Soft Focus Fisheye Image

My quest to the soft image, I tried a kind of soft  filter  onto my fish-eye lens.

= In fact, it was like a Vaseline on the lens and it was aimed to take photo of Cherry Blossom,

which you will see in the next post.

I think it wasn’t too bad.  I like double-density pinhole more though, pinhole on DSLR

wouldn’t give us wide angle image, so, this make-shift filter is a temporally alternative.

[]

Boob Job = It works for Bottom as well !

This wire-mesh sculpture is called Nike after the Nike of Samothraki  hence she got no

head, and the wings which are going to be mounted on its vertical shafts (and flaps !),

haven’t been finished yet.    As this figure has been hanged from the ceiling nearly

10 years,  visitors include the builders who came to fit the windows, wondered how

I made this. —– I always made a joke it was done by Shiatsu = just push by fingers = the

more I push, her boob grow larger and larger.   😀

Wire mesh is not a soft iron.   Rather hard to shape by the finger alone though,  as this flat

is just for ordinary residents,  I can’t make a noise by hammering. 

So that, what I invented was [Boob Enhancer] = place a wire-mesh between the caps or

small bowl and give a strong pressure to form a cup.   It worked amazingly  well.   😀

For this purpose,  I bought many different size of cups — large one can be used to shape

the bottoms as well. (I haven’t figured out which one is human equivalent of  D-cup yet.  :-))

Original tool was a kind of DIY cramp,  but it was used reverse direction = instead to push, 

the bar is pulling,  hence pulling the wire-mesh inward or to see from out-side,  a boob was

pulled out from the flat chest. = Therefore it is literally Boob Enhancer.   😀 

[]

As I wrote in the post  Supponpon (Aluminum panel sculpture), to design and to have

appropriate tool is essential,  especially if it was for a totally new kind of technique.  

And to conceive the idea to design,  open-eyed free thinking is the must.

Cramp was already there and most of the work has been done by the manufacturer,  hence

a small modification was what all I needed. 

—– without this tool, my wire-mesh sculpture couldn’t be the same.

[]

Is Science, Belief System ? / Is Zen, Belief System ?

Lord Buddha ordered his disciples, [Don’t believe, think Yourself].

It’s mean if anyone thinks, the answer will be found by themselves.

And it’s mean, it doesn’t need to be any special person or special brain = Answer is within

a reach of anyone’s common-sense and comprehension.

[]

There is no fancy mambo-jumbo in the

Lord Buddha’s teachings.  Everything is obvious fact.  Like The Four Noble Truth, who

can deny it is not true.   Life’s sufferings, illness, get old and die, are the hard facts.

And his observation, there are cause of those troubles, is nothing strange view at all.

If anything happened there must be a cause.    Then, there is the way to overcome those

sufferings —– could be true, because that is exactly what

Lord Buddha found and taught which is applicable and effective to to anyone.

The most crucial matter is, that the way to overcome sufferings is not by a

fancy belief and its placebo effect, but an actual change of the mind-set

through practice, which is not a trick but an extension of existing mechanism

of the brain activity, such as to extend our unconscious action of the body.

[]

Like a physical phenomenon, such as Gravity, whether you know the theory, or understand

its mechanism or not, at least you know the effect which you can easily observe.

Whether you imagining (and believe) small green man pulling invisible string, or resorting

with hypothetical particle Graviton causing Gravity, the phenomenon itself exists as a fact,

hence, the science has been accepted as the truth and it is not in a belief system.

[]

In the same context, Zen is a system to utilize a mechanism of the brain

carrying out the action without having a thinking process, and such action

is ubiquitous observable fact.   (Zen calls this [Mushin] )

Whether you are aware or not, we are walking without noticing which muscle is contracting,

or reading this blog without aware of your eyes are capturing the pattern of the letters,

even without having a conscious of that you are reading this = Until you start to think and

become conscious, consciousness of the self is not exists. = (Self is our invention by thinking)

Those function of neurological mechanism is the fact and far beyond the belief system.

And a mechanism of our brain, which tend to ignore the repeating signal,

hence we can be apathetic to the signal, is an existing phenomenon,

therefore it is not in our imagination.  Fact exists long before the belief.

