tokuon

本日から毎日家に帰る前、１万歩を歩いてみる。できるかな？

ちなみに今は皆さんはどういう本を読んでいる？

僕は「Gulliver’s Travels」を読み終わって、「星界の戦旗IV」を読んで、今仕事のために「Wikinomics」を読んでいる。結構面白いけど、やはり小説の方が好きだな。

あっ、十二国記シリーズ「風の万里 黎明の空〈下〉」の最後の50ページを昨日寝る前にまた読んだ。感動なシーンがたくさんあり、主人公たちの自信や上下関係など、面白いテーマのたくさんあるファンタジーでとてもオススメ！何回も読んで、何回もアニメを見た。

今朝起きたら、鼻血が出ていて、必死にティッシュを取った。フローリングの3ヵ所に赤いスポットがあったけど、白いシーツとカーペットはセーフ。

蕪価をチェックしたら林檎が1割下げた。

マンションから出たら雪が降ってた！今年初めて見たから、赤い帽子を着けて白い携帯を取り出して妻にメールした。

今日はどんな一日になるでしょう。

アップルの新しいノートパソコンは、嫉妬するほど細い！ダイエットしようかな・・・・

でも、ちょっと高いかも。軽くていろんなところに持ち運びたい方にはオススメ。絶対注目される！（そのために買うのはちょっとだけど・・・）

Sophia University Master’s Dissertation: Duality in the Rooftop Image
Finally making my dissertation available. PDF format, 1.5MB. If you choose to use this as research material, I would appreciate it if you left me a comment. I’d love to share ideas regarding the rooftop motif in Japanese popular and contemporary culture, including how it may be changing with the spread of rooftop gardens.

[edit 2008.1.20: I found out this week that the article below didn't make the cut for being published on TABlog. My first rejection from them and first in a while. But, it was a good rejection. The article didn't have nearly enough information about the exhibition itself to warrant being a "review". I'll have to be more careful (and more detailed) in the future.

修正 2008.1.20:　今週、下記の記事がTABlogに却下されたという報告があった。編集スタッフに初めて記事が却下された。まあ、それはよかったかもしれない。下記の記事は「レビュー」と呼ばれるには展示会自体についての情報は全然足りなかった。今後もっと気をつけて詳細の情報を提供しないと。]

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Review of the exhibition "Bruno Munari ‘Work People Not Allowed’" being held at the Shiodomeitalia Creative Center until January 27, 2008. The below will hopefully be published on TABlog soon. TAB Event info.

「ブルーノ・ムナーリ 『しごとに関係ある人 出入り おことわり』」という展示会のレビュー。場所はShiodomeitaliaクリエーティブ・センター、1月27日まで。下記の記事は時期にTABlogに掲載されると思う。TABイベント情報。

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"Bruno Munari - ‘Work People Not Allowed’" reads the title in pink on
the TAB Event page. Ill-informed as I am to the world of design, the
name Bruno Munari held little attraction for me, but the title was a
daring challenge to this reluctant salaryman. Bar me from your
exhibition, huh? Think I’m so inartistic that I won’t understand the
artwork of this so-called Bruno Munari, do you? Just try and keep me
out!!

Thinking thus, I deliberately visited the exhibition without any prior
knowledge of the artist or artwork (other than the short description on
TAB of course). It was a personal experiment to see just if I could
figure out exactly why the exhibition was named the way it was.

Arriving on a cold, rainy afternoon at the Shiodomeitalia building
(situated in an artificially beautified little corner near Shimbashi
Station called Italia-gai (イタリア街)), the attendant kindly asked me not
to touch any of the objects. Fair enough. I took a quick walk through
the small exhibition space noticing a varied collection of children’s
books, sculptures, dangling mobiles, prints, candle holders, an
uncomfortable looking sofa, lamps, an odd and unpractical desk-like
structure, and various products designed for the design-conscious.

Who was this Bruno Munari? I wondered as I returned to the entrance and
began to read the panels prefacing each section. Bruno Munari was, as
the TAB event description stated, "industrial designer, graphic
designer, sculptor, writer, poet, art critic and art educator." A 20th
century Renaissance man. According to the description at the
exhibition, he was also "exceptional in the 20th century creative field
in his concern for children." "Work People Not Allowed" refers to this
concern for children and the fact that many of a certain generation
feel a nostalgia for Munari’s children’s books and product designs.

A light bulb clicked in my dense head at that point. I am to leave my
"Work" self at the door as I view this retrospective of Munari’s work.
Ah…no problem. I am after all a reluctant salaryman who looks forward
to removing his shoes at the end of the day.

But wasn’t asked to remove my shoes when I stepped through the door. I
was asked not to touch. This exhibition seemed to have had no intention
of asking its visitors to participate or embrace the poetry that good
design brings to the everyday and the ordinary. It was an examination
of Munari’s life work, organized into sections by thematic
characteristics in order to repackage 90 years of artistic activity
into a ready-to-eat frozen dinner. Hence the no touching, no
photography policy. These are, after all, rare and valuable originals.

Sarcasm aside, for fans of Bruno Munari and industrial design history, this exhibition is a lesson in the creation of products that offer imagination, fantasy and poetry instead of mere function. One of my favorites were the Libro illeggibile (Illegible book) series, books without words that spur the naive imagination. And if Fantasy simply doesn’t take flight, you’ll know who you really are: a Work Person.