Feature “Multi Creativity” abcdefg*record CHABAN-guild Yohei Watanabe (CODE;C) Topos Shiho Yamazaki Report Kosho kosho festival Bookmark Music Photo collection Blog RADIO TOPE is a culture-mixed magazine that stimulates your intellectual curiosity. Clothes, music, architecture, art, politics, economics, IT, literature... Connecting people and things to each other, tuned culture in this noisy information society is here shared with you. Tune in on RADIO TOPE! VOL. 03
Unsatisfied With Your Creativity? Browse a bit, then! The theme of this volume is "multi-creativity". We focus on people bringing out their creativity for multiple things, like abcdefg*record, Yohei Watanabe and CHABAN-guild. Here are the words from the multi-skilled pioneers.
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RADIO TOPE is a culture-mixed magazine that stimulates your intellectual curiosity. Clothes, music, architecture, art, politics, economics, IT, literature...Connecting people and things to each other, tuned culture in this noisy information society is here shared with you. Tune in on RADIO TOPE!
VOL. 03
In recent years, you can see more people bringing out their creativityby way of mixing up different expressions and expanding the rangefor expressions. This seems like a sort of modern forms of creation. So we decided to take “multi-creativity” as a special topic of this volume.
Multi-creativity means a diversity of creativities and ways to expressthings. Gennai Hiraga and Leonardo da Vinci, who had a lot of job titles and got good reputations in the each area, are good examples ofthe multi-creativity in old times.
Now everyone can send and share what they want to express because ofthe widespread use of the faster internet that made the costs ofcreative tools smaller, which lead us into creative activities easily.
Additionally, as a result of the prevalence of SNS, like Twitter and facebook, it’s no longer only within the internet but also inthis real world where it’s easy to meet someone. You can now seesuch small communities being generated more and more around you.
What I want to say here is that the world seems to be becoming the easier place for us to multiply. People who haven’t knowneach other meet and start something together. That is, things indifferent genres cause a chemical reaction by multiplication.
It’s only a small number of geniuses who have brainstorms and can createsomething from zero by chance. But there’s no limit of the combination ofmultiplication. So we everyone, by the help of multiplication betweenpeople, have possibilities of creating something new.
We hope our readers take a look at the words from pioneering multi-skilledcreators in this volume, get new ideas and jump into new actions.
abcdefg*recordPresided by Sayuri Hashimoto and Masahiro Nomu-ra. An indie-pop label based in Nagoya and working in wide variety of amusing media in the times, like CDs, MP3s, e-books, zines, blogs, washclothes and so on. This is the label working tricky and nerdy! http://abcdefg-record.net
Why did you start abcdefg*record? According to your website, it was 1998. I suppose you were in the third grade at the university at that time.Hashimoto (H): It was just something like a hobby at first. Something you do when you have nothing else to do. But I didn’t know anything at that time, so I went to a famous figure to ask the know-how. And someone subscribing to Trattoria Records’ mailing list taught me things for managing a label. There wasn’t the internet you could use those days.What kind of activities were you dedicating yourself to at that time?Nomura (N): CD-making. No, it was cas-sette tapes. We recorded with the cassettes and dubbed them at home. We also made the packages.I see. How do you find and get in touch with musicians from other countries?N: Aha, they send me their works by them-selves. And I listen to them and find some interesting works.Wow, is it them who try to take a contact?Your talk on the internet-radio in February about a band who didn’t have a domain was interesting.