And the practice which enhancing those mechanism to deal with a cause of

the problem was what uniquely proposed and taught by

Lord Buddha.

[]

Lord Buddha’s view that we could live on those unconscious mechanism

in the brain, and as those unconsciousness has no self-conscious, we could

live selflessly, was his theory.

As the water is running down because of the Gravity is an observed fact. Hence, this

running water can be used as a power source is a theory. As everybody knows, this theory

has been successfully implemented in a water mill or electric power generator. Likewise,

Lord Buddha’s theory has been implemented as the Buddhist’s practice and

actually it works. This practice and its effect is not relying on the placebo effects or belief.

It actually trains and changes the way of the person processing the signal,

hence changes the perception towards such as a cause of fear, even a death.

[]

Therefore, the effect of Zen practice is a real fact.

Not in a belief or in an imagination.

This is the reason how Zen practice has been used even in the sports training.

Zen is not imaginary fancy story but a practice which brings a tangible effects.

Key is Just try, Just DO, and see What happens in your Mind and on your Life.

___/\___

[]

Martina’s Costume Design

Yesterday evening there was a small party to launch a costume design 

of my friend Martina Trottmann in Soho, London.

Martina studied costume design at St. Martins and working for stage,

art event etc. hence, time to time I’ve been bumping her in many occasions.

And this time she is displaying her design on the Biddle Sawyer’s 

Silk Shop’s front window and this one is also a kinetic sculpture.

= She is breading !

But don’t expect her boobs up and down —– not such obvious move.

Pretty subtle. 😀

—– (Though, to create this effect, somebody said to have devised an air-pump

for 20 second on-off cycle using a computer — what ?   only to activate a pump on-off

in 20 second cycle, needed to use a computer ? —– It could be done with a 

30 pence 555 chip and few more components, all together about £1 :-D) = 

does the person knows electronics ??? )

These days, performance, stage play has been pushing its frontier 

to the limit, or becoming limitless, accordingly, the design of 

costume becoming pretty extravagant or rather bizarre.   

Typically like Ninagawa, regardless whether it is ancient Greek Tragedy or

Victorian play, actor, actress could appear in shiny Futuristic Si-fi gear.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Queen of Siva appeared on the stage 

wearing this Martina’s costume. 😀 

(So, I didn’t ask any question to her = Answer would be Why not  🙂 ).

It is a funny phenomena, supposed to be the most specific, definitive signal = 

visual signal can be freely improvised though the verbal signal = language has

to stay within a comprehensible context.

Costume could be any style, any design as long as it stays on a body, 

it works as a costume. Though, if it was a Victorian story, it got to be

in Victorian time and has to stay likewise a Victorian story.

—– yet still, Oliver Twist who is wearing kinky string costume could

appear with his Gandam look-a-like master. 😀

(Of cause, it’s depend on the director’s taste.  🙂 )

[]

Wayne’s world in [Misuse Exhibition]

 

After year of absence, I went to see my friend artist Wayne Chisnall on the opening

of an exhibition titled [Misuse : Creating Alternatives] at the Cass Bank Gallery

in Whitechapel. London.

In fact Wayne has been very busy exhibiting his work all over the country and I’ve been

receiving his invitation quite often though, he gave me the notice month ahead —– after

a while, I forgot. —– But this time, he gave me a reminder on the day.

“Oh, yah yah, it’s today in deed” = So, I went.

—– May be I’m getting lazier or may be busy with burning issue of “somebody else’s

burning bottom” = It’s a bad tendency of “If I were asked, just help it” Zennist’s policy.

[]

What so ever the excuse, to see the old friend and catch-up with what we been

doing, or get the news of other friends, is a pleasure.   So, we can find the

consistent core of the person, even under the changing situation of the life.

——– (Incidentally,  Right photo left is Dan, who created a coincidence of  me to start this Blog ! )

The exhibition was loosely themed in a context of how the artists interpret the existing object.

= some were converted the object to other use or made a thing with different material.

—– So, if I may bluntly say, many of them were a kind of boring second-class work.

