa prefecture museums along with the Kanagawa International Foundation for the MULPA project.

From the Kanagawa International Foundation website:

The “MULPA: Museum UnLearning Program for ALL” is a first-of-its-kind program whose aim is to “make museums accessible” to “all members in the community” that was proposed by Kanagawa International Foundation, developed and launched last year by the directors, curators of four public museums and art festival coordinators in Kanagawa Prefecture. The project explores what kinds of educational programs and events of art museums can be put on toward the society to respect each other’s differences. Ahead of 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics, museums participating in MULPA will host a variety of art workshops that are inclusive to all members of society in order to make the museums community hubs in a true sense. The upcoming first MULPA event features a world café-type workshop whose goal is to promote sincere and lively discussion among museum curators as well as museum supporters including volunteers, civil organization members, university students and individuals who have difficulty visiting museums, including those facing physical and language-related barriers, about how museums can be made enjoyable for all.

We made plans to meet in early 2018 to discuss my studio practice and work in more detail to see if I might be a good fit for this project.  After meeting and presenting my work to the core members of the Chigasaki Museum of Art team, I was invited to be part of this project which is tentatively planned for the summer of 2019.  At the time, the shape of this project was still largely undecided and one of the ways to help give the project shape was to conduct a series of field research meetings under the theme of "The Road to the Art Museum".  To date, there have been three field research meetings to date.  The first one was an introduction to the project as well as discussions about accessibility for persons with disabilities.  The second one was a discussion about inclusive design while the third one was about the use of sound as a means of making the museum more accessible.  For each field research meeting, the structure is a brief presentation followed by field research which involves walking around the museum area and Chigasaki vicinity to put the presentations into context.  Due to the logistics of moving around efficiently for the field research, the meetings have been limited to the participating core members and invited presenters.  The Chigasaki Museum of Art has done a wonderful job of documenting each of the field research meetings so I have had a chance to see what each of the meetings has involved.  While in Japanese, you can still get a sense of the shape of the meetings through the images.

My field research meeting is scheduled for the end of July.  Ahead of my meeting, two of the core members, Shozo Kuze and Mariko Sakamoto, who compose the art and design unit, MATHRAX, currently have an exhibition, "Voices of Stones / いしのこえ" at the Chigasaki Museum of Art through July 1st. 

Last Sunday, I went to the museum to hear their artist talk and see their work which won a Haptic Design Award in 2017.  Before the artist talk, I decided to do a little bit of field research on my own to get started on preparations for my field research meeting.  Being my third time to Chigasaki, I have become familiar with the winding route from the station to the museum.  My first time was spent navigating curves and forks in the road eventually finding my way there. 

At the entrance to the park where the museum is located there is a map of the area and it turns out the beach is only 15 minutes from the museum.  I decided to make field recordings of my walk from the museum to the beach and back, taking a different route on the way back.  Along the way, I started to think about where my studio practice and interests might intersect with this project.

The artist talk by MATHRAX was very interesting and informative as they explained their inspiration, concept, and production for the "Voices of Stones" project.  I was so impressed with their work and presentation that I became a bit unsure about my inclusion and potential contribution to the MULPA project.  Seeds of doubt and low level panic began to set in. 

After the artist talk, I wandered around the installation taking in their work and thinking more about my role in this project.  I also had a chance to speak with the artists along with the curator who was reassuring when she mentioned to me to remain open and not have any fixed ideas about my project and the upcoming field research meeting.  I ended up at the museum for several hours speaking with other field research participants, artists and visitors.  As I walked out of the museum to head back home, I came away with a sense of excitement at the possibilities of new ideas and collaboration. 

From now until the end of July, part of my time will be spent thinking about "The Road to the Art Museum" and how it relates to my studio practice, especially to the Memory Walks Project and my work with Artfull Action and elementary students last fall.

As always, my intended two part post has seemingly ballooned to at least four parts.  More to come.

where has my mind been, part i

As I look through my blog posts, I realize that it has been more than three months since my last substantive post that was not a Daily Drawing.  It is not because I do not think almost daily to sit down and write about where I am at in my studio practice, but perhaps it is because of the enormity of trying to put down where my mind is at and has been over the last three months.

There has a been a steady stream of studio administrative tasks which have occupied my time over the last several months.  One of which was to consolidate my website domain www.arthurjhuang.com with my current one www.arthurjhuang.work here on Squarespace.  After months and months of hemming and hawing, I finally transferred the .com domain from Yahoo (after more than 15 years) to Squarespace and it will automatically be re-directed to the current .work website.  The process was made surprisingly manageable by the excellent instructions provided by Squarespace's Help Center.  

With that daunting task out of the way, it is time to tackle other no less daunting administrative tasks.  However, those are more about organization and preparation on my end than some still seeming unknowable black box.

