Costume design / Flat Panel to 3D Sculpture
I went to a dress rehearsal of performance held at a private club, and took pictures
of this costume though, the club was members only private club,
I can’t give any detail but only show those photos.
Obviously the costume was pains takingly made by many designers, working together, still
I can’t give the detail of who were they, at moment.
—– It was a character in a story, an Eque.
What took my attention of this costume was,
its approach to design the hose head.
The curved structure was divided into each parts,
and formed, shaped, then put together.
—– When I designed something similar,
a head of Flying Dragon, I figured out the
shape to make it only from the 2 panels,
= upper part (face) and lower part (jaw), and the
back part of the head was made, cut and bent metal panel. (on top of those, some
additional joint panels, enforcing metal bar etc , still, despite its size and appearance,
it took only 2 days to make = very simple structure hence easy to make.
—– when designer makes a shape of a horse head, most of the case it would be done by
either Papie-mash or Casted Glass-fiber Epoxy. —– to make it in this way was rather
unusual and looks fun. 🙂
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Zen in Action (3) — Latent Thinking
At moment, I’m in chaos of shifting the mountain of boxes again. Some of the regular readers
may remember, I said the same before, though it was for fitting new window but this time it
is for electric re-wiring. It’s mean, I have to shift those to the window-side to vacate the
wall-side for the electrician to access all the power-points, switches etc. (I’m not happy at all.
= so-called Electric safety standard has been changed and they say all the system has to be
kept-up, blah blah = keep industry busy to make money, but I’m dubious about
why the contract has gone to this company.)
So that, fortunately or unfortunately, I had to dig-up the boxes berried to the bottom which
I haven’t seen since when I moved to here.
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In common-sense, people only has what is essential to the own immediate life, the essential
for the daily life. —– ideally a Buddhist remained in their bare minimum though it’s the matter
of how the person define who he is = a Buddhist bikku (literally a beggar who forsaken all his
possession for a sake of seeking the truth) may needed to have one cloth to cover his body and
one bowl to receive food (then to drink, and take a water to wash himself etc.)
—– in this context when I found that the followers of
Lord Buddha had umbrella, I was very surprised (let alone the umbrella had been already
invented then ! —– this sort of analysis would lead to see the timing when Agama Sutras was
written, or its authenticity.)
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In fine day, still carry an umbrella for if it starts a rain, or carry a bowl in case if anybody
offer a food are all in the speculation (may happen but not on that moment) = in other words,
it’s only in the mind. I wonder what Lord Buddha instructed to this matter to his followers ?
So, the teaching of “Live in the Moment” include the situation “Could happen next moment” too.
So, I carry a mountain of material to make something which could happen in any moment. 😀
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Don’t cling to your thought but leave the matter to the Dharma (occurrence of the Karma).
This “thought” meant be a kind of thinking we are doing in lingual form. —– as a matter of fact,
as Neuroscientists found that 90% of our thinking has been done subconsciously without convert
it to the lingual form. Even when we are in Mushin and totally occupied by one action, our Brain
is still in full working state unless we choose to have meditative state.
This “subconscious thinking” is no other than what we call [intuition], [hunch], and often giving
an [insight], or [inspiration] and those are the very “Latent Thinkings”.
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In comparison, what we learned in lingual form such as somebody’s words or what we learned
from the books will stay as the lingual memories.
We can say “I understood” is in fact, lexical understanding of an abstract notion of the word and
its meanings but not what it is in practice.
But what we experienced and learned in real life always carries the tag of emotion yet this
emotion is very difficult to convert and express in the words, because the tag in the emotion is
a part of the said “Latent Thinkings”. In most of the case, lingual memory stay like a distant
objects and not necessary relate to the emotion hence, it is not necessary takes a part
in the “Latent Thinkings”.
The words “Be careful, it’ll bite you” stay as the words until after you were actually bitten =
Then, it will be imprinted into your subconscious with a pain, and “Be careful” become part of
your “Latent Thinking”.
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This is the very reason why actual practice or experience is so important to our life, and what
Lord Buddha said “Don’t believe what others said but think yourself”
(better still through experiences).
—— (One of my Kinetic Sculpture “Cupidon / Archer” which was made mostly discarded material
—— I’ve picked-up, such as aluminium angles etc. Except an Air-pomp (yellow one) I bought.
—— The motor came from a Cooling-fan ) (Moving image is in youtube —> Click right column)
—– through experiences since my childhood, I knew, such as an aluminium angle is so useful
to make a structure, or such as a discarded printer contain very useful motor etc. = I collected
and stashed them in my room = hence made mountains of junks. So, when like this unexpected
situation occurs, I have to work hard to shift the boxes.