= On a process of creation or design something new, the approach of [If Not] is

the easiest way, which in most of the case end up “Just a reverse of the same thing”

(others are well made — “So, I messed it up = this is my art”  kind of rubbish)

—– one of exhibit, a common concrete-mixer was churning sun cream. = Yah, obviously it is

doing something different from it was intended = So what ?   It’s a sign of a poor brain, not

mention rack of artistic inspiration. (Creativity tests, how freely, how far you can go 🙂 )

Or, [boring] was an ironical message to the people expecting to see good art ?  😀

If it was not sun cream but, say something a lots of empty bottles of cosmetic, manicure bottles

etc. the artist could made-up a brah, brah “Signify the waste and vanity of the consumerism etc”

—– (Though, could it mean sexism ? —– but now, even a man using cosmetics. 😀 )

Other work showing some fancy modification of alarm-clock, such as the one got many

additional hands, or heavily dented and broken. —– ? ? ? — where is a creativity ?

Unlike those, Wayne’s work consistently intrigued me as his imagination

always gone such far and his process of creation stays completely in enigma.

Utterly out of context, or I wonder, is there so-called context ever in his mind ?

Such as his old piece, [Nails ball] = Yes I can see they are old nails and they were hit and

nailed in.     Though, the story ends here = our rational brain can see nothing other than

bunch of nails, but the piece appealing direct to our emotion (or hit straight to our fear ? )

I have no idea how this artist reached to here —– was that obsessive endless action, more

akin to a kind of neurological symptom ? —– as a mater of fact, most of the real artist is this

kind of maniac. = even without conscious and often without control, just keep doing it.

May be his love toward old nails started like a small child collecting the objects while believing

a kind of magic spell. 🙂 —– From there to create nail ball, is utterly out of normal

imagination, out of normal function or usage, still as it was driven by dark deep

urge, it started to show its own micro-cosmos, which strikes our emotion and

boggles our mind. —– Hence, it made a piece as an Art.

Above all, the end product is a piece worth keeping, and looks beautiful enough.

Wayne’s other and new work is on the same trail hence there are no explanation why it got such

shape or structure.  Surely it was made out of small wooden boxes etc. which showed his skill to

be an accomplished craftsman. —– yet again almost obsessive endless work with

perfect accuracy, has created totally new micro-cosmos, it’s quite a demonic.

—– In the small cavities or windows, a kind of object of magic spell   🙂

I wonder, whether the magic spell is in the objects or in his mind —– or in my mind ?

[]

—– Incidentally, after knowing him over ten years, I found from his lines on the palm, how

he is an emotional man, which he admitted it. = Despite his soft, smiley face, this artist

completely hiding his heavily emotional up and down of which most of his friends even noticed

(of cause, I haven’t interrogated his girl friend yet 🙂 )  still, able to keep himself away from

such as alcoholism or drug addiction is remarkable. (It’s an indication of good discipline in his

youth = good family back ground) 

Like the emotion in his dark chasm, his creativity and its source of inspiration

came from deep bottom of his subconscious though, something peculiar was

that he is letting the material to express its own soul or spell, not his emotion.

This is the Zen situation, the maker Wayne created the Piece, but in his selfless

state. —– Selfless ?  If so, who created this = The resonance of the universe did.

So, that is why, it was a micro-cosmos.  You need to hear this very Resonance.

He is a man born to be an artist, and he is communicating it in subconscious

channel, direct to your subconscious, not to your rational thinking brain.

(Your brain would only say “What a hell of this. I can’t make sens at all”—– Your brain is

too noisy to hear this almost inaudible resonance.

= Hence, you need to hear it, in your heart or in your subconsciousness.)

[]

—- As the exhibition goes on till 22^nd March, I recommend you to pay a visit to

the gallery and see and feel Resonance or the Spell of Wayne’s work by yourself.

The Gallery information = www.thecass.com 

The details of  Wayne Chisnall’s work.

[]

PS :

While talking with him, I just asked “When you conceived the Idea on the very

beginning, was that an image or a text ?” —– He explained me that it was

always a vague image and not necessary a final image.

– ( This is the sketch / Doodl of Wayne’s Orifice piece when he got the idea in very first instance

– —– it’s shows the stage of development and on the end, it came to the stage, rationally

– figure-out and listing up the material etc. = just an image alone couldn’t be built —– technical

– skill and good management of project is essential)

There are two kind of brain and the personalities.