H: Don’t you think “Why don’t you even have a domain?”? It only costs several hun-dred yen to have it.N: We can’t be moved by such a band. If you are seriously selling your band to us, you should be able to pay such small money. Maybe it’s also cool if you don’t have a do-main though... People have their own way.Well... It’s really attractive that you can live on what you like to do. Is it also free of charge to read P+M magazine (an e-book with music data in MP3), isn’t it?N: Yes, it is. But Merci magazine is not free. That ain’t gonna be free. We were pondering whether or not to publish e-books. In the meantime, iPad popped up. That pushed us to do it.H: But Nomura-kun also likes free papers very much.N: Yea yea. I had made some free papers be-fore I went into the label.Alright. You had.N: What I think great with managing a label is that it’s completely OK even you do anything there. Free papers are not like that. You must keep yourself in a theme. But it’s not gonna be any problem even a band in the label goes to break up or another band comes in the label. You can even publish your book there.Haha. I suppose you haven’t thought about it, but the music you distribute to us makes us relax when we read P+M magazine.N: Oh yeah. Damn straight. But selling only music is a difficult thing. People loving to take pictures and travel tend to listen to music. You get inclined to put some music in such an oc-casion. It seems very nice to go out to travel somewhere with music, huh? I think it’s la-bels’ job to help such people. H: Well said.N: If only MP3s are distributed, people think
“Free of charge? Hmm, it’s just a trend.”. But the combination of pictures and music doesn’t have nothing to do with trends. It’s the best combination ever.It’s like a communication tool without languages.N: You can see the trend through some apps in iPhone. Why instagram is now big is, I think, it’s an app of pictures. Also in facebook, you can share your pictures, write comments on your friends’ pictures and click like!-buttons. Even you can’t understand other languages, all you need to share your feeling is to click like!-buttons. That’s the point of pictures and music. On the other hand, texts require more.Yes, indeed. It’s almost impossible to share the feeling only with texts.N: P+M magazine is downloaded almost the same times in the world and in Japan. Quite a good number as I expected.H: Nomura-kun has always talked about pictures and music for a long time. Seeing pictures in overseas magazines, he always says pictures can connect the world.N: Yea, I often bought overseas magazines. But I couldn’t read the texts. So I skipped the pages. When pictures caught my eyes, I looked at them.I see. How do you keep in touch with bands from other countries, by the way?N: By e-mail. You can send an e-mail in other languages if you have a dictionary. I can’t answer rapidly to e-mails they send me though...Lol.H: But sometimes he answers everything in Japanese. He once explained a thing in Japanese when I struggled answering to a question in English. And they got him.N: Oh yea. When our label’s overseas band held a live in Japan, I said “Hey, it’s your turn now!” in Japanese, and they said “OK” in their language, haha.
MUSIC×MAGAZINE
0504
3月末から開催される(取材は 3月中旬に行われた)エキシビション「Thinking Of You」はファンとしてはとても楽しみですね。ツインピーク(デビッド・リンチ監督
の TVドラマシリーズ)やユングの「集合的無意識」を引用したテキストも非常に印象的でした。
勿論ツインピークがアイデアソースとして
先にあった訳ではなくて。ユングもそうな
んですけど。たまたま、今年作品を全部観
る機会があって。 デビッド・リンチは元々好きで。でも、そういう風には観れてなく
て。しかもドラマだし。 今回、エキシビションとライブペインティングをしてくださ
いって依頼があってから、作品を説明する
時にそれをたまたま思い出したんですね。 Thinking Of Youは元々バーバラ・クルーガーの作品で。
エキシビションのタイトルは、僕はブログ
で紹介されていたLord Echoの曲からとったと思っていました。
ああ、でもそれを聴いてその後に色々思い
出して、バーバラ・クルーガーの作品も同
時に。聴いてて楽しかったんですけど。
日々楽しかったところにフォーカスはして
ますね。タイトルの「あなたについて思うこと(Thinking Of You)」って普段思ってることじゃないんですけど。それが集合的
ファッションブランド「Transport」のデザイナーとして、またアーティスト<CODE:C>として平面、グラフィックアート、立体、絵本、ライブペインティングなど様々なフォーマットで多様な表現を発信し続ける渡辺陽平氏。自然体でボーダーを越えていく氏の「今」とは?As a designer of a fashion brand “Transport” and as an active artist in flat art, graphic art,solid art, picture books and live painting, Yohei Watanabe is expressing himself in many fieldsin various ways. So, how is the present situation of his borderless activities?
繋がっている。
なぜファッションやドローイングといった
様に、別々のベクトルにあるクリエイティ
ビティを両立できているのでしょうか?