—– bad still, it’s an unusually hot summer.
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Robot astronaut Kirobo
This is an article from Gizmag —– it looks cute and interesting story.
—– Even a grown-up astronaut, not a Hary-Potters kids, feel comfort talking with robot
might be a reflection of Japanese Shinto religion, which sees the spirit in any beings.
Robot astronaut Kirobo headed for ISS in August
By David Szondy
June 26, 2013
The video below (in Japanese) shows Kirobo going through its paces.
Source: Toyota
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Hackspace
There is a gathering place and their work shop for the electronic hackers called
Hackspace in Hackney, London. —– Why Hackspace in Hackney may not have
any connection and I’m not interested in pun. 😀
And this evening, a group of enthusiast of Arduino (ready to use programmable
controller) demonstrate what he has done.
(A guy in the photo right was going to demonstrate how he programmed an
Arduino device to control his industrial robot)
(They got quite hefty collection of books which may cover all the question ! )
To deal with even the same electronics, there are hundred of different approaches.
Some are purely pursuit how the electronics work, others are to achieve the
purpose, by utilizing the electronics, electro-mechanics —– and to use it in
likely way to the most unlikely way etc etc. the possibilities are literally endless.
Other group, Dorkbot is a group using the electronics, electrics in rather strange way,
or they may say, more artistic way 😀 —– And I’m saying my sculptures are often
happen to move —– to make it, it often need to have a mechanism and its controller,
in most of the case it was done by the electro-mechanics. (It could be done with pure
clock-work as well though, it would be more time-consuming to make)
One of the largest group, this Hackspace are having 700 members and two floor
huge space in a building, of which basement is for storage and a GOOD workshop.
It seems, quite few heavy machineries were donated by the academic institute such as
Imperial College (when they got new one, old one has to go somewhere, anyway 🙂 )
And the place is 24 hours open for the members to use the space and work shop,
otherwise just come and chat ! —— for a monthly pay of £5 ~£15 depend on
how often you suppose to use. (Can you believe ! )
Their website is —– Hackspace (link)
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St.Lucia — Wire Figure — Preconception (2)
(Please see the Photo, one eye closed = you may have better 3D view = her chest come-out front and the head looks tilted backward)
St. Lucia said to be an early martyr who lost her eyes through torture hence became a saint for vision. Greek word Lux mean the light and the name Lucia mean light. (I haven’t figured out the relation, her name and a sainthood, which one came first.)
So, she is receiving God’s Annunciation (through Photoshop 🙂 ) to become a saint.
—– What so ever, this is a wire-figure I made in the same time of yet another wire figure to show how our 3D conception works,
when it was under Preconception. 🙂
—– now it’s 21st century. With the cultural change, even a holly woman need to have a Holiday and enjoy sun bathing. So, she is asking her mate “Could you put an oil on my back” “Bloody hell, you don’t have a back”.
—– Did you noticed, they are in fact the same figure. Only, whether standing on the knee or lying —– in different settings. = And we are seeing it in the completely different context.
(Do you agree ?)
(By the way, figure was made one continuous wire, starting from her ear and finishing on the arm-pit of right arm, except short additional wire on her boobs. It was like a puzzling game, and a good fun. 😀
—– This is the most unlikely depiction of the human-body though, yet still our brain can re-configure it as a human-figure.
Isn’t it amazing ? !!!
—————–
PS : I’ve tested the reaction of the people how they see the Top Photo. (Since I started to use my tablet as my photo book, when I need I show the photos of my works. Then I noticed the differences of the people’s reaction in two types. And another fact behind was the Google’s reaction ! — If you Google “St.Lucia, Art figure” this photo of the St.Lucis come-up on the top = They think this is an Art —– See how they react. ? )
In fact, against to the hundreds of the people = and found, that the person who was an artist, they react to hold the breath. And the person who is not an artist start to make questions such as “Did you made this ?” “How big ?” or “Is it wire ?” kind = it is an intellectual response to fitting the subject into an existing pattern and categorize it.
(it is a process to “understand” what it is) This intellectual process in the brain mask the bare intuitive perception in the Hippocampus where 2D vision was converted into the spatial 3D (real life) image.
A real artist grasp the image with bare subconscious and the emotion. Though, the image is nothing but a perplexity = looks human figure but it is a twisted wire = WHAT a hell this is ? ! — brain just got confused and freeze. Hence loose the word.