The one, handling the information in the brain in Graphical way, the other

handle them in written notion or say, in text.

The former is good in remembering the face but not the name. The later can remember the

name well, but not the face.    (You know this very well   😀 )

My eldest brother was extremely good to remember the names, the words, its meanings etc.

anything written, though, utterly useless for the face. (So, he became a professor of linguistics,

teaching German, French and English)    I was born opposite.  Name will gone in two minuets

and spelling is hopeless, still even a face I had one glance, may stay after 30, 40 years  (able to

guess its ageing !)  and I still remember a scene of me looking up the temple

when I was 2 years old, like a photograph !

[]

I met many art students some of whom I gave photographic training.

Then, I noticed that a person who is good in drawing and has good graphical memory was

having trouble to compile their project-report explaining how it was conceived and developed.

But, the other who can explain well, how original idea came and then developed with other

reference etc. was very bad to draw sketch. (obviously no talent for art)

And, I realized that, this is the case again, it was a matter of the brain type.

A person who got artistic talent is not necessary good to explain it in text.

The other, who try to approach art from textual understanding has no skill

for graphical expression = Hence, become a so-called conceptual artists.

—– or may be Conceptual art was created for those people, in order to save a skin of

Art school. (at least they can grant a degree and justify hugely expensive tuition fee. 😀 )

Very interesting and very very funny.

[]

Plum (?) Flower

Well,  whether this one is Plum or Apricot is a difficult question.   Never the less, to my eyes,

this flower is the closest to the Japanese Ume 梅.    Cherry,  Plum,  Apricot,  Peach are all in the

same  Rosaseae family.  And as  Plum, Apricot, Peach belong to the same genus  Prunus, so they

are very close and easy to cross between.  Adding to this,  many more garden varieties exists.

So, here, I just call this flower as plum.  (Ume 梅 said to be called  Japanese Apricot  though  🙂 )

What makes this flower distinctive  (against  Cherry or Peach) is,  not only it blooms earliest

(in February) among the Prunus,  when flower opens,  the leaves starts to shoots as well. 

And something notable about  Ume is,  despite Cherry is the National flower,  when Japanese

select  Tree of Distinction,  they are 松,竹,梅 = Pine, Bamboo and Ume, Ume was regarded above  

Cherry. (I haven’t found the reason why)  In comparison to the Cherry,  Ume is giving rather

sombre impression,  so, if we say the Cherry is Yang,  Ume is Yin and influences where to plant.

Like Sakura (Cherry) spot,  there are many places to see Ume = Kitano Tenman-gu in Kyoto is

the most famous place to visit.  (In there,  Pink  variety as well, which called Kou-bai / 紅梅)

— (This close-up was taken by Canon Fish-eye Lens, while lens was held away from the mount)

Japanese makes Ume fruits to a notorious pickles = Ume-boshi (梅干し) which is only edible to

the Japanese because of its almost poisonously sour and salty taste．（I don’t miss it at all  😀 )

So that, if you put it in Onigiri (おにぎり = Sea-weed wrapped rice ball) it wouldn’t go bad for days. 

(I’m sure,  no germ could survive in such environment  😀 ) 

What I’m wondering more is,  why no genuine Ume was imported and planted in this country ?    

In comparison to have many types of Cherry here,  Ume-like tree is only this type. 

I don’t know why. —– So,  if  anybody knowledgeable there,  please let me know.

[]

ZEN Practice ?

Following the discovery of my old climbing boots, I found something amazing (to you)

out of packed up boxes I’ve stashed, may be 25 years ago.  🙂

Some of  readers, even a keen Zen practitioner may be horrified to see this 😀

Then, some might ask, What this to do with Zen.   Or, to be a Zennist, does it necessary to do it

in this extent ? —– There is no rules or requirement.   All up to the person. —– Some might

be taking easy to sitting or could be walking, even cutting a lemon.   Why not stitching.  🙂

But, I didn’t do this thinking of Zen.  (It was long before I even become aware of

the meaning and the effects of repeating practice in the Buddhism) = I just did it

as I got too much time in a winter mountain shelter or in a tent while imprisoned by the snow

blizzard.   What else to do then ?   (Other than this, I curved fire log into such as a spoon.)  

