LTDW Information Source

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Exhibit Curators: INABA

• INABA, a Los Angeles-based architecture office, is designing the LTDW information hub which will be a central source of event information for visitors. INABA has extensive experience creating pavilions and public art including information kiosks for the Festival of Ideas for a New City in New York, and, commissions for the Whitney Museum, New Museum, Public Art Norway, Gwangju Biennale, and Storefront for Art and Architecture.

ARTCUBE

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• ARTCUBE contains a novel interactive sculpture comprising photographs of the artistic processes and techniques captured by Brandon Shigeta in numerous visits to artist studios.  Stacked into random arrays forming a single cubic massing the sculpture includes hidden signed cards and custom artwork on the surface of the postcards by artists. Perhaps qualifying the exhibit as the heaviest photographic exhibit ever, the sculpture consists of approximately 65,000 postcards of approximately 80 various images to be removed by visitors as souvenirs. The sculpture provides visitors with participatory spatial and tactile experiences in which they remove their favorite images to change the overall form of the mass to reveal new images below. A ceiling mounted camera will record a time-lapse image stream of the changing topography of the top of the sculptural surface over the course of the show.

•  ARTCUBE is a concentrated agglomeration of images that form narratives of artistic processes, assemblages and details like brush strokes. Those images also reveal their specific, sometimes even illegal, locations in city space and time. Ephemeral at their origin these artistic acts will be further dissolved by ARTCUBE's visitors into a flow of the fast paced and energetic cycles of aesthetic metropolitan consumption and production. They will become postcards from the present to a wonderfully fictional future city.

• Brandon Shigeta is a Los Angeles based designer and design photographer. On completing his graduate studies in architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design Brandon won the prestigious Rotch Travelling Scholarship, which allowed him to visit many countries throughout Asia to document temporary metropolitan phenomena. His photographs were soon picked up by renowned fashion blog HYPEBEAST. Having worked in cutting edge design offices in Atlanta, Seoul and Tokyo Brandon brings a vibrant contemporary sensibility to his graphic design and photography. The art blog Arrested Motion regularly features his singular travel imagery and event coverage  You may see numerous examples of Brandon's work on his travel blog http://brandonshigeta.com/blog/.

Mystery Box

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Exhibit Curators: Megan May Daalder and Rene Daalder

• Exhibit Team: Jaine Sanchez, Donnie Luu, Dongyi Wu, Greg Batha, Kevin Nelson 

• This is your final destination in Psychic City. To begin your journey go to psychiccity.net and start your search for a like-minded individual. Once you've completed the journey, you will be guided back here to partake in an intimate bonding experience like no other.

 • Megan May Daalder is a self-styled guinea pig using video, performance, and scientific curiosity to investigate life on Earth. 

She co-produced, shot and co-wrote a soon-to-be-released documentary-feature called The Terrestrials. Her experimental video/performance Painting the Town has been exhibited internationally and will screen on Los Angeles city busses for Freewaves' Out the Window project. 

Her Mirrorbox installation recently received international attention in Paris and Poland, winning top prize (ex-aequo) at the 14th WRO Media Art Biennale. She has curated several "technology-inspired" performance exhibitions, and performed her Tribute to Karl Sims internationally.

She received a BA from UCLA's Design Media Arts department.

 • Rene Daalder has written and directed 6 feature films as well as numerous television and music related projects in Europe, the US and Canada. Often operating at the cutting edge of his medium and heavily involved with Academy Award winning special effects, software development and Grammy nominated music projects, Daalder has gained worldwide recognition as a pioneer of digital technologies.

Among his many other activities, Daalder has curated critically acclaimed art exhibits in California and Europe, lectured at universities and art schools in America and Europe, and written numerous essays on the future of digital cinema, the web, computers, art and architecture for major publications.

