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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.
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.
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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 