It’s mean, this figure works as a touchstone to distinguish real artist.
(If you are interested in this phenomenon, try this by showing this image to your friend and see the each reaction. — provided the person didn’t know this beforehand )
— A funniest reaction I ever found was, when a man who has been asking about the material etc. realized that he was tested, suddenly started to say “Oh, this is a tree” (started to play innocent / ignorant = try pretend to be a “Non- intellectual” = but in obvious tactical way —– Artist couldn’t make such highly complexed reaction.)
— Yet funny encounter of the third kind was, a woman who asked me the material on return, then realized that it was a kind of test, started to argue, saying “Because you asked ma how do I think, so that I replied how I thought, not what I felt” —– the woman has been doing a kind of conceptual art = typical “thinking kind”.
It was the first ever encounter to a person who started to argue about right or wrong. I only testing to see what type of the brain, whether the person got “Intuitive” or “High level thinking” dominant brain, which would be apparent in a quick response or instant reflection, — not about right or wrong of the person. 😀
—– Then I realized, I’ve met a lots of this “kind” of person, in a protest campaign group. Yes, they are the kind, shouting System is wrong, the law is wrong, the official is wrong BUT only I am right ! (And funnily enough all of them said “I’m an artist” ! ) — but I’m not sure what they meant Art.
.
PPS : you might be rather confused by the explanation by “Intuitive Hippocampus” etc = Yes we are having two “Mind” (?) which we human being Did know thousands of years. = Thinking logic and the Heart.
.
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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. 😀
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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.
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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. 🙂 )
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Folded Bag
I got notoriously bad (or very good = depend on how you see it) habit to picking-up something
interesting on the street or from a rubbish-dump. It could be a discarded electric device or a
part of machine of which I’ve been looking for years, or something useful in my future projects.
(Sculpture featured in this blog, [Buddha 2009] was made by the discarded aluminum pipes,
kinetic piece [Cupidon] in my Youtube (kinetorori) is powered by a motor from a cooling-fan
I found road side and the motors rotating [Virtual Woman] came from Micro-wave Cooker, not
to mention a nude figure [Suppon-pon] 😀 😀
Virtually everything, but few exceptions were such as Chinese Toys I bought for £1 :-))
In order to carry it back, I always have some spare bag stashed in my pocket or
in my back-pack. —– may be three bags in the back-pack, one or two in my jacket’s pocket.
It’s the same idea to a motto of the Boy Scout “ Be Prepared” 😀
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To stash a plastic bag, they got to be neatly folded like the one in the photo.
In one occasion, when we Japanese friends went to a park and try sitting there, we noticed that
the ground was a bit wet. So I handed my bags to those friends to sit on it.
Among those friends there were young women and one of them screamed
“Oh dear, it’s folded”.
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—– Now-a-day, statistics showed that about 20% of male population in Japan chooses not to
marry. —– Everything become very easy to carry-out the daily life without having a wife.
Just heat-up a pack of pre-cooked meal using a microwave-cooker in a Convenient-store.
—– Even a convenient Sex is available everywhere whether it was paid or not.
Those kind of conveniences may be more expensive though, on the end, the total cost would
be less than to have a wife, not mention able to avoid the troubles comes with marriage, hence
in average, the number of kids is less than two = reducing the population further. (Of cause,
the life is not just a matter of cost. —– but this is the situation there. Which caused the
other is a point of argument though, I don’t think Packed food was the cause of single man :-D)
= in obvious consequence, the counter-part, women had to face this situation.
—– So that, there are lots of Magazine articles, Net advices, how to find a man to get marry
and what point to look at. = Good sign and the sign of the man, better avoid.
—– A kind of Psychological profile said, better not to chose a man who fuss about principles,
tidiness, cleanness etc. = “He would make your life in Hell while complaining your laziness”.
—– So that, a young woman cried (implying, I can’t take care of this sort) 😀
(So does, some can fold an umbrella neatly but others not, saying “Anyway it has to be open on
the next rain, why bother” = If this is the rhetoric, we don’t need to bother the life
or happiness because anyhow we will die soon or later. = it’s a choice)
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To folding a bag may not takes more than a minute and not much skill is needed
though, it need to have a certain mind-set.
It’s a mind-set aiming it better or ultimately a perfection.
