エイドリアン・ベター ! eidorian beta! adrienne vetter!

avetter — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:22:36 +0000

Waiting for Translation. 2nd year graduate student show reflecting on our May 2007 trip to Japan.
The show dates run from Sept. 7 to October 5, 2007 @ Warren Robbins Gallery (University of Michigan School of Art & Design, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI. Gallery hours: 8-5pm, Mon-Fri.)

Images from the show:

“Onigawara – If the West had them.” and “Mix Mitate”

“Onigawara – If the West had them.”

Accompanying written description on wall: “Onigawara are decorative roofing tiles found on traditional architecture in Japan. Symbolically, they are placed at the corners of buildings to protect the home or temple from exterior forces that might cause them harm.”

Close-up. This work was my imagining of what the West’s version of onigawara might look like. I came back from Japan thinking a lot about contrasts/comparisons of how the East and West think about control, fear, and nature.

A re-presentation of the video documentation of our “Mix Mitate” installation and performance.
Written description: “The installation and performance documented here took place on June 1st, 2007 in Hikone, Japan as part of our A&D graduate student exhibition there. Four graduate architecture students at Shiga Prefecture University and one graduate student at UM Art & Design collaborated to design and construct this project.

The site of the work was the empty shop window of a building in downtown Hikone – an area of the city which has experienced economic depression and seen many of its young people move to the suburbs.

Over the course of a few hours, people were invited in from the street into a strange, remix world where they were served hotdogs and Coca-Cola in a traditional japanese tea room by a Japanese cowgirl and cardboard horse – or perhaps stepped to the American-style bar where they were offered onigiri and ocha by a samurai Mickey Mouse.”

Thank you…

avetter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 17:29:18 +0000

Thank you to all the individuals/groups in Hikone for the unequivocal warm welcome and willingness to help, Sadashi & Satoru for making the trip what it was (full of amazing experiences & connections), Keiko (for your quiet kindness as we travelled the country), Tadasu (for “keeping it real”), and Team Chanpon (so glad we got to work together…so sad I missed you at the airport, too.)

Katsura Villa (Kyoto)

avetter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 05:29:16 +0000

(I like the idea of designing a house specifically to watch the moon reflect in a pond; or planting a tree so that one can’t see the entire garden at once (and instead experience beauty through a series of twists and turns.))

A few of my favorite things I forgot to mention…

avetter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:17:26 +0000

This okonomiyaki restaurant in Kyoto…

…the restaurant’s menu…

…as well as okonomiyaki as a food in-and-of-itself. (Okonomiyaki are kind of a mix between a pancake and an omelette, with diced pickled ginger, onions, shrimp mixed in (although you can make your own combination with other ingredients) and a teriyaki/bbq sauce with nori (seaweed) flakes or fish flakes on top.)

Little trucks…

Big moped gangs…

The elevator attendant women at Daimaru…

The shinkansen & subways…

…and all those SEVERE examples of remix culture:
(i.e. Grateful Dead Lamb Chops bear)

Detail-oriented.

avetter — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:02:19 +0000

Kimono fabric from a kimono shop in Tokyo.

Architectural detail from the grounds of the Imperial Palace, Kyoto.

Various foods/sweets (strongly influenced by Daimaru dept store basement & plastic food window displays!)

“Mix Mitate” (A mixing of perspectives)

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:55:21 +0000

(Thank you to Wada san at the Tobaya and the community center on Hana Shoubu St for Mickey!)

The final result of the collaboration of Team Chanpon (“chanpon” = a very tasty Japanese dish of mixed vegetables, noodles, etc. and “Team Chanpon” = Hiroki, Aki, Koba, Adrienne, Atsumi, and Hiroshi) “Mix Mitate” was an installation & performance in the front window of Act Station, downtown Hikone built as part of the June 1st exhibition “Do You Live Here?” organized by University of Michigan graduate students during our month long trip to Japan.
[thank you Adrianne Finelli for documentation.]