たぶん、一緒だと思ってたからじゃないで
すか。勿論作品も作りますけど、感覚とし
てはスケートするのと変わりませんね。 やっぱり身の回りのもの。Still Sequence
もそうでしたし、そういったものを表面化
して、見せ方、表現の仕方を遊ぶ。そこに
対して新しさを投入する。あるけどないよ
うなものを出すというか。
今日お話して、改めて純粋に好きでファッ
ションやアートに取り組んでいることがう
かがえた気がします。
しょうがないんですよね。それを開き直れ
なくなる時は大人になったのかなと(笑)。
そうでありたいですよね。拘束されてる方
が良い場合もありますしね。
中学生が校則の中でどう格好つけていくの
か、という感覚に近いかもしれませんね。
そういうのに近いかもしれませんね。面白
いですね(笑)。そういうのって共通意識
ですよね。色々。面白いな。
As a fan of you, I can’t wait for your exhibi-tion “Thinking Of You” at the end of March (This interview was conducted at the middle of that month.). The excerpts from Twin Peaks (a drama by David Lynch) and Carl Jung’s collec-tive unconscious were really impressive.Of course I didn’t think Twin Peaks would influence my works at that time. I can say the same thing about the influence I got by Jung’s words. It’s just that I was able to watch the whole series of it recently. I like David Lynch for a long time. I haven’t watched Twin Peaks as something that would help this exhibition. It’s just a drama. I just recalled the drama when I was asked to perform live painting after publishing the works. Thinking Of You was actually a work of Barbara Kruger.I thought you took the title of the exhibition from a track of Lord Echo, which you introduced on your blog.Ah, but I recalled Barbara Kruger and that track at the same time. I enjoyed that track. Everyday I focus on what I think is inter-esting. The title “Thinking Of You” means neither a particular person nor the uncon-scious connection between us that Jung said. But if you see there’s such an influence on my exhibition, it’s also cool. Collage is a piece of things with which you can guess ideas of the artist. I think that’s the point of collage.
I often wonder “Why has this become like this?” after finishing working. There’s no pur-pose in my mind when I get down to works. I make things as my feeling goes.It’s apparently different from jazz music, but I definitely can see a layer of my conscious-ness in my works. It’s kind of a therapy for me to see that.There’s a part of the unconsciousness existing in your works. I think you naturally look things from many perspectives, not trying to do so.Maybe. It’s kind of my habit. I often make up explanation for my works when I con-sider why the works have become like this. Someone asks me “Why did you make this?” I don’t have any goal or purpose when I start working on that. But I think about the work in an objective perspective and answer “I think I was imaging this.” or “I think I wanted to make that.” But people would take my works differently, maybe. I couldn’t look things in a point of view.Jung’s concepts about consciousness (the conscious, the personal unconscious and the collective un-conscious) are really interesting.You know you get a lot of information simul-taneously through social networks. We don’t think about that so often, but, for instance, nobody knows and cares even I upload a picture of what I ate yesterday. I don’t know
why I still do that. Coincidence that you and me are watching the same TV program is also interesting. We happen to be connecting each other in the deep psyche.Why can you do that great in clothes and draw-ings, both which require creativity?It’s probably because I took those two fields as a thing. Of course those are my job, but it’s like I’m just skateboarding. I superficialize the things around me and enjoy how to show off and express with them. I mean I make those things around me something new and unique, which are apparent existing already.Through this interview, I found that you simply like clothes and art, and are dedicating yourself to them.I can’t stop liking them. When I can’t stay there, it maybe means that I’ve grown up mentally. But I would rather keeping staying there. But at the same time, it’s sometimes better that things keep yourself headed in a direction. It was more fun to skateboard on ramps with a leg bound by a thing. Creating with yourself bound by something is almost the same thing.It’s something like how to show themselves to be cool for junior high school students within a school rule.Yes. It’s fun, isn’t it? We all have such a feel-ing. In various occasion. Really interesting.
Yohei Watanabe (CODE;C)Not keeping himself in a fixed style, he’s doing active in production of works, exhibitions and live painting, all of which are praised by various fields. Also, he often releases picture books and collabo-rates with other artists.http://yw-crush.com/dialy/
Chaban guild is a farce guild developing an art activity, Chaban-garde.We, this time, try to shed light on this veiled group, which is holdingtea ceremonies at a mobile tea room called Setchu-an, while wanderingin cities. We had an interview with the two central figures of the group,Mr. Nakajima and Mr. Shibayama.
Could you tell us how you started the project Chaban-garde?Nakajima (N): It was when I was drink-ing with my friend. We talked “Avant-garde is now almost chaban. It’s “Chaban-garde” (Chaban is a Japanese word with the English translation “farce” or “travesty”. Also, “cha” means “tea” in Japanese.) That’s the ori-gin of the name of the group. And then we talked what we wanted to do, like planning a matchmaking party through a tea party, making a geodesic dome1 and organizing an outdoor event. So we decided to hold a tea party in a tea room made out of cardboards.I think it’s a point that you made that geodesic dome out of cardboards.N: Our first concept was that we would make something anyone can make. We put more concept and contexts on it, and then we reached the idea of Setchu-an, that was, Chaban-garde. We divert cardboards, gar-bages from cities in other words, to different forms from the original purpose. Utilizing the fact that cardboards are mobile, we go adrift in the cities.There is a concept of dérive (drift) from the situationists in that. Situationism2 is a political and art movement in the wake of Surrealism3 and Dadaism4. The next point is that we made the tea room open because tra-ditional tea rooms had been the closed space for a long time.Aha. You divert cardboards, which are garbages, to something worthwhile. And the something goes adrift around the cities.N: But it’s not the exact same concept of dérive as the situationist one, that is more political and conceptual. Our “dérive” is not like that yet.Shibayama (S): The concept of a city is something already made up. It looks to have been made up unilaterally and violently. But we can’t help anything about that, you know.