Still, it was only me doing like this and I never seen anybody else

did the same, then and ever since.

(And many years later, I realized that it WAS effectively a Zen practice.)

[] []

Mountain woolly socks couldn’t last for ever, of cause.   Soon or later, thread would be getting

thinner and break.  But if we threading it with another woolen thread to reinforce

the part, it extend the life = pretty obvious = So, I did. 😀

(The socks photographed here had been worn, I think more than 8 years or more while using

it about 100 days a year.   The heel part seemed to have ^3rd ~ 4^th generation of the

thread, and 40 years later, it is still usable !)

—– If you don’t know how to do the same, just look at how knitted thread runs.

Then just follow the existing thread, go through the loop alongside.  And keep doing it to cover

all the part necessary to reinforce.  (Use the thread partly doubled to make it even stronger.)

(My mother was very good making Kimono (of cause by hand stitching) hence by watching

her to do the work, I learned some sewing technique though, when my mother and sister saw

my re-threaded socks,  it frightened them = so, it was not a common practice, and out of

imagination even to the Zen monk’s family.  🙂 )

[]

If this is a practice for Zen, provably this is the most humble yet easy to do

practice you ever heard of,  still not such a labour than to sweep the street.

And on top of it,  it would save some expense on your pocket too.

= You must be very grateful.  So, have a try, when you are not too busy. 😀

[]

The kernel of the Buddhism is to do and to live unconditionally.

(So, if there is a thinning hole appeared on a heel of socks,  just mend it.

= simple and straight.  No need to think at all.  🙂 )

Therefore, Buddhism is not to search or ask something but just live.

Anyway there isn’t any answer. —– Hence,

Lord Buddha ignored the question, on this reason.

Since living and doing unconditionally in the first place, there couldn’t be

any hindrance or doubt.  (Doubt was CREATED in the mind)

Hence, even going through the sufferings, it will be passing away without

causing any mind to buckle, even without taking notice.  Therefore, even

when the death is arriving, there couldn’t be any stir in the mind. 

This is the Nirvana.  And this is what

Lord Buddha has taught.

___/\___

[]

Funny Invention — Creativity or Tradition ?

A toy and the Computer-game manufacturer Bandai

announced a new product called [Smart Pants] a day

or two ago in Japan. It is a cover to protect

the Home-key on iPhone.

As the photo shows, they are the small pants to put on

an iPhone —– I don’t know if Apple says it is an insult.

Ha ha ha. 😀

It is a simple item, you don’t need to use any of your

brain to figure out what it is.

[]

A sort of stereotype, you might think Japanese is a serious decent people though,

don’t forget they are the creator of many notorious Anime Characters or gaming

figure such as Pokemon too !

So that a kind of people who interested in such as Zen culture, and the fan of Japanese Comics /

Manga has been having completely different perception toward them.

—– And then, when those people visited there, they utterly amazed by the mixture of their

real face. —– So, in certain extent, even a monk in a temple speaks like a character

in a comics or to say they resort to the colloquial expression what the people speak.

—– in fact even a son of priest grown up with those comics and the games when

he was a child. 😀

[]

So, if you are knowledgeable to The Zen culture or Japanese tradition, you are rightly to say,

what on earth, how the same Japanese able to conceive and created such outrageous characters.

= it is because your study has been one-sided, ignoring such as the popular culture

among the population, even in the Shogun era = Edo period.

(You might have seen hugely exaggerated Pornographic Utamaro printing, which has been mass

produced and widely circulated right under the nose of Samurai Authority  🙂 )

Heavily Buddhist’s Feudal Society didn’t exclude or suppressed the creativity of the people.

In fact, the ruling class, even some of the local Lords were showing off and enjoying their

extravagance, such as Lord Date was famous of his extremely flashy colourful Kimono and

organizing extravagant parties even attended by the Shogun.

= hence the word Date was established to describe Flashy fashion and such a person.

[]

Well known Kabuki Theatre, the word Kabuki originated from a word Kabuku

= incline (or even twisted) —– extreme costume, the exaggerated make-up

and the special way of voicing created a kind of caricature on the stage.

= utterly unrealistic still realistic in symbolic way.