Robot Box: Japanese Robots Leading a Bright Future

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

•  Exhibit Curator:  Tatsuya Wada, Professor, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan

•  The production of industrial robots has increased to more than 70% globally, and Japan currently leads the world in the study of the next-generation robot technology. These robot technologies will provide us with solutions to various problems like natural disasters or other potential threats we may be facing in the future. As robot technology continues to develop, it will begin to provide a sense of relief all over the world. 

•  Designed by Flower Robotics in collaboration with other famous Japanese companies in Tokyo, our exhibition consists of actual robots, interactive demos, projected videos, and printed graphics. The content of the display includes sketches, pictures, and movies of various robots designed by Japanese companies. Moving beautifully and artistically, Palette, a mannequin type of robot, is one of the displays designed by Flower Robotics. We will also be introducing Rolly, Sony’ s dancing music player which reacts to music, and Aibo, a dog-type robot. With projected images throughout, the outer wall of the box will also appear  to move like a robot.  We are very excited to introduce these Japanese robot technologies to you at Little Tokyo Design Week.

Contributing exhibitors:

1. Flower Robotics: two mannequin robots “Palette” http://www.flower-robotics.com/english.html

2. HONDA: movie and panel data of “ASIMO” http://asimo.honda.com/

3. TOSHIBA: printed information, movie and mock-ups “ApriAlpha” http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2003_03/pr_j2001.htm

4. SONY: demonstration of “Rolly” and “AIBO”. http://www.sony.jp/rolly/ http://support.sony-europe.com/aibo/

The Los Angeles Project SCI-Arc Future Initiatives Studio, Spring 2011

Studio Faculty:                                  Andrew Zago
SCI-Arc Directors:                             HsinMing Fung and Eric Owen Moss
Future Initiatives Coordinators:           David Bergman and Peter Zellner.
 
Make no little plans. They have no power to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.

Daniel Burnham

• Urbanism as Architecture 
Los Angeles is a great city without great urbanism. While the structure and atmosphere of the city is compelling, its urban form remains an ephemeral promise rather than a concrete fact. The problem of urbanism in Los Angeles today is a problem of architecture, not planning. The spatially vague tools of urban planning, land use and policy cede the particulars of urban form to the default outcomes of non-formal processes. In contrast to this, Los Angeles requires the willful shaping of the city, imagined large and without trepidation, to bring its form in line with its aspirations.

A central proposition of the studio was that strong architectural projects, at the scale of the city, are not only of interest to other architects, but are a necessary and currently missing catalyst for a new Los Angeles.

• The Studio 
This studio made large-scale urban proposals for the city of Los Angeles. These proposals were presented in the form of specific architectural projects rather than generalized guidelines. The project considered was the City of Los Angeles' Clean Tech Corridor initiative and included Clean Tech manufacturing sites, housing, a redesign of a portion of the Los Angeles River, and a high speed rail complex. 

• Recombinant Urban Fabric
Drawing inspiration from Ildefons Cerda's Eixample plan of Barcelona, the studio designed new city block structures that interlocked building form with the form of exterior urban space and new infrastructure. Cerda's plan established a fixed and repetitive structure for the city. In contrast, this
studio looked to contemporary tools for geometric permutation to create an open set of varying urban forms.

• No Little Plans
Embracing Daniel Burnham's apocryphal dictum, the studio not only created big projects, but represented them through big drawings and big models. Together with the associated SCIFI visual studies course - Big Drawings - the studio work explored two aspects of architectural representation; the autonomous architectural drawing, and the urban panorama.

CULTURE NOW: The Contemporary American Condition Suprastudio 2010-2011*

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Department Architecture and Urban Design Exhibit

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Project director: Thom Mayne

• Exhibit Curator: Karen Lohrmann

• Exhibit Team: Dylan Barlow, Emily Cheng, Grady Gillies, Cheng Ha, Christopher Harris, Matthew Kendall, Wayne Ko, Jai Kumaran, Layton Petersen, Stacey Rigley, Clayton Taylor, Bryan Tranbarger, Sepa Sama, Yang Wang

 www.suprastudio.aud.ucla.edu

Culture Now investigates the contemporary American condition to initiate a shift in perspectives in struggling U.S. cities. By integrating public policy, urban studies, contemporary culture and its spatial manifestations, Culture Now reframes current conversations. The use of demographic, infrastructural, and cultural evidence immediately extends this discussion across disciplines, and encompasses institutional and political models of the public. 