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A bag photographed here came from a Chinese Food-shop when I bought a bag of rice, may
be 6 months ago. It’s mean this bag has been used to carry a shopping repeatedly 6 months
(and folded again.) And it is an essential item needed to do a shopping such as in the Lidl who
doesn’t give a free bag. —– Financially, I may not be much rewarded to have own bag
though, the matter is not to save a couple of pounds in total but, I don’t like to carry their bag
which is showing too conspicuous logo 😀 Anyhow, we are getting too many bags on shopping
such as when we buy loose vegetables etc. Too much already, and the situation is bad enough.
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To fold a bag is a way of Zen. Whether it has any merit or not, leave a bag in a
messy state is messy. Why not to make it a bit tidy.
Why spend a minutes ? —– if not, could we ever utilize that minute for
anything more productive in the life ? —– I quite doubt it.
A person, even wouldn’t bother to fold a bag couldn’t pay enough attention to the life.
(But, don’t ask me, “By folding the bag, why I didn’t become a millionaire or Prim-minister ?”
= it’s a matter of another mind-set. Aiming to become millionaire need to take care of million
more factors, not just for one bag. Folding a bag is only a start. 😀 )
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Zen only deals with its moment. = When see an empty bag => Do something = the best
is to fold and put it in a pocket. — When a moment which need to use a bag comes, just use it.
But not to walk on a street expecting to find something to pick-up. When it comes, it has come.
—– though, no fixed obligation to pick it up.
(But if you interested in, pick up at once = When you go back next day, it’s gone already 🙂 )
= Zen decision has to be made on its each moment. (On its moment, the existence of
spare-bag was known to subconscious, hence to conceive [pick it up] was a viable choice.
And why you were interested in was, because your subconscious knew that you need it.
= no need to dither like “I want to pick it up, but how to carry this back or not to pick up ?”
= ( having a bag increased the flexibility of this decision making 😀 )
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After awhile, the accumulated “Folded bags” became bag-full, and got to go for recycle =
recycling people might think “What a waste of the time. Why this guy didn’t just put them
straight to the bag ? Otherwise, he could have used the time more productively” 😀
—– It comes down to a mind-set of the Life. = To live tidy life is a life, still
live in a mess is also a life. = We can chose as we like. The matter is,
to know, which ever we chose, the consequence do comes accordingly.
(The troubled consequence of my habit is, the junk I’ve picked-up became a mountain =
“one day I’ll create something out of this junk” might be a wish-full thinking or
delusion = a curse to live as a kinetic sculptor. Ha ha ha 😀 )
___/\___
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Happy New Year 2013
Happy New Year to all those who is visiting and supported my blog.
I hope it would inspire and cause more active and fulfilling life
on the 2013 and ahead for you. 🙂
Yoshizen aka Kinetorori
___/\___
Exploding Cinema at Goldsmith
Last Saturday evening, the Films and Art event / Exploding Cinema was held in a big church
building ( now it was converted to an art-space for the Goldsmith college / London University
of Art ) It seemed, it was one of the most successful evening of the Exploding Cinema’s history.
Impressive massive space though, as it has been converted = not purposely built = make use of
the space needed a lots of work especially running all together 100m of the electric extension
cables etc. —– while having time count ” One hour left” ” Another 15 minuets” — then over load
power cut etc. The DON / Facilitator of many art events / James Stevens had to work hard 🙂
( Photo right = Brian Steel’s sculpture / Dummy)
( Photo right = I brought my kinetic sculpture Virtual Woman with 3W LED light to project
a shadow of moving image on the wall. )
( Photo left = Jini Rawlings installing her video projection system with water reflection.
Photo middle = Matt Lloyd was setting up the AV system in the performance Room.
Photo right = I brought yet another piece / Hell Fire —– color changing
rotating LED with reflection ! )
Then the door open —– loads of audiences has come and enjoyed the evening with massive
amount of all sorts of moving images —– save the coldness of a winter night in the massive
stone building 😦 = though, the advantage was, we didn’t need to use Cloak-room 🙂
Other than individual set-up of video projection by each artists, the main screen
showed nearly 30 short videos —– some were pretty experimental 🙂
And the Performances ! ( Photo left = Blanca Regina performed her amazing singing
with her video image ! ( And I intruded with my dancing — seemed they liked it :-D)
Photo middle = Pete Gomes played his impressive Flute accompanying his 8mm cine
images shot in India. Photo right = Vicky Smith draw tyre track with her bicycle. )
Celina Leiesegang’s group performed their movements. ( Dance ? )
And it is, another fixture = Mould Wine ! Good for chilly night 🙂
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PS : Any participated Artist who want to have more photos in a bit larger size,
Please put a request as a comment saying Photo number / left or right or so =
Comment has your URL which enable me to send it by Email.
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