Since the end of last year, I have been making a steady stream of applications for artist in residence.  As with any application process, the first few submissions elicited excitement and hope, but through the first half of 2018 the letters of "not at this time" began to accumulate.  The inevitable soul searching and self doubt began to take place.  This is all part of the process, but somehow prior knowledge of this does not seem to dampen the intensity of the soul searching.  With each "not at this time" letter, another artist in residence deadline pops up on my radar and I pick myself up again and make another application.  At the moment, I have two applications out for consideration - Headlands Center for the Arts in the Bay Area and Sirius Arts Centre in Cork, Ireland.  I am looking at July deadlines for Lightworks and Willapa Bay.  Once those finish, the yearly cycle of artist in residence applications will repeat with Yaddo and Djerassi being on my wish list. 

As I have been revising and reworking my applications, I have noticed how my application package i.e. statement and proposal have become more clear and polished which gives me some hope for future applications. 

Along with artist in residence applications, I have been making applications for a number of exhibition opportunities in Japan and abroad.  These efforts have met with similar results as my artist in residence applications and have perhaps amplified the depths of my soul searching.

The Daily Drawings Project has continued at a steady pace of about one drawing per day.  The actual organization and analysis of the over one thousand drawing has taken a backseat.  I have taken the Daily Drawings Cells from my Daily Drawings Network installation and created small cluster maps of possible origins.  Beyond that, I have been spending most of my time thinking about the growing enormity of the data analysis at hand and plying artist in residence selection committees for a chance to make major headway and discover to this end.

The Memory Remnants Project which can be seen on my Instagram account started in February as an effort to utilize the many blank notebooks that I have accumulated over the years.  For each day, I have been creating collages with paper that would otherwise be directly thrown away such as envelopes, expired exhibition announcements, packaging, to name just a few types.  The project has gathered a life of its own over the last four months and embedded itself into my daily studio practice along with the Daily Drawings Project. 

The Memory Walks Project has been on a sort of hiatus since last summer, but the data compilation continues with daily lists of my departure points which will be used for future projects that are taking shape.

Outside of these studio practice activities, I have spent the better part of my time reading and listening to a wide range of texts.  Speculative fiction has been a big part of my reading list while texts about archives, forgetting, consciousness, the human species, and artificial intelligence are amongst some of the other topics of interest.

While this void is uncomfortable and uncertain, I have been able to give myself a bit more license to let my mind wander as it likes through these topics as the months have gone along.

Experience has always shown that these voids inevitably come to an end and true to form, the latter half of 2018 and start of 2019 is starting to take shape.

Small clusters of information seem to be best, so I end this post and will share what the next 12 months or so looks like in a separate post.

what the last month has brought to the table (part two)

All right, I am back and realise that this could be an epic serialisation, but let's get back to the recap and reflection.

There were a pair of exhibitions that I wanted to see, but they were closing and I did not have time over the weekends to see the exhibitions.  So I made a point of hustling over to Ueno to see an exhibition by Kumiko Ogi at Storefront after work.  Her work utilises newspaper and unused foreign currency that we all have left from our overseas vacation.

From there, I crossed through Ueno Park onto the other side of Ueno Station and through some small alleyways as the sunset to see Mayumi Okabayashi's exhibition at Minna no Gallery.  She is based in Germany but occasionally exhibits her work in Japan and I had happen to come across her exhibition postcard which piqued my interest and this show also did not disappoint.

You can see more of both their works by clicking on their names which are linked to their websites.

Due to the snowstorm back in January, the Canvas Artist Talks Volume 3 only had half the presenters, including myself, and some very dedicated friends and art lovers.  As a result, we all decided to give it another shot in February and there were four speakers and a very enthusiastic crowd for the Canvas Artist Talk Winter Session.  In addition to myself, Karin Pisarikova and two artists in residents at 3331, Lan Chunghsuan and Jenny Forster made presentations about our work.  It was a great opportunity to learn about what the AIR 3331 artists were up to and other AIR 3331 artists also came to hear the presentations.  

Having reworked my talk to address some of the questions that were raised in January, I was asked some more "hard" questions about my work which again have provided food for thought about my practice.  One of the things that I remember was being asked about how this process of discovery would affect my "unconscious" drawing practice down the line.  This question about how not to influence my process based on the knowledge that I acquire through scientific methodology has followed me since graduate school.  There is really no way to maintain unknowing when you make discoveries.  I think those discoveries can drive the direction of the work into new places, but those new places offer new opportunities for discovery.  In some ways it does mimic scientific discovery since science is based on proving a hypothesis which then serves as the basis for future research.  However, new hypotheses based on previous findings may actually overturn previous work based on new data and especially new technologies and ideas.  I am not actually discovering anything definite and fixed about myself in the process, but rather trying to figure out where I am at a particular moment.  The other thing that came up after my presentation was my complex about control - needing it and trying to let go of it.  This push and pull certainly permeates my studio practice and my personal life.

Later in February, I headed over to Bakurocho to see an exhibition by Miho Tanaka at Jinen Gallery.  I had picked up the exhibition postcard during my last visit to Jinen Gallery and was intrigued by the image on the postcard.  

