Nothing but some, things

I went to Digital Design Week at Southbank Centre
in London Design Festival.

Well, I think the event was not so good...
They had a seminar by apple talking about a workflow
of digital design process, and a debate about new media by i-design.
I was not afford to listen to i-design as it was 60 pounds,
the apple's talk was rather sales-talk to explain
how easy exchanging data between process will be easy on mac,
how easy managing digital assets, how good the interface of mac is,
how you can work on broad cross media creation.
(Well, it indeed looked so easy and efficient
...if you have all these mac software!)

Outside the hall, they were displaying some digital design contents,
but it was not such a big thing.
The only content which looked to be popular was wacom's cut and paste,
there were lots of people drawing using the tablet.

The other things were, portfolio clinic where you can talk with
people from the industry, and Y Design Award ceremony.
But everything didn't seem smooth, I couldn't find many staff
who understand what's/where going on there,
and there were few people.

I felt a bit strange that the contents were not interactive
despite they are introducing interactive contents,
or perhaps they were interactive but it was not clearly displayed.

...Anyway, LDF goes on for a while, so I'd like to visit
more other events.

By the way, I liked the website by Mercedes C class,
which won the Interactive Awards and YDA.
The design is sophisticated and simple,
and it explains the concept of the car design
using simple interactive games.

Well, this is not related to London, but...

Since I came here, I needed to open new accounts a lot
such as bank or mobile.
The problem is always password or PIN.
I can't remember which one was for what,
and I got locked out from the online banking a few days ago,
and from my mobile as well.

For online banking, I need ID number and PIN as well as
"memorable word", and have to type them all the time to log in.
But they set lots of rules such as "within *** words" or
type of characters or no use of the same characters.
Once you start thinking like "Oh what should I choose...
err...I can't use this...not this one either...",
it's already far away from "memorable".
OK, perhaps I was a bit stupid not to have written down even hint,
but it was so embarrassing to call to the bank
saying "Sorry, I couldn't memorise the memorable word".

In the case of mobile, I had no idea how to change the PIN,
so I left it as it was, but forgot about it and entered some
different PIN. The result was locked out again.
The start guide says I need to read the handset manual
to change the PIN, but the manual only explains what happens
if I forget PIN. What can I do???

Anyway, I solved the both case, but still I need to memorise
student ID, ID for library, etc etc...feeling dizzy by numbers and alphabets!
Please anyone, give me a high spec memory in my brain.

I like walking along the Thames.

I think, around Westminster is always full of tourist,
but around Design Museum which located near to Tower Hill
is rather less people and good place to relax.
If the weather is good, Tower Bridge looks amazing as well.

The museums on Japanese tour guidebook are usually
something focus on fine arts, but Design Museum
handles rather contemporary designing including
commercial arts, and it's good for me to study.
The building is not so big, but I like it as well.
The museum shop inside it has lots of interesting books.
I got an one year membership!

So, the current exhibitions are "Tim Walker" and "industrial Facility".
Tim Walker's pictures are mainly used for VOGUE, and I really liked them.
The tone of transparency + British + Fairy tales.
The layout and curves are extremely sophisticated,
and the contrast created by lighting is also beautiful.
In case the layout is simple, he uses unique balance of colours
or unique impression of the model (people or animal).
It seemed he liked treating words as visual factor as well,
and the exhibition, including his sketches, was clearly showing his world.

The other was a typical product design exhibition
which is quite common in Japan as well.
It was interesting lots of "MUJI" products were shown.
I remember John Maeda, in his blog,
also said how MUJI's design succeeded simplicity.
But the one I liked the most was Two Times by Establish&Sons.
I like imbalance of this. But...is it easy to use???

Design Museum website
Tim Walker website
Establish&Sons website

The Woman in Black, which has been played for 19 years
at the Fortune Theatre in London.
The drama was exported to Japan in 1992, directed by Robin Herford,
and have been played some times for years.
Hearing that "Japanised" version would be re-imported to
the Fortune Theatre as "Japanese Week", I couldn't help but
buying the tickets without any thoughts.
The actors are Takaya Kawakami and Haruhiko Saito.
Sounds like it is a horror story...but no any other information.
But isn't it so interesting that a classic drama which was born in
England went to Japan and come back to London?

As I went to see it with my British boyfriend,
I booked Dress circle sheets which English subtitles are available.
The theatre was very small and almost all of audience were Japanese.
I wish I could seen English people's reaction, but Kamikawa
is such a popular actor in Japan, so this is a natural consequence.

The story begins by a lawer, Kipps (Saito), starting to read
a scenario in a small theatre. He had experienced a horrific time in the past,
and to escape from the nightmare, he decided to tell the story to his family.
He hired a young actor to teach him how to do "story-telling",
but the actor, being surprised by Kipps's inability to "act", suggested
that he plays the role of young Kipps, and Kipps plays the other characters.
And then their rehearsal starts...

Kipps's horror experience seemed a very orthodox ghost story at first,
and didn't sound scary at all. But as the story goes, the sense of horror
increases little by little, and it flooded with terror at the end.
Can you imagine the situation you have to stay alone in an isolated
old mansion (with a cemetery) in English country side for a few nights?

I felt that the sense of horror in England and Japan is similar somehow.
There was a basic creepy sensation like "The ring" (Japanese horror film)
rather than just using "surprise" or showing "gros".
And in a complicated "play within a play",
along with revealing the background story,
the feeling of horror and antipathy grows as well.
I think the popularity in Japan is quite reasonable.

Anyway, despite the simplicity of the stage and casts,
two actors were successfully creating the air of terror.
Kamikawa was a bit too "British young man",
but his performance to express horror was outstanding at the last half.
On the contrary, Saito silently played old Kipps, who looked so serious,
and the other characters, with amazing contrast.
The critical point of this type of play should be how much they can evoke
audience's imagination, but they were true professional.
You can't miss any scenes both comical and serious.

The all script was in Japanese, but their conversations were quite British.
The way they act might be very Japanese,
but their clothes, setting, direction were quite British as well.
I could experience such a unique atmosphere.

Well, now I feel like I should go to see the original English version...

More information is here.
The article by The Times is here.

Although it's been more than 2 weeks already,
I went to Liverpool with friends!
It was just the date of the Beatles Week,
and Matthew Music Festival, so it was soooo difficult
to book accommodation. Fortunately I could find a
B&B and a-not-so-cheap-hotel in last minutes.

I went there by Mega Bus but it was not so comfortable...
But 30 pounds for return. It's so cheap. 6 hours journey...

At the first night, we went to Matthew Street,
listened to lots of the beatles songs played by lots of bands,
at Cavern Pub and Cavern Club. It looked the audience were
not so young...? But everyone loves the beatles,
everyone sings together, and it was so fun!!!

The second day, we went to PennyLane and Strawberry fields.
Although we needed to take a bus from city centre,
it was closer than I imagined. The weather was so nice,
and we enjoyed walking around the area.

After that, returning city centre, enjoying Matthew Street Festival,
going to the beatles shop, finally we returned to Matthew Street.
It was so comfortable that I could hear the sound of
the beatles wherever I walked.

Unfortunately we had to go back to London
early in the morning on the third day.

By the way, Beech B&B was very kind
to prepare for breakfast early in the morning
and ask for our favour...thanks!