Since August 2010, Thom Mayne, Design Director of Morphosis, Karen Lohrmann, and a group of advisors (including RAND Corporation) have been leading 14 architecture and urban design graduate students in an inquiry about the dynamics of culture, now. By identifying existing systems and correlations, dependencies, initiatives and interactions, the studio examines spatial, communal, economic and ecological transformations as instruments of change. While developing a methodological evaluation approach and applying specific selection criteria, the studio focuses on the following eight cities: Atlantic City, NJ; Mobile, AL; Cleveland, OH; Flint, MI; Merced, CA: New Orleans, LA; Toledo, OH; and Tucson, AZ. It is the specific aim of Culture Now to support urban transformation, develop and strengthen the dialogue within and amongst communities, and to integrate these findings into contemporary models of education. 

Culture Now has recently been presented to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and at the National Mayors Summit on City Design**. As of fall 2011, in collaboration with other U.S. universities, Culture Now will broaden this initiative to include additional cities across the country. 

 *Funding for Suprastudio CULTURE NOW I 2010-2011 has been generously provided by: Herta and Paul Amir, Joyce and Aubrey Chernick, Ralph and Shirley Shapiro, Hathaway Dinwiddie, F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc., Buro Happold, Davis Langdon, John A. Martin & Associates, Balfour Beatty Construction.

**The Mayors’ Institute on City Design is a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the United States Conference of Mayors.

FOOD FUTURES

University of Southern California (USC) School of Architecture Exhibit

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Exhibit Curator: Victor Jones, Assistant Professor University of Southern California School of Architecture

• Exhibit Team: Carlos Gutierrez, David hoffman, Elliott Lavi, Anish Tilak

• Food Futures is an interactive installation that spatially charts global food production and population growth data over a fifty-year period.   This three dimensional graph utilizes historical and projective research material from a range of agronomic and scientific sources.  Starting from the peak years of global agricultural production in the‘80s and ending in 2025, Food Future’s aims to expose the fragile relationship between population growth and of the massive agricultural system that feeds the human race. The installation considers a variety of humanity-driven factors that affect the world’s food supply including climate change, advancements in agricultural science, war, pest control, and disease.

Visual Art Box - Genius Party ＃5 ”Dimension Bomb” (3331 Arts Chiyoda)

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Exhibit Curator: Koji Morimoto

• This box exhibits a short animated film by Koji Morimoto. A great Japanese animator who is receiving worldwide applause, Morimoto has laid the foundation of innovative Japanese animation. This is the story of Shin, who is able to run throughout the inner world and pierce dimensional barriers. Morimoto creates his own unique amd magnificent view of the world--in exquisite collaboration with Juno Reactor (accompanying soundtrack). This is one of Morimoto's most expressive and passionate animated films. With this opportunity, he has begun preparation for his next step, a live action movie.

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami：A Photojournalistic Exhibition of the Disaster

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza)

• Exhibit Curator: KAHOKU SHIMPO PUBLISHING CO.

                        Cultural Events Dept.

                        Manager  Shinichi SUZUKI

• Exhibit Team: KAHOKU SHIMPO PUBLISHING CO.

                        Cultural Events Dept.

