freelance writer
Maggie Kinser Hohle  
  (Maggie Kinser Saiki)
 
Welcome
 
 
Welcome to my site. For 20 years I've been writing magazine and newspaper articles and books about design, architecture, and Japan. On maggietext.com, you'll find links to some of my favorite work, as well as comments on recent ideas. Feel free to contact me with your thoughts.
 
What's New
 
 

This summer I came across Theme magazine. And once again, as if it were twenty years ago, I got excited about reading and writing for magazines. Theme is new, run by an Asian-American couple (John Lee and Jiae Kim) and it's beautiful. Best of all, it's alive. Maybe because a lot of the people Lee and Kim choose are young, and haven't yet had time to create their print personae. Maybe because the editors and photographers really want to find out what makes artists, designers, and other creators tick. Anyway, I contributed to issue 3, whose theme was Skin, with a story about Kenya Hara, a designer, writer and interdisciplinary design project planner for whom I have undying respect, and in whose determined progress I am entirely fascinated. I also contributed to issue 4, themed Siblings, with a story about the Koshino sisters, Hiroko and Michiko, two outrageously powerful designers who came of age shortly after the end of WWII and live comfortably in a global community of creators. Theme is nominally about contemporary Asian culture (you have to draw the boundaries somewhere), but I think it's really about the excitement of interacting with the world as a human being. Check it out: http://www.thememagazine.com.

Clippings
Issue 5 - THEME : History
Issue 6 - THEME : The Word

Kenya Hara also appears in November's I.D. magazine, by chance, because the two stories were planned on completely different timelines. The I.D. story concentrates on the Haptic project, and Hara's uncanny ability to harness the brilliance of dozens of creators in the service of a single curious message. Haptic is about engaging all of the senses, because he believes we're being understimulated, no matter how real the virtual world has become. Hara sees a bright future, which is one of the reasons I like to hook into his wavelength.

In mid-October, I spent several enjoyable hours talking about matchbox labels in a forum at Columbia University's Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, with Professor Henry Smith (Japanese History, Columbia) and Professor Hiroshi Kashiwagi (History of Modern Design, Musashino Art University). The professors were enlightening, but most invigorating was the show-and-tell that followed. Audience members brought such an array of matchbox label-related aesthetic ephemera that I felt quite the novice, and got excited all over again about the incredible expanse of the worlds that can be expressed through this miniscule medium. I saw a collection of labels from the 1800s, one from the 1970s, still on their boxes, oversized and exquisite digital prints of 1930's labels, and an entire book written around actually tipped-in erotic labels. Incredible. The most interesting part of Professor Kashiwagi's presentation was that most of these images were not copyrighted. Are we there again yet, with the Net? Or are we going in the opposite direction? Which is better for the public, and the artist?

Immersed in the Net on some days, I am struck by the democracy of the medium, but also by the need to discriminate. Blogs and zines and sites that are too cool to understand turn me off, just like glossy magazines that are too pretentious. I enjoy the position of critic, feeling my way into places that I think hit it just right. My latest favorite is coolhunting.com, for the voice as much as for the advice. It's important to stay connected to the real world, and I think that's what the most successful do, whether they be objects, communications or sentient beings.

Reviews of
12 Japanese Masters
 

Throughout the summer and into the winter of 2004, my book 12 Japanese Masters has and will be reviewed by several magazines and online sources. The reviews out so far are positive, and a welcome chin-up for this writer.

Review: reservocation.com

Review: Leonardo Reviews

Review: Christopher Liechty

Review: Archinect

Review: EnFuse Magazine

Review: Art Magazine

Review: Club Sandwich

More to come...

   
Reviews of
Matchibako

Review: John Einarson

Review: Robert L Peters

Review: Dwell Magazine

Review: Leonardo Reviews