This kind of double meaning and the double context is always in the Japanese culture such as

in the Poetry and in Haiku.

The more talking about the full blossom of Cherry, it is in fact emphasizing

the fragility of human existences.

So, while producing something serious, in the same time giving a hint of mocking

was seen as a wit or humour and often it was used as satire against the authority.

[]

In this long tradition,  Japanese are pretty good to conceive utterly outrageous fun.

The design of Humanoid Robot was started in this context. And the pretty outrageous but

utterly useless Chin-Hatsumei / 珍発明 (Funny invention) is to name but few of

those example. 😀

So, when Bandai got a project to design a protective cover for iPhone, to conceive a pants

wasn’t a big leap for them. (I know, they are pants  :-D)

You might say, it is not in a good taste or very decent etc etc —– but, otherwise it didn’t

create a stir nor took your attention. = (Otherwise you didn’t even notice it !)

Whether I would buy or not (before considering it, I have to see, I don’t have iPhone 😀 )

still, it seems a fun.    Why not.    (They are sold about £2 each, but may be only in Japan)

—– strangely you may noticed, a joke or metaphor of Zen Master is often very

direct and bad taste too. 😀    (He might say, such consideration came from

timid small fear)     Why do we need to afraid of PANTS.

I like it. (but except your pants)

___/\___

[]

Orchids Photos of Sing Lee

I received beautiful photos of Orchids from my friend,  Sing Lee of China.

Sing Lee  used to be a quite unique Chinese Blogger who showed impressive photos of

their Shang-tang mountain and many beautiful flowers there until his blog/ WordPress

altogether were blocked by their authority.

So, on behalf of him,  I put his photos here,  for the people of the world to see.

As he wrote before, those Orchids were found deep in the Shang-tang mountain,  and

brought to the city,  they could be very rare  new variety or even new species though, 

I don’t have the eyes to tell its name.  —– So,  just enjoy its beauty ! 

And I hope his well-being away from the suffocating air pollution. 

[]

Perpetual Cherry Flowers / Ultra Close-up by Fisheye Lens

—————- (In fact,  this photo is the same one = last in this post,  only cropped a bit. 

—————- And in here, the flower petals were actuary touching the lens surface.

—————  Fish-eye Lens isn’t too bad for Close-up.  We only need to extend the Lens for

—————  2~3 mm though, there is no way to do it but to loose it from the mount  🙂 )

If you’ve been reading this blog, you may rightly say  “Oh no, yet again Cherry flower ?”

I know, in fact I was rather bemused.  This Cherry tree is the same tree appeared here before,

and again in a post in the last Autumn as it showed the flower utterly out of season.

Since when I’ve put a post last November when the tree had orange colored Autumn leaves,

I’ve been visiting her time to time as she always having flowers.   = Hence, I came to a

conclusion that it was not caused by a confusing weather pattern but this tree is a new

variety who has the character, flowering all year round (well, half-year round at least  🙂 )

—  (Photo by Canon 5D MkIII / Zoom Fish-eye 8~15mm   at 15mm / Lens held off the Mount)

Without having macro lens with me, to take

close-up pictures,  I resorted to use my Fish-eye

Lens lifted up from the body (not fully mounted

= Lens was held not fully inserted to the body

leaving about 2mm gap !  😀 ) —– As the lens has

no connection to the camera’s electronics,

aperture is fully open and no focus indicator —–  seeing the focus and using

the same shutter speed (only + 1/3) still, picture can be taken.  (as you can see the result  😀 )

But, when the eye was concentrating the focus, the finger holding the lens couldn’t keep

the lens exactly in the center, the edge of  the image-circle got into the picture =

I needed to click few times  😀

[]

Photography is a very critical operation though, in the same time, it is a very loose

flexible funny art,  such as even pinhole photos are also the photos.  

When I was young,  before I got Macro-lens ,  lifting the lens,  even the lens was held

in an angle (hence giving pan-focus effect) or held reversed,  such technique was my

favorite improvisation.  (No close-up lens or extension ring = hence, cost nothing, 

still able to create more or less the same,  or even better results.  😀  )

The matter is not the equipment but the Mind = Just try,  just DO it. 

It could be successful —— if not = keep mouth shut  😀 )

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