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Photojournalistic Container Gallery

Japan today is facing an unprecedented crisis. The images from Japan you see convey unbearable scenes of a horrible calamity. However, juxtaposed next to the horrific scenes are the bravery and composure of the Japanese people. While feeling the shock of the disaster, we are collectively filled with tremendous admiration at the way in which the victims of this tragedy are facing such extraordinary circumstances. To celebrate this peaceful yet resilient culture, Little Tokyo Design Week, The UCLA Paul I and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, and Kahoku Shimpo have come together to present a preview of this exhibit here today. Following LTDW, this exhibit will make appearances in multiple cities throughout the United States. On its return to Los Angeles, a full size exhibition will take place at the UCLA Fowler Museum in March 2012. A detailed schedule of this Traveling Exhibit will soon be listed on the following website: http://www.international.ucla.edu/japan/

The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Photojournalistic Gallery Preview and Traveling Exhibition is sponsored in part by the Japan Business Association of Southern California. The Traveling Exhibition is also sponsored in part by the Japan Foundation. 

About The Kahoku Shimpo

The Kahoku Shimpo published a collection of news photographs documenting the Tohoku region during the first ten days after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11th. As a local newspaper in the Tohoku region, we wished to convey the true nature of this disaster to the world and thus also decided to create an English version. We strive to provide timely information on the disaster every day, and the exhibition of news photographs being held in the United States is also part of this continuing effort. The exhibition not only displays large panels of the photos that appeared in the newspaper but also introduces newspaper articles about the Tohoku people’s efforts toward reconstruction and the challenges they face, with panels and sound. Some of the photos ― including those that capture the moment the tsunami struck and that depict grief-stricken residents staring at the ruined port town ― are still too painful for us to recall. But it is our sincere hope that this exhibition will help many people in the United States grasp the magnitude of the devastation caused by this catastrophe and will help widen the circle of support for the Tohoku region.

Little Tokyo Design Week supports Japan Platform through the U.S.  Japan Council Earthquake Relief Fund

Your donation will greatly help the people who have suffered and continue to suffer from the disaster of March 11. Any funds donated will be disbursed to Japan Platform (JPF), an international emergency humanitarian aid organization which offers more effective and prompter emergency aid, in response to the world situation, focusing on the issues of refugees and natural disaster, as well as other US Japan Council supported organizations. Go to the website for more information www.usjapancouncil.org/fund

Giant Robot

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (Plaza adgacent to MOCA GEFFEN)

• Exhibit Curator: Eric Nakamura

• Exhibit Team: Giant Robot

• Giant Robot's container will be a sampling of popular culture goods and more including art pieces, designer figures, and more that are influential to our existence. We'll make efforts to show a microcosm of our shops and gallery.

PLAN C

Art Center College of Design, Graduate Media Design Program (MDP) Exhibit and Installation

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza).

•  Installation and Visual Essay: Tim Durfee + amp. With Sean Donahue.

•  Exhibit team: Taylor Cunningham, Shaina Conway, Brian Hardy, Jeremy Eichenbaum, Ryan Enz, Lilianna Gonzalez, Geoffery Ka'alani, Mike Manolo, Sarah Needham, Bora Shin.

•  Despite Japan’s exceptional disaster planning, the suffering and property loss caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami have been of a scale one would expect befalling a less defensively equipped population. Indeed, in recent years we continue to witness - worldwide -  intolerable gaps between similarly careful contingencies and actual devastation, post-disaster.  Perhaps these discrepancies should prompt a fundamental rethinking of our relationship to disaster preparation. Plan C revisits several assumptions emergency management agencies make when planning for the unknown in the form of three speculative proposals.   Individual preparedness: The current policy of US agencies for emergency management is “every man for himself” regarding access to the essentials of life immediately following a disaster. Is it still realistic to expect all individuals to execute this level of personal responsibility? What about the homeless, or those for whom stocking up on essentials for a possible future is an unimaginable luxury? Other species hoard food during times of abundance to enable survival in times of paucity - often creating specific structures for this purpose. Public Survival Works considers a city of the future that institutes the containment of life-sustaining materials as part of its physical infrastructure.  Preserving property: Choosing to live in a high-risk area, such as a location prone to forest fires, puts strain on publicly funded municipal services to preserve private property when disaster strikes. Burning Down the House: a Modest Proposal for Fire Zone Development is a form of housing that isolates safe zones from those considered expendable - allowing the natural cycle of fires to take place while people, pets, and possessions are safe. Protecting businesses: If people are without nourishment over days before help arrives, it is inevitable that food formerly acquired through commercial exchange becomes forfeited to the public good. Friendly Looting: Democratizing the Inevitable proposes ways that - before a crisis - plans could be made for the effective, non-destructive, and democratic distribution of goods from businesses that carry essentials for survival.