I asked about the kind of work and it turned out to be drawing when I thought it might be installation.  I walked into the gallery to discover these amazing drawings of ropes, strings, and plants made on wash.  I immediately fell in love with her drawings and proceed to spend a good amount of time leisurely poring over each of the drawings.  The detail and quality of her lines was just so sumptuous.  I ended up walking back and forth between two pieces and in the end, I bought one of her drawings.  The tangle of ropes and strings was a motif that I am particularly drawn to.  I think that also speaks a bit to my love for Chiharu Shiota's work.  There is a feeling of anxiety and claustrophobia that comes with imagining oneself in the midst of all the tangles.  Her drawings also inspire me to push the quality of my own drawings.  You can find some images of her work at her Instagram account here.

From there I headed to Yamaguchi for a long weekend to visit Akiyoshidai International Artist Village to attend the opening for their 2017 - 2018 trans-artists AIR program.  I have made this trip to Yamaguchi at the February whenever my schedule allows.  I always enjoy meeting the artists in resident and seeing how they process their experience of being at AIAV and the surrounding areas in relationship to my own experiences there.  

Upon arriving at Yamaguchi Ube airport, I ended up doing some gallery and museum hopping with an AIAV and Nakanojo Biennale alumni staff member.  We headed to the Nakahara Chuya Memorial Museum in central Yamaguchi to see the group exhibition Yamaguchi Valley Section - Reflections 2018 exhibition.  Here is the flyer of the participating artists.

Yoshiyuki Shirakawa's kinetic installation on the grounds of the museum which was triggered by ambient sounds surrounding the museum was one of my favourites.  Other favourites include Kyoto Sawanobori's Poems of Days Past which was a small installation of lights and text tucked in a corner of the museum.  Keijiro Suzuki's Ah, what have you been...which was a series of photo books that were tucked among books in the museum's bookshelves was a hard to find but rewarding discovery because the photo book contained images of of his (?) feet from various locations while in Europe.  Fan Shuru's Line, Record: Ink Landscape Diary was interesting because of the time based process which I also practice.  Shuru's practice feels more meditative than my practice, but I also do find myself occasionally in the meditative state with my Daily Drawings.  Hideo Shimada's layered glass abstract works were a visual treat that made me think back to my work with my Memory Walks Drawing Cells and the possibilities available with that project.

You can see the actual works from this exhibition at the Yamaguchi Valley Section Facebook Page here.

Well this could be a ten part serialisation.  Time for bed.  More tomorrow, I hope.  Still hoping to write more about curation and rejection as I make my way through exhibitions which have inspired me.

what the last month has brought to the table (part one)

Ever since returning from Yamaguchi at the end of February, I have set my sights on gathering my thoughts about what I have seen and what has inspired me to dive deeper.  Unfortunately, time does not slow down and here we are about to hit the middle of March.  Between the last time that I wrote anything substantial, which was February 10th, and now, there are been countless things that I have seen and surprisingly a significant number of things that continue to stick with me over the last month or so.  

There is no way this is all going to get finished in one sitting as I see the clock about to strike midnight.  So rather than go for a clean, complete writing for each entry, I am just going to see where each post goes before my eyelids droop over my eyeballs send me into dream land.  I will pick up where I left off on the next post and I really hope I can get caught up by the end of this week.

Way back in February after my visits to Roppongi and Ebisu, I ended up making one more gallery visit that weekend.  On the recommendation of an artist I met in Nakanojo, I went over to Gallery Holster to see an exhibition of drawings by Irie Nanako.  Unbeknownst to me, I ended up at the gallery just after an artist talk which I found out afterwards.  This explained the crowd of people in the space at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon.  As I wandered around the gallery space, I understood why I was told about her exhibition.  You can see in some of the photos below.  

I ended up spending a fair bit of time looking at the drawings and thinking about how these were made.  I managed to snag a minute of her time and asked her about her process and she said that each of these drawings are made with a story, thought, or feeling in mind.  We have talked about sitting down some point this spring to talk about our works in more detail.  I can see an interesting contrast in terms of how the two of us approach drawing.  You can see more of her work by clicking here.

On the next day, I headed over to Shiinamachi nearby check out the opening for "After 10 Years" at Erina Matsui's new Atelier.  The exhibition consist five artists whom all graduated around the same time and maintained ties.  Matsui gathered the five artists together to hold an exhibition of the four artists as well as an open studio for her atelier.  Here is an image of her open studio.

One of the artists in the exhibition was Haruna Sato whom also exhibited at the 2017 Nakanojo Biennale.  I have followed her work for many years now.  I remember having moved to Tokyo for a just a couple years and then seeing her gorgeous paintings of babies, especially their skin and have followed her work since then.  She has also been exploring landscape motifs with her paintings which were at the atelier along with one of her skin paintings.

I also liked the paintings of stones and gems by Yuki Nakamura that were also in the exhibition.

Okay, that is it for part one.  I am off to bed.  Back tomorrow!

Before I forget, I do want to cover thoughts about curating and studio space, both of which have been on my mind the last month or so.  So if I forget to do so in part two, remind me!