2007 Bloggies: Best Asian Weblog [view: normal]

Dear PingMag readers, It’s the last day of 2008, and we have a sad announcement to make. From today, PingMag will be taking an extended hiatus, and will not be updated for the foreseeable future. PingMag has been running for 3 and a half years now, and over that time literally millions of you, from every single corner [...]

Many of you have probably already finished work for the year and had your bonenkai, and now you’re getting ready for a big cleaning day and the celebrations for the new year. And yes, this is the last article from PingMag for 2008. Today’s guest is a Japanese artist, Ryu Itadani. Even if you’ve never [...]...

Today we enter the world of a YouTube celebrity. If you’re an avid user of the popular video sharing site, chances are you’ve encountered the videos of Magibon — those big eyes and tiny face looking up at the camera, sometimes with a message, often with none. Surprising even her, the videos garnered millions of [...]...

Dearest PingMag readers, Merry Christmas! Yes, it’s already Christmas time again. Have you sorted all of those Christmas presents for your loved ones? Instead of giving you a lovely present, today we introduce you to some cute and shiny handcrafted paintings by Italian artist Benedetta Borrometi, originally from Rome and now based in Tokyo. Enjoy! Written [...]...

Once you arrive in Tokyo’s busy commercial district of Shimbashi, a short walk from the station brings you to a noisy highway overpass, and beside that the futuristic Nakagin Capsule Tower. The tower’s stunning design may strike passersby as something straight out of a science-fiction movie, but it stands as a unique architectural beacon amongst [...]...

Manga is familiar to all Japanese, and it has also become a part of their culture they are proud of sharing. Eiko Hanamura started her career as a manga artist in 1958 and is much loved as a pioneer of girls comics in manga culture. Many of you will remember from your childhood seeing the [...]...

Open the door to the bathroom, and the toilet lid automatically rises. A soothing sound emanates from the toilet, and as you sit down, deodorizing functions begin to work. Push a button, and the toilet washes your rear end. Push another button and it gently dries it with warm air. The toilet will automatically flush, [...]...

When is a videogame magazine more than just a videogame magazine? That’s what you get with “Amusement,” a French “lifestyle” magazine that has been mixing game coverage with a stylish mix of art, fashion, and digital culture. PingMag talks to its founder and editor-in-chief Abdel Bounane to find out more about this groundbreaking magazine. Written by [...]...

It was around six months ago when I first saw the works of HIROCOLEDGE. Just as I was looking for a small Japanese gift for a friend abroad, I noticed the “SLEEVE BAG” in interior shop CIBONE’s e-mail newsletter and instantly fell in love with it. Today, PingMag talks to the designer of HIROCOLEDGE, Hiroko [...]...

A glass kiosk stands at the side of the highway, covered in gaudy neon lights. Inside, a young woman with her body more exposed than covered sits at a glass table, making something. Photographer Masato Seto spotted this mysterious scene when on assignment in Taiwan, and later covered it in his binran photo collection. Today, [...]...

Chances are you know the names of several Japanese fashion designers, heavy-weights like Rei Kawakubo or Yohji Yamamoto, and maybe even some up and coming ones like Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui from Mint Designs, who we’ve covered before. But what about all the unsung heroes of fashion, like the pattern cutters and textile manufacturer? [...]...

The England-based KithKin collective has made it its mission to not only inspire others, but to explore the depths of conceptual design and creativity through a host of exhibitions and installations, including its “KithKin Presents” group shows, and the “SomeRightsReserved” publishing platform. PingMag talks to the group’s Ian Atkins, Ed Vince, and Joss Debae to [...]...

It’s the first Thursday of the month, and so time to present a recent PingMag MAKE delight, to direct your cherished attention to Japan’s arts & crafts scene. This time, we look at ceramic artist Ryota Aoki. Only thirty years old, he wears a turban on his head and his slight body is swathed in [...]...

Early this year, London-based Swedish photographer Maria Stengard-Green went on a breathless city trip to re-discover what she calls organic décollage — the many layers of half-torn and weather-beaten posters and street art stickers that intertwine and mingle so often on walls in a visually beautiful code, giving way to interpretations. To discover and document [...]...

When you look back at the Japanese club scene from the 80s and 90s, the visuals that come to mind for most people might be the illustrations of Katsura Moshino. He’s an illustrator who not only provided works for Japanese musicians like DJ Krush, Mondo Grosso, and Monday Michiru — who represented the club scene [...]...

A while ago, we gave you some insight on how a foreign designer set up his company in Japan. This time we’re letting a university professor explain from a researcher’s point of view. Austria’s Parissa Haghirian is Associate Professor of International Management at Sophia University in Tokyo and visiting professor for Japanese Management at Keio [...]...

You’re surely familiar if not an ardent devotee of MAKE, the techie magazine by O’Reilly publishing founded by a certain Tim O’Reilly. Just as in a TV program for kids, this fabulous mag teaches how to make practical things from daily items and used appliances — but with geeky tools and sometimes pretty wacky results! [...]...

With the advent of the MP3 era, the same album cover lovers who had to cope when smaller CD artwork came along, are again shrieking with horror as artwork shrinks further (nicely enough, iTunes realised that and turned towards a cover-based user interface lately.) How about some sleevefacing to pay tribute to good old vinyl? [...]...

Dearest readers, remember the time you spent in an arcade game centre? Now it’s time to declare your undying love for arcades since they are very much alive and kicking! For the new Arcade Mania! book published in English by Kodansha International, American Brian Ashcraft from Osaka — with the help of our dearest friend [...]...

To celebrate our beloved PingMag’s third anniversary, we started shopPingMag two months ago. Why? Because you, cherished readership, have been patiently waiting to finally lay your hands on goods from Japan through our very own online shop! And thanks to the many comments from you, we are constantly trying to improve it to get more [...]...

It was a fateful encounter: On the very first day of the new term at a French art school, Michael Amzlag who was wearing a blue postman jacket from the 1950’s, blue worker pants, blue socks and blue suede shoes, was banged by a stranger saying “Move over, monochrome!” That was Mathias Augustyniak who would [...]...

Advanced Beauty is a wondrous new DVD compilation comprised of 18 visuals by 20 artists, or rather sound sculptures, as curator Matt Pyke of UK-based Universal Everything would say. These transient pieces made by processing are for us to see how far you can really push the aesthetics of software generated visualisations and play around [...]...

This May, a massive earthquake rocked Sichuan Province in China. Reaching a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale, it claimed the lives of 400,000 people. Half a year later, though the destruction seems to have lost its newsworthiness, the reconstruction is still very much a reality. However, it doesn’t have to be hopeless! How [...]...

Ever since Tokyo Designers Week