INFORMATION

Our work concerns critical production in the form of architecture(s), support systems, and writing.¹

Est. 2006, currently based in Tokyo, Japan.

ET AL., ETC. について

私達の作品と仕事は、建築（アーキテクチャ）、サポートシステム、そして執筆を通し、その批判的な生産行為に重点を置いています。 2006年に設立され、現在は東京を基点に活動をしています。¹

FOR / WITH

2012 PROJECTS

ON KAWARA STAMP KIT 2012

20-letter wide stamp, to continue with OKSK. 'OK' foil embossed & laser etched message on handle. 5mm charset (font identical to the previous kit): A-Z, blanks, and the very few other characters you'll need. H9 (13 with handle) x W10.7 x D3.1 cm. All components made in Japan. Available.

BIRTHDAY CAKE (AN ASIDE)

HOLZER TRUISMS (日本語)
MEGAWORDS, translation for MW in TKY

HOKKAIDO (2011-

A house for this plot of land in Hokkaido, Japan. Updates as the project develops.

大樹町

2011 PROJECTS

A SELECTION FOR BOOKLET
AT APPROACHES TO WHAT?

ON HELMETS

Graphic design for helmet and card coding system for disaster relief contractors in Tohoku, Japan. Code contains personal ID and work log for long-term accountability.

STRETCH EAMES

Concept for an Eames bench for someone in Tokyo.

Walter Wayle IV, or, Harpooners Watch
(by MAE, et al., etc.)
& "...criticisms & allegations"

Our contributions to Fixed -- two re-pairs of design objects -- are a commentary on originary ethics and an attempt to define the term slighted literalism.⁸ The components used to construct the pair of Swatches in WWIV were found or acquired separately over the course of the past few months; the collector’s value or original worth of the pair¹⁰ is obliterated and meaning has been repaired out of the objects. A new idea is its worth: WWIV is simply the continuation of Tobias Wong’s “harpooning” of Philippe Starck’s “whale-fin” WWII.⁶

The two Comme des Garçons shirts comprising the second pair have been delicately resized to fit an almost standard, meanwhile very particular, US size small (as in the ÉY half of ET AL., ETC.). Here too, the collector’s worth of the garments are sacrificed so that a concept might continue to be worn.⁷ 

Walter Wayle IV, or, Harpooner’s Watch (by MAE, et al., etc.)
Swatch watch faces, watch bands, gem cases, paperings, corresponding box recovered, generic watch face covers, edition of 2 boxed sets;
1 3/8 x 9 inches watches, installation dimensions variable.

“has declined comment on these criticisms and allegations”
Two Comme des Garçons shirts from 2003, two lucite hangers, Japan (relative) S or M, dimensions often variable.

GLASS OBJECTS

Glass Nails. A tourist object for Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. 100 superfine glass nails (10 of each size). Like plastic nails, each is etched with its size as relative to the set. Comes in a run-of-the-mill lucite nail case. May be adhered with tape or glue. Nails are a manageable length (not for all out gyarus); may be painted, but there's really no need to cover up this sort of trivial excess. Range from 7 x 11mm (size 1) to 14 x 17mm (size 10).

Glass Hanger. A simplified version of a hanger made for Yu some time ago by Kohta Mitamura / Developed for a clients' collection of CdG garments.
Suitable for lightweight garments and shirts of the sheer sort. 8.25 x 15.25 inches (sizes S & M).

L'AMOUR C'EST UNE BON^E IDEE

An edition of 24 found sweaters onto which an edit has been needlepointed, spelling out the difference between novelty and novel expression. Likely quite obvious where this is for. Edit executed in cotton yarn. Womens S - L or mens XS-M, 8 of each size.

A collection of kits (Hints) and doodads (Incidentals) available through Subports. Like the Tourist Objects from 2010, these are a critique and commentary on design and kitsch, slighted literalisms of what constitutes "design object.” All items are made in Japan or made with materials made in Japan.

T: A Pair of Scissors, Blinky, On Kawara, Shapes & Patterns, S & P them yourself, Nuts & Bolts
B: Gold / Silver Shit, Combs, Glass Straws, Rounds, Clear Directives, Olmec

Previously available through Subports, now available here.

PAST PROJECTS

TOURIST OBJECTS, PART 1.