Kanazawa

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:54:35 +0000

[Kanazawa station]

21st Century Museum (Kanazawa)

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:03:54 +0000

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art:
http://www.kanazawa21.jp/
“My Civilization” – Grayson Perry.

“Swimming Pool” – Leandro Erlich:

A day in Tokyo without a camera…

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:47:31 +0000

My most surreal experience of Japan was the second day in Tokyo – somehow the only day my camera battery died. However, I think maybe my written description of it approximates the level of bizarre better than pictures, if you just use your imagination…

The monorail out to Odaiba, a suburb of Tokyo full of people picking wildflowers in a field in front of the world’s largest rainbow ferris wheel with a backdrop of space-age architecture…
A Toyota themepark with “Hybrid Wonderland” where you can drive tiny hybrid cars…
An art museum constructed from train cargo cars (The Nomadic Museum.)…
A “nekotama” where you can pay 800 yen (there’s a discount for couples) to go into a house/shop full of cats just to pet and play with them.
A fantasical shopping mall, with a crowd of people around a comedian with baby baboons on leashes outside an American Eagle-type store, and, only 15 feet away, a young Japanese family sitting eating Dipping Dots outside a sex store called “The Prophylactics”…
Later, a visit to Harajuku – well-known area of Tokyo where Japanese youth dress in goth and anime costumes and hang out together on the street , holding signs offering to give silly Americans like us free hugs ( cosplay)…
…only to end the night singing Dolly Parton karaoke in Shinjuku.

Shinjuku (Tokyo)

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:57:29 +0000

By night, a district full of bright signs,

and possible inappropriate places.

Asakusa (Tokyo)

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:36:27 +0000

fortune-finding at Sensouji Temple in Asakusa: click here.

Hanayashiki:

Hiroshima

avetter — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:55:46 +0000

Two days at Naoshima Island

avetter — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:46:36 +0000

Cottage on the beach (even if it was one room shared by 6 women!)

Good food. (Thank you Otsuka at the Cafe Maruya!)

And art:

Yayoi Kusuma.

Tatsuo Miyajima.

A temple…

and its rooftop onigawara (which I have become obsessed with on this trip.)

Kyoto

avetter — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:30:56 +0000

morning market (click)

Gambaru!

avetter — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:13:06 +0000

Sunday, I had the pleasure of a workday with three architecture grad students from Shiga Prefecture University – Koba, Aki, and Hiroki – on the start of a collaborative installation/performance scheduled for June 1st.

We decided to move the site of the work from a room on the third floor of the building to this shop window space on street level.

avetter — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:03:21 +0000

Yesterday I threw out my back (consequences: intense pain, unable to stand up straight) and well, today I had one experience in Japan I wish I could’ve done without – I went to the chiropractor. Although I was greeted by a tiny woman with a big smile, it’s actually really frightening to enter a situation where you can’t communicate the nuances of pain because you and your health professional don’t speak the same language and you are face down and can’t use expressions or body language. To look on the bright side, maybe I could say that trusting a stranger in a moment of extreme vulnerability was a humbling experience.
On the flipside, I got to spend most of the day flat on my back on a tatami mat watching Japanese soap operas (among other things):
watch Japanese television.

avetter — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:44:22 +0000

For the most part, we eat traditional Japanese food prepared by people at the Tobaya Inn.
Today, however, I found myself at Mos Burger:

Unexpected celebrities.

avetter — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:38:58 +0000

Newspaper article about our driving Velo bike taxis around the area of Hikone castle.

Chucku-san on television.

avetter — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:35:23 +0000

Today, Hiroki and I spent a few hours discussing ideas for our project and decided this room would be a good site for our installation and performance. As a space, the room already emcompasses elements of both Western & Japanese culture – in the foreground there are the tatami mats of a traditional tearoom (for example) and Western furniture in the background. Our conceptual plan is to remix the cultures even further – (more to come as work progresses…)

On the roof.

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:31:47 +0000

Today I also met up with Hiroki (a first-year graduate student at Shiga Prefecture University school of Architecture & Design) and his roommate Hiroshi. We explored the abandoned floors of the Act Station building and made tentative plans to work together on an installation on the third floor.

