Sputniko - Jaapn foundation/ica talk
Interesting talk the Japan foundation with ICA. Sputniko is a Japanese singer/artist/robotics girl who has a record label in Japan. Did Mathematics and Computer Science in her Bachelor years, then graduate in Royal college of arts. And is currently teaching as a assistant professor in MIT media lab. Extremely popular when you checked out her website, seems to be on the cover of a lot of magazines.
She writes her songs and lyrics, and does music video in a very Japanese anime style, not sure that was my taste. But the subjects that she takes on was amazingly interesting, and she manages to be selected and pick up by museums and labels like Gucci to commission her to do work. She is very young and just graduated in RCA in 2011. It seems she has an amazing career so far and more ahead of her. I'm rather envious to be honest.
In the talk she talks about 4 main projects she has worked on and currently working on. The grad show in RCA is a menstruation device that she created. She showed us the music video, if she hasn't been there to explain, I would just think it is all fake, as that what usually video's are. So she choose to be the performer and think up of a loose narrative and sing it out. I personally would never thought of that of a combination really. Her story was the man who wants to be woman also want to feel the pain of the menstruation cycle, so she created a device which looks like a metal belt and will clutch the stomach to evoke pain for the person wearing it. There is also a 150ml of fluid dripping at the back of the device, as when the women is menstruating. Interesting fact that she researches that the pill can actually stop women menstruating, and the scientists knew in the 1960s that the pill can do that, but they choose to have the women not take the third week, so that they can menstruate. Also interesting is Japan didn't allow women to use the pill until 1999, right after 3 weeks viagra was invented. Viagra was approved in 6 weeks. That shows one how Japanese men is so chauvinist and still controlling the society in many ways. From that grad show, she put in online, and got a lot of hits, and New York MOMA and a Japanese museum, which I don't remember the name, invited her to do a show.
Second project she talked about is she did a crow bot that talks to the crows, and she worked with a Cambridge professor specialising in crows talking. And she showed us a clip that she did a test in Hyde Park here in London.
Third project, she did a robot that have a high heel foot mark on the moon, critiquing on there are only mainly men astronauts but not women.
Fourth project, which is currently working on, and expanding is. She talked about the red strings myth, which I used as a concept in the collaborative work in Unit 1. She explained that she wanted to see if she can produce red threads or strings generically. So she went around and found that injecting coral hormones into the silk worm will actually produce a red silk thread. The eyes of the moth will also become glowing red, much like cylons in the tv series "Battlestar galactica". They also found out that injecting will then turn green. She explained that the hormones are actually love hormones. So right now in the island they have build a whole exhibition site with this idea in mind. Gucci also commission her to do an exhibition with a coat that glows with the silk worm, it looks normal in normal light, but once wearing a yellow filter glasses, you will be able to see an array of colours. See picture below.
What a take on, how brilliant to have a idea and turn into something so big. She is humorous and witty, and she is a singer? A very interesting combination indeed. And certainly has given me some thoughts on the way how I work currently. She represents the new generation who works online and make it to something workable and managed to have so many sponsors. That is what I am most impressed about. She worked with a whole crew of people, and so do I, but I also think she has a great PR skill. Well, being a pop singer in Japan does help, but still.