These objects, prepared and produced specifically for People of Resource's Y'All & Us, are a collection of souvenirs from our recent travels. They are a commentary on the knowing ways of kitsch (ie. death, narcissism) that cripple design, objects that reflect a belief that not everything has to be re-designed or pastiched, rather, their use-value and originary ethics are edited. For us, these are slighted literalisms of what constitutes "design object.” We are interested in the use-value and posturing of stories and rumors, of places and people.²

L-R: Tourist Notebooks, Trusted Sentiments, Roman Candles, A Pencil for Architects in the Digtal Age, Tourist Toothbrush, , On Kawara (see below)

Previously available through Subports, now available here.

ON KAWARA, A STAMP KIT.

A stamp kit produced for People of Resource's Y'All & Us. Weeks after the P.O.R show, we read somewhere that On Kawara's box of stamps had been stolen in Stockholm in 1979, which put an end to the I Got Up At series.³ In the same language of pure coincidence, production of this stamp kit will end when someone is able to give one to On Kawara.

M/B STUDIO

Design details for the house which now stands on the lot below for an architectural design firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If, for some reason, you are able to document the outcome of the work for us...

+

BY ALL MEANS, (RISD ARCHITECTURE AT BEYOND MEDIA SOS)

An exhibition of student work that we curated, designed, and installed for RISD Architecture in 2009. The show was designed for a school that still draws with their hands (as effectively as they do with computers), as a way to evidence that digital technologies and media can, in the realm of architecture, produce a field condition as a way to counter a typically object-driven discourse.

QR (Quick Response) code wallpaper -- over 500 feet of screen printed Tyvek -- was used to clad/bombard the show and tag the postcards and oversized folios — they serve as both medium of reference, means of engagement. The codes used point to websites and digital data associated with the RISD Architecture Department. The purpose of using this code is as graphic and pattern (ornament with a use-value) AND as simple way to quickly connect the viewer with associated content, in the presence of the show and beyond. Every photograph taken of the show contains recoverable data; the photograph is granted another set of ends. See additional images through RISD Flickr, or click the image below.

Produced with and special thanks to Jason Atkins, Laura Blosser, and Alex Bertrand McCargar.

& RISD ARCHITECTURE
DEPARTMENT WEBSITES

Three websites (one reactivated, two new) for the RISD Architecture Department; RISD ARCH main, RISD Architectural Series, and an exhibition archive. Designed with the option of non-linear, distracted browsing.

ON THE BAYOU

Writing and images regarding Grand Bayou, LA, where descendants of the first Filipinos to settle in the United States still reside.

Excerpt (full text to follow), by YM:
At the mouth of the bay which claims Grand Bayou is the Grand Isle, where an arrival is accompanied by a departure. As if a non--destination, all the tourism is in the navigational approach, a between here-to-there, a trace of infrastructural colors awaiting those passing through. The turning point, a park where most of the land inhabitation is stilted, lumps of mosquito dusk the air. With the slightest hint of bodily odor, they tint our sight, we wear them. They are nowhere to be sited on our maps or navigation system, they are only apparent to those who have sited themselves in the place. It is an atmosphere that is almost tangible, that is simultaneously attracted to one’s body: it is an architectural problem, since they suppose our response in the fabrication of structures. This is life becoming the structure of the location, and a consideration for mosquitoes as infrastructures of the site is compulsory for architecture to take place.

The resolution of architecture’s facial apertures corresponds to the unit pixels of mosquitoes. These screened structures ponder the problem of their entry and exit: windows separate view and ventilation, balconies that surround their contour for unclogging screens… Typologically, they resemble structures on land which anticipate new floodlines—balconies and facades, like the piano-rustico of Italian architecture presenting the story from above as their prominent inhabitation. These structures, however, are not concerned with their prominence, rather, they estimate their possible sectional inhabitation and infrastructural intent, resting on parameters ever afloat.

L: toward a reductive logic of what may or may not be found there; R: A map with revised notations concerning the Grand Bayou. See also, Architectures of Nonchalance.

CONTACT

DIRECTORY / ELSEWHERE

People / efforts / attitudes we respect and support.

¹ We are currently available for translations, space planning and architectural design, public programming, design writing and the development of specific objects. Please contact us.
今現在は、翻訳、空間計画と建築設計、パブリックプログラミング、デザインに関する執筆、そして特殊なオブジェの開発を承っています。 是非ご連絡下さい。

² Tourist Objects is technically, somewhat, of a paracollaboration with Travis Ekmark.
³ See http://bit.ly/rrogpI.
⁵ Tobias Wong's work may be found on his website and mirror. This article may provide clues about this work.
⁶ http://bit.ly/lpAdP5
⁷ http://bit.ly/odlRii
⁸ slight or slighted; in either case, we're interested in its use as adjective
¹⁰ Look for hints in the title / Google search.

Last update: 19 March 2012

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