counting souvenirs

Little Poika from japanese Bandai is a little flame who wants to be a ballet-dancer. 

This lamp/toy enters her candle-light stage as it gets dark (dancing around!) and goes to hide if you blow at her or it gets light enough again. (Poika is also supposed to play a tune if you tap the edge of the candle but mine does not seem to want to..)

http://rainbowspice.jp/poika/ for the whole story.

flourishing wall

Throwing red balls at a blank white wall was all off a sudden a fantastic suprising and beautiful experience as it looked like the ball hitting the wall made projected flowers erupt and grow in a very neat animated manner.

(the solution for this perfect timing was not touch-sensored but a cam. that detected the red ball as it was in the air, and positioned "seeds"/ plants to be projected at that spot milliseconds after.) 

hurrah! (robo 07)

Ok, so these don't actually do much in comparison to industrial assembly robots, (also featured at the fair) but these toys and their stories are some of many which contribute to the way we envision "human robots" as we tend to design for known visions of the future. (More often than not it seems like we design from consciously or sub-consciously adopted ideas of the future, rather than create our own of alternative nows.. -just a stray thought.)

Hexbug

One of many weird things from Tokyo: A robotic cockroach that responds to sounds and obstacles in its way. (it came with me back to Oslo and is now running around in my apartment. Luckily it does not reproduce quickly.)

Lost in translation. (and pretty much everything else.)

Tokyo is sort of chaotic for someone not speaking japanese, despite all the lovely technology enabling new possibilities within interaction between humans (and nearly everything else). 

That being said. Tokyo is the best city (or cities) in the world!

As I have very limited time left until I return to Norway the 9. of november, the hunt for experience and new knowledge is increasing quite intencely. -Peeking today as I hit the robo-2007 exhibition, and the Roppongi Crossing 2007. (the latest being the most impressive and hart-pumping, geeky contemporary art-exhibition I've ever been to.)

I've been peeping into some of my classmates blogs, to try and catch up in a sickening short amount of time,(thanks Knut!)  and find that the only way to justify skipping school like I have these last days is the eye-opener this trip to Tokyo has been. 

(Tiny hint: Anything is possible.)

Pre Tokyo :: QR

Everyone seems to have these QR's (of Quick Response) on their websites..

Sort of bar-code system for accessing by mobile-phones.

You're supposed to take a picture of it (scan it) with your phone and you'll access the data stored in the tag or go to the link if it  stores URL-addresses.

The system was initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing but are now all over in every visual media. The codes are also known as hardlinks and physical world hyperlinks and you can generate your own prints by visiting free QR-generating sites.

Pre Tokyo :: Tokyo Art Beat >findings

Ill. by Thiago Batista, one of the people preforming at Cut and Paste, a battling-event between illustrators/visual artists/etc.  for 15 minutes of fame. (forget all about DJ's and VJ's. THIS is it.. and the happening is of course sponored by Adobe.)