So we tried to divert ready-made things to something raw and new.That’s true. You used an electrical rice-cooker, which is easily seen in the daily life, instead of a pot. That made us feel close to arts.N: I did it by design. My first feeling on the tea-ceremony was like “Why must people gather in a tea room to hold a tea party?” S: Probably the way of tea ceremony has be-come something fixed and facade. It’s like we are raising a red flag. N: Samuel Beckett, an author praised as one of the best authors in the 20th century, said “It’s just that an old screw is turning in a new way.” I really sympathize with those words.We partly can say that the art in Japan as well as the tea tradition has only been for a certain group and rich people. N: The art in the modern era were generally like that. There were patrons, artists and ar-istocracy owning their works. In that point, the tradition of the tea ceremony is still in the modern era. That makes the tea tradition interesting though... The rice-cooker is the modern alternative of a pot and also has the meaning of something like “readymades5” by Marcel Duchamp.Our tea parties have such an access to the modern art. And by holding tea parties with such ready-made things, it can be worth-while. It’s also true that we just think it’s bothering that people admire antiques too much.We sympathize with that point because our con-cept is “to share cultures with our readers”. We hope our readers, through Chaban-garde, go to touch with art and tea easily.N: By the way, the theme of this issue can be translated as “impurity” in Chaban-garde perspective. Because neither our tea ceremo-nies nor art are pure. It just started from the matchmaking party between boys and girls, hehe.
1 geodesic dome (Fuller dome)The way of building domes Buckminster Fuller, a thinker and an architect in USA, invented in 1947. Geodesic domes are based on the theory, that the most ideal form, in various condition as the gravity, to maintain the maximum volume with the minimum surface area is a sphere.
2 SituationismA political movement a French thinker Guy Debord started through cultural activities in 1950’s. Utilizing self-reliant medias like graffiti and flyer, he redefined his life and advo-cated the recovery of the city life that had been lost by the mass media. His thought also influenced the May 1968 protest.
3 SurrealismAn artistic movement that started in 1924. It mainly con-sisted of the backlash and the denial against the established values. It was strongly influenced by the psychoanalysis by Freud.
4 DadaismAn artistic movement that started under the World War I. It was characterized by the denial, the aggression and the destructivity against the established values.
5 readymadesThe name of a series of the works by Marcel Duchamp, a French artist who used ready-made products to his works. A urinal signed with his pseudonym is one of his best-known works.
CHABAN-guildAn avant-garde performance art group, CHABAN-guild. Getting out of a closed tea room, they are drifting in cities. Using the urban-drifting tea room “Setchu-an ST2000”, they hold performance of the tea ceremony in Gifu and other cities. Come on every avant-garde gals (and kids)!
Chaban guild is a farce guild developing an art activity, Chaban-garde.We, this time, try to shed light on this veiled group, which is holdingtea ceremonies at a mobile tea room called Setchu-an, while wanderingin cities. We had an interview with the two central figures of the group,Mr. Nakajima and Mr. Shibayama.
Born in January, 1988. From Gifu. After work-ing as a salesclerk at a big CD store, she started dollybirdgirls in 2010, the culture-zine made by girls and for girls. The third volume is now available. Here is the girl of freedom loving cool and cute music, movies, clothes and comics.
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We are looking for someone who wants to express yourself by your works (paintings, poems, pictures, novels, manga... Genre doesn’t matter.) in the project Topos. Send us ([email protected]) your information (your name and contact information) if you’re interested in it. Also, write “application for Topos” in the subject line, please. We take what we think is interesting at our judgment!
RADIO TOPEは文化を共有する空間を作るパートナーを随時募集しています。Toposというコーナーで自分の作品(グラフィック、音楽、文学等ジャンルは問いません)を発表したい方。店舗等にRADIO TOPEを設置していただける方。RADIO TOPE読者に向けて広告を発信していただける方。まずは info@radio-