November 11, 2005
Dressed Up In Moss
AGF found this nice dress in a shopping window in Tokyo. Thanks for the image!
投稿者 stefan : 05:31 AM
November 06, 2005
Contemporary Moss at YCAM - final presentation
Here they are! All the moss boxes and balls at YCAM.
This is my final collection of Contemporary Moss in Japan. Appearence in chronological order.
Kyoto, October 15, 2005
Kyoto, October 15, 2005
Kyoto, October 15, 2005
Ogaki, October 18, 2005
Tokyo, October 21, 2005; bought by Seiko Mikami
Kamasaki, October 25, 2005
Sendai, October 27, 2005
Osaka, November 4, 2005
Yamaguchi, November 5, 2005
投稿者 stefan : 12:40 PM
November 04, 2005
Contemporary Moss and Osaka Power
OSAKA POWER! We probably had the best evening of the entire tour so far. Everybody involved in the project at IMI did a great job and made sure that we had a very pleasant stay there. The evening with live music and visuals was a great success. Our MobLab crew and the local folks mixed up in almost no time and made for a very energetic atmosphere. For some hours I had a glimpse at the power and crazyness of this second biggest city of Japan.
I found that the energy of this city is somewhat different from the others I´ve expierenced so far. This impression may partially derive from the location we were based at. The IMI school is located in the former headquartes building of the Osaka '70 International Exposition. After strolling around the former Expo area, visiting the Japanese Garden and a little bit of research in the school´s library I could still sense the utopian and futuristic ideas which were once represented in the Expo Pavillions 35 years ago. Although none of these buildings exists today, I thought that the Expo `70 might have been one of the birthplaces of contemporary Japanese culture. Some of the few things remaining is the vast transportational infrastructure. Although it is quite similar to every highway-metro-train-skywalk agglomeration this specific structure seemed to be something like an archetype of modern Japanese urban scenery to me. It´s same same - but a little different.
In the evening I met Kenji Yanobe, a well-known contemporary artist. He told me about his Tower of Life. A sculpture made out of the remains of the old Expo tower. Just before the tower was rebuilt he climbed to the top where he was quite surprised to find a large expanse of moss. He decided to use the moss as a metaphor for Life in his installation.
Although his sculpture is much more elaborate than my clumsy moss boxes both show a common point: moss is able to carry a strong utopian potential.
OSAKA POWER joined the POWER OF MOSS!
Once again a big Thank You especially to Masako Miyauchi and Tomomi Tada for this wonderful night near the Tower of Sun. It still gives me the heebie-jeebies.
The Tower of Sun, the landmark of the Osaka '70 International Exposition.
Thanks to Ayuko Nozoe for this nice picture.
The scenery next to the IMI. Vast infrastructure for transportation and amusement.
Music and moss.
Sven took this picture while I was picking up some moss in front of the hotel.
投稿者 stefan : 03:03 PM
October 30, 2005
Contemporary Moss at Sendai Mediatheque
At Sendai Mediatheque I decided for a more "casual" setup of the installation. As the crowd of people was not overwhelming the ones that came had the chance to have a very very close look at the moss. What they discovered is far beyond your imagination. Pictures just don´t smell. It´s a pitty.
投稿者 stefan : 01:39 PM
October 23, 2005
Contemporary Moss at Yokohama Triennale
After an excessive night at Fujino we arrived at Yokohama Triennale of Contemporary Art. I decided to contribute to the amazing view from the site of the exhibition by adding a temporary garden installation to the pier.
Contemporary Moss at Yokohama harbour area.
Watch the gardener at work by downloading this video file [Quicktime, MPEG4, 33MB].
Thanks to Yoshiyuki Sakuragi who does a great job here as cameraman for the project and also shot this scene.
投稿者 stefan : 05:46 PM
October 21, 2005
Contemporary Moss at ICC
Thanks to the efforts of Seiko Mikami the moss archive could welcome a new entrant today. Seike told me yesterday about the existence of kokeidama, terracotta balls covered with moss, which seem to become quite popular in Japan at the moment. I still don´t know exactly what people are doing with it. Anyway I find them interesting enough to exhibit three of these balls together with the moss boxes. This one of the many traces showing that moss is not timeless at all. However it´s probably one of the latest efforts in Japanese culture to introduce moss into contemporary living rooms.
投稿者 : 05:42 PM
January 01, 2001
Contemporary Moss: initial proposal
MOTIVATION
From my perspective MobLab is first of all a project to join different layers of space, time and cultural production. Inspired by Japanese garden I decided to make moss my trajectory to cut and research these manifold cultural, spatial and temporal layers. The plant will provide my background to contemplate and reflect on the mutual impact of technology and nature in modern societies.
BACKGROUND
„The moss plant earns our respect, even our sense of awe, as one of the worlds lengthier successes in the business of living“ (George Schenk: „Moss Gardening“, Timberpress 1997). Moss is a very old plant and in turn old things are said to be moss-covered. We have a saying that as time goes by moss and grass will grow
and cover what should not be visible anymore. Due to its very slow growth it is a strong metaphor for the passing of time. I also found moss to be very important for some parts of Japanese garden culture and I think that it is because of its metaphorical incorporation of time. However what I find especially intriguing about moss in the context of MobLab is that it also has a very interesting spatial quality. Most of the time it is perceived as clusters, cushions or layers. It almost never comes as a single plant. Where it is growing it is therefore defining an area or a territory more than a single point.
PROPOSAL
In my project I would like to make use of these tempo-spatial qualities of moss in a „mossgarden“ to connect and reflect the different issues the MobLab project is working on. As I see them these issues are: the local hosting institutions, the virtual netspace and the moving bus.
Along the journey of the MobLab I will collect small sample pieces of moss from different locations. The moss will be put into small boxes with an approximate size of 12x12cm and 5cm height. The boxes will be labeled to indicate the location the moss was collected from. Throughout the trip the collection will constantly grow and form an archive of a variety of moss.
During travel time the boxes will be set up in the backside of the bus. Together with the tatami mats the moss will form a small lounge. This is the place to relax for us Mobnauts. The moss will function here just like any ordinary house plant only being a "bus plant".
At the hosting institutions I will take the boxes outside of the bus and build a small installation. The idea is to have the boxes constructed in such a way that makes it easy for me to take them. It should be a portable collection of moss or a mobile garden. The location where to build the installation depends on the spaces available at the hosts. The installation can be outside of the building where it will form a small garden. The moss can also be installed inhouse where it will be a real house plant.
In both cases I will take closeup photographs of the moss in its temporary new surrounding. The location specific images will be instantly made available for download to mobile phones to be used as wallpaper or screensaver. Have a look at a sample image here: http://www.transmediale.de/sr/projects/moblab/IMG_0586_176x220.jpg
On my blog I will document my experiences in collecting the moss using text and images. I will also publish interviews there which I am conducting for the preparation of the project and along the journey. I will conduct the first interviews in Germany. I think this is also important to make clear that I am not working on the stereotype of the "moss loving Japanese". I am inspired by the rich Japanese garden culture but the focus is on my (romantic) view on nature which is clearly based on an occidental foundation.
PRODUCTION
I have done testing with some moss in my room. It grows very well for two weeks time now. There is no indication of disease or decay at all. Next week I will meet a moss expert in Stuttgart. He has curated a botanical exhibition on moss last year. He will be able to give me more hints on collecting moss and on the requirements to grow it indoor. I will also make an interview with him which will be published on the blog.
I am currently developing prototypes of boxes that can be easily constructed during the trip or shortly beforehand. They have to be light and should have an appropriate shape to stack them. My goal is to have a stack of moss which I can take with me to different places and build small garden installations on the fly.
REQUIREMENTS
As for Sven a bicycle would be also very handy for me to find mossy spots in the surrounding of the bus.
投稿者 stefan : 01:01 AM