When I was living in San Francisco, I saw a show at Bimbo’s that would be a lasting influence on me for years to come. To promote the 1997 album Fantasma, the Japanese musician Cornelius (Keigo Oyamada) had prepared videos to project behind the band for each song. They were composed of short clips of soccer matches, anime cartoons, exercise … Continue reading →

Talk to Me opens this week at the Museum of Modern Art. This collection of objects, videos, and concepts loosely themed around interface and communication is a great excuse to review some of the coolest and most intriguing technology and design innovations from the past few years. There are a wide variety of design subjects represented, including; augmented reality, data … Continue reading →

Japanese animation (anime) is often assumed by Americans to be the province of freaks and geeks. While there may be plenty of low-brow titles available, the other end of the anime spectrum is certainly worth investigating if you haven’t already. Director Hayao Miyazaki’s films My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke charm both children and adults with their endearing creativity and … Continue reading →

There is a tree growing on American soil that is familiar to everyone living in Japan, yet is virtually unknown to the rest of the world. The 130 year-old Monkeypod has been a living symbol for the Hitachi Group Corporation since 1973. It can be found in the privately-owned (open to the public), Moanalua Gardens on the island of Oahu … Continue reading →

I was expecting to be wowed by the gown of flowers, or something wildy grotesque at the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. But instead what surprised me was the very first room, called “The Romantic Mind,” which featured his graduation work from Central Saint Martins and selects from his early collections, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims (1992), and … Continue reading →

“To me, the purest beauty is the world of mathematics. Its perfect assemblage of numbers, magnitudes and forms persist, independent of us. The aesthetic experience of the sublime in mathematics is awe-inspiring…” – from Roji Ikeda’s Artist Statement for “The Transfinite” I went to see this installation uptown at the Park Avenue Armory on the hottest day of the summer. In … Continue reading →