PechaKucha Box

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza)

 •  Installation by:  Mohamed Sharif, Faculty, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) & Principal, Sharif Studio in collaboration with Klein Dytham Architecture, Tokyo.

•  The LTDW PechaKucha Box design will evoke the energy and buzz of the legendary global Pecha Kucha network conceived in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo-based Klein Dytham architecture.  Named for the Japanese phrase meaning “the sound of conversation” PechaKucha is renowned for its concise presentation format, which ensures the rapid multiplication of creative audiovisual chatter at events in major cities the world over.  With ‘Future City’ as its thematic focus the LTDW PechaKucha box will create a lively pass-through environment populated and saturated with fast-paced sights and sounds - slides, videos and presentation panels - of visionary cities and city life.

Media Art Box-DesktopBAM-(3331 Arts Chiyoda)

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza)

• Exhibit Curator: Naoki Sato (ASYL)

• Exhibit Team: exonemo (Kensuke Sembo, Yae Akaiwa) http://exonemo.com/

• One of the most distinguished media artist in Japan,  “Exonemo” creates experimental works incorporating multiple mediums such as the internet, interactive installations and custom hardware. His work originates from unique perspectives of observing the relationship between humans, media structure and the internet. These projects continue to make new and surprising impacts upon us.  In this exhibition we will introduce astonishing selected works by "Exonomo".

OLIVE-Open designs & ideas for earthquake survivors-(3331 Arts Chiyoda)

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza)

• Exhibit Curator: Toshikazu Goto(gift_lab), Fumiko Goto(gift_lab), Arina Tsukada

• Exhibit Team: NOSIGNER

• The loss of life is a devastation if knowledge could have prevented it. To prevent the unnecessary loss of lives, we started a Wiki project called OLIVE which collects ideas and designs that can be useful in disaster stricken areas.  On May 13th 2011 two days after the earthquakes, OLIVE was established by NOSIGNER.  Within a week, more than 100 innovative ideas were uploaded to OLIVE receiving many reactions from the public, as well as expressions of gratitude from those who had suffered losses. To help distribute these ideas worldwide, they been translated by Creative Commons and Volunteers into four languages. We would love to share the experience with others in earthquake prone areas worldwide, such as California.

Tokyo | LA Houses Exhibition

07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (JACCC Plaza)

• Exhibit Curator: Masataka Baba / Joe Day

• Exhibit Team: Open A / deegan day design / Atelier Hitoshi Abe

• Tokyo / LA Houses Exhibition of Little Tokyo Design Week will highlight Japanese and Californian architectural practices that explore new efficiencies of scale, construction and reduced ecological impact, posing innovative possibilities for the future of small-scale residential design.  

• Housed on the Noguchi Plaza of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, this exhibition will showcase over twenty paired projects from Japan and California with architectural drawings, models, and images. Additionally, we hope to auction these models at the end of LTDW, with proceeds going to Archi+Aid for the Japan disaster relief efforts.

Ojama

Calvin Riki Abe, Landscape Architect & Public Artist

 07.14.11 - 07.17.11, Little Tokyo (exact location of container TBD)

• An exploration of space, time, materiality, and experience of the natural world: the straw wattle is used as a medium to examine how we respond to nature’s interruption of the manufactured environment.

http://www.ahbe.com/