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:25:24 +0000

This morning we set furniture outside the front of Act Station and offered free coffee and english conversations. In the process, I met Eto Noriko-Ikeuch, a woman who works at the post office (the “yuubinkyoku”) part time and sometimes goes to the movies at 9 in the morning while her children are in school. She also loves CSI Las Vegas (as do I).

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:17:59 +0000

Yesterday we went to Shiga Prefecture University, where Professor Hosoma – who does research in communication studies – gave a lecture on old postcards from the Hikone area.

Then we took a bike tour through the city to the areas shown in the postcards…

…and in comparing the pictures of the postcards (some from more than 50 years ago) we were able to see how the landscape has been altered by Hikone residents over time.

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:08:03 +0000

“Onigawara” are the intricate architectural details found on the corners of many rooftops – similar to gargoyles, they are meant to ward off things that might be bad for the home.

(This picture is a detail of the roof of a small temple.)

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:57:41 +0000

What you see when you walk the alleyways behind the historic facade.

Suburbia.

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:53:52 +0000

avetter — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:52:23 +0000

Sweet car!

Japanese print show.

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:19:54 +0000

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:17:51 +0000

Green tea everything!

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:16:54 +0000

The best green tea ice cream in town.

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:15:13 +0000

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:14:45 +0000

While walking the streets of Hikone, I find cultural appropriations in the most unlikely places.

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:12:11 +0000

avetter — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:10:49 +0000

Kewpie and traditional style Japanese dolls coexist.

Happy Mother’s day mom!

avetter — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:13:23 +0000

Tobaya Inn

avetter — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:10:47 +0000

Hana Shiyobu Dori (Iris Flower Street) – the street we will be living on for the next week and a half at the Tobaya.

The Tobaya – a traditional Japanese inn.

Our room.

View from balcony.

Konnichi wa!

avetter — Fri, 11 May 2007 15:52:48 +0000

schoolkids. (click)

This afternoon while riding our bikes on the sidewalks of Hikone, Satoru (Takahashi sensee) and I were engulfed every other block by huge, exuberant masses of kids walking together to school. It was my favorite part of the day.

Besides having my fortune told and palm reading by this nice lady at the VIVA megamall:

avetter — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:44:49 +0000

(inside Act Station)

avetter — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:43:04 +0000

Act Station. We have the entire building for a month – there are 3 floors with different rooms, which we can use for studio space, art installations, and performance events hosted for the downtown Hikone community.

avetter — Thu, 10 May 2007 06:47:49 +0000

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:32:52 +0000

Minasan – “everyone”

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:28:19 +0000

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:27:42 +0000

Japanese tea ceremony.

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:26:21 +0000

Azuki (more sweets.)

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:25:42 +0000

Sweets.

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:16:39 +0000

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:15:52 +0000

We then travelled to the Hikone Castle, one of the city’s major tourist/historic sites, where the students showed us how the technology worked.

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:13:55 +0000

avetter — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:12:57 +0000

In the morning, we took a taxi to Shiga University, where a group of undergraduate students gave us a presentation of their SIFE project. This project focused on technology that will allow people to use their cell phone to download information at specific sites by scanning the camera lens of the cellphone.

Finally…arrived in Hikone.

avetter — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:23:28 +0000

This is Hiko-nyan. He’s the official character for the 400 year anniversary of Hikone Castle, one of the main tourist attractions in the city of Hikone.

avetter — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:19:26 +0000

Survived the 13 hour flight from Detroit. 15 minutes away from Osaka, our flight was redirected to land at another smaller airport until another incoming flight, experiencing technical malfunction, had landed. (We spent another 3 hours stuck on the plane.)

avetter — Tue, 08 May 2007 02:47:13 +0000

One last greasy oh-so-American meal in DTW:

avetter — Tue, 08 May 2007 02:41:26 +0000

Silver shoes…

83,000 yen…

and the vocabulary of a 4 year-old in Japanese.
What else could you need to go to Japan?