Posted:Jul 1, 2007

Day 6 DIVVY/dual Project #1 “Type-Trace”

This past Saturday, I worked five hours at the gallery Kobo&Tomo where the DIVVY/dual project was on show for the sixth and the last day.

My role as the sixth participating writer in the project and a gallery assistant was to write a review of the show, while helping the visitors to use the software. It was a very busy day and writing in such conditions turned out more difficult then I’d thought. I did just the minimal amount of editing, correcting the most obviously unreadable, before posting my multiple entries from the day here. And here is my work with the original titles of my files.

thespace01
The building is old but charming. The gallery is located in the basement. I arrived here today well before the opening time to have my computer set up for a day of work by the artist, Takumi Endo. He arrived promptly and quickly installed the application called “Type-Trace” on my machine. So, by now, noon, I’m all set for the last day of DIVVY/dual exhibit at the Space Kobo and Tomo. I’m the sixth writer, on the sixth day of the show writing a review of this ‘experimental show’. Sitting in a dated looking chair, with my laptop on a low and equally dated table/stool, I need to lean forward to be able to type. The atmosphere of the gallery is a bit sci-fi. The walls and the floor are all white and it’s a small space, one can estimate no more than 2.5 by 5 meters. There are three projectors and three computers, all projecting typed files that have been collected over the last few days. _

thespace02
Having introduced the space I should mention something about the show’s design. I guess I should not say mention as I’m writing a review of the show. The show is based on a piece of software designed by Takumi Endo. It allows to retrace all the strokes a writer takes while composing his or her piece. Later it could be replayed in real time. The size of the font changes proportionally to the pause the typist’s fingers take before every stroke of the keyboard. And it sure makes me self-conscious.
So what will I get from this exhibit, except for a piece of software that had been installed on my machine. As a writier, I’m very curious about how other writers work, what kind of approach do they take to composing, how much do they edit ad-hoc, how much later? How do they structure they works? All of this and more is possible to be replayed with this application. I’ll not learn much about other people’s work except perhaps by looking at the other five writer’s works collected in over the couple of days, which I have not done.
When I arrived here today, my first thought as to how to approach this task of reviewing the show was to start with the big picture, the description of the Ginza building the show is taking place. The building is a former all women dormitory that some time ago has been turned into a complex of galleries. Most of those galleries are, I understand, rental galleries. This set up makes the gallerists less committed to ‘produce’, but perhaps makes the place more energetic with people like the present curator of the show, Dominick Chen, putting up innovative shows._

noise01
Descending into the gallery space, one can already hear the noise of the typewriter. This imitation of mechanical sound is digital and is coming from the computer that are not in use. It brings to mind the tacky “old style” rotary phone ring tones in the cellphone. But this typewriter noise has no such unpleasant associations. For a while, I was here alone with two other machines retracing the saved files, it felt almost in the company of other writers. Now the typewriter’s clicks have ceased because of the arrival of two visitors who have started composing. I wonder if I did not feel more surrounded by people hearing the computers typing away then now when I have people around me? Probably not, somehow this presence of actual makes this experience more carnal. _

open-source
Type Trace ver DIVVY/dual is the first installment of the open source art exhibits by Chen and the non-profit organization behind Tokyo Art Beat, Gadago. So, what do they mean when they talk about open source art? To me as well as to the artists in general it is a delicate matter. How does open one’s art to the public intervention? How does open to the other artists to input their ideas into one’s work? The designers in other fields have come to terms with it, while the artist have stayed behind, or it seems so. Perhaps it should stay that way. But why not allow the curators and gallery owners to do their share of open source curating. This is what the team behind this show has done. The artist supplied the software while the curators opened a discussion about possible routes to take to make art more open to intervention.
As I’m rereading what I’ve written, I realize that artist are not closed to this discussion, except for the fact that they stick to their ideas more closely. It’s a way of survival, as long as an artist needs to find a commercial buyer. The minute this dependance goes away, I’m certain that the artist will jump on the opportunity to share his/her ideas. _

littleboy
A family just passed by the gallery. The young parents brought a little boy with them. He started running around the gallery and we could barely contain his energy. I had to get up and entertain the little 1-year and 9 months old being. At one point I decided to allow him to draw an entry into the guest book and could not tear him way from it. I’m guessing he was one of the youngest visitors of the space. _

mymacwasdead
It’s really busy and it is difficult to concentrate. People are coming and looking at the screens typing away often strange texts. And where did I leave off. I guess I was trying to say something about my computer crash. I did not, but I will. Well, it crashed on Saturday, a week ago. After several hours of repeated attempts to revive it, I decided to take it to the genius bar in Ginza. It was pronounced dead(Ashley, I just realized that I’m ripping your idea, writing an obituary about how I lost my machine. In my case it’s an ER surgery report, but I feel it’s a bit of a rip off, so I should acknowledge the sources. You can send me the link to your blog entry and I will post it here. We can have our own little open source project). I was hoping that it would turn out to be a minor surgery, but no, the heart had stopped and my MacBook needed an immediate transplant. I left it in the good hands of the genius bar team. I was told that my machine would be brought back to normal by Wednesday or Thursday. I was waiting for the phone call from the Apple store, but it never came. My video editing work was piling up and I was not able to do even the simplest tasks at my usual pace. I finally gave the store a call on Thursday afternoon, hoping that they would tell me that my machine was waiting for me. But no, not only was the machine not ready, the parts were not even there. It was not easy to get through the automatic phone recording to speak with a living being. When I finally got through, I was told that the parts would be in Tokyo on Friday. So, I waited again, and again I needed to make another phone call to the store. While I was waiting on the line, listening to a song by REM, by the way, the only song that stroke my fancy on the few occasions I had to call the store. It was taking a really long time. While I was making that call from a fixed phone I got a call on the cell phone. I was told that I could pick up the machine first thing in the morning. It was a great relief, knowing that I would be able to use it at the gallery and that I would be able to restart my work on the videos that I was working on when my laptop crashed.
I arrived at the store at 10am and within 15 minutes I was out of there with a new HD ‘beating inside my mac.’ _

triptoLondonetal
I’m on a trip around the world, or almost around the world. I left New York, where I’m based, at the end of May. My first stop was London. I stayed there for two day. My goal was to see the city and take as many pictures as possible, and of course to see art, to see museum and galleries. The weather was perfect on the first two days and I was happy with the amount of sightseeing I managed to do. Did I say two days? First two days? Yeah, so after all I was there longer than two days, it must have been three or four, but who’s gonna remember that, three months later and dosen of counteris later(how do you spell dozen…this looks much better). My main destination in Europe was my brother’s home in Poland, where I was to stay for about three to four weeks. Well, so I flew to Warsaw, managed to almost miss my flight, but made it on time. Right there I established a precedence on this trip of making it to my transportation barely on time. I guess I was lucky, up until Singapore and my boat trip to the Bintam island. But I guess I should talk about it in due time, two months after my departure from NY. _

interrupted
This review is part of the Tokyo Art Beat writers’ review project in connection with the exhibit called DIVVY/dual. The exhibit is an open source art project and hopefully the first of several events, art exhibits. Every day since Monday, one of the the TAB’s writers was here to overlook the gallery and write. At this point I see that it was not an easy task to accomplish. With the people coming and going, one can hardly concentrate on anything. Still, it’s one of the most interesting projects that one would create for writers. Being able to see your own ‘creative’ process must be just fascinating.
So, on the one hand it’s the writers who are benefitting from the shows application, on the other it’s the artist who is learning about how people are using his software.
Then there is also the curator and the gallerist, who both have a slightly different role in this particular show, as they need to work according to the rules of the open source art.

interrupted2
One more hour to closing for the day and to closing of the show. The day was busy and short. Most people did not hesitate to use the software and to save their works. Several people came in and went straight to try it out without searching for much explanation, or with none at all. Two young men just recently came by and stayed for about 10 minutes typing. It was interesting to see that although or perhaps because they were probably comfortable with all computer things, they typed lots of nonsense, playing with the application, trying it out….using symbols and nonsense words…interrrrrrupted– really experimenting with the work._

difficult
After a busy five hours of introducing people to the project while writing, I hope I’ve made enough entries to pull together a decent length review. I’m totally loosing my concentration now. I enjoy listening to people talking around me, so it’s very difficult to write in these conditions. The day was busy. Did I say that? Yes I did.

Two other English language reviews have been posted here:
Day 1 DIVVY/dual Project #1 “Type-Trace”
Day 5 DIVVY/dual Project #1 “Type-Trace”

Aneta Glinkowska

Aneta Glinkowska

Born in Poland. She has lived in New York since 1996, where she attended college and graduate school. To escape the routine of science labs in college, she went to the movies daily. Following an MA in Cinema Studies, she roams Tokyo as a writer, visiting art galleries daily and blogging about art events. She's looking for opportunities to write about art and cinema for all types of publications. Contact via email: aneta [at] tokyoartbeat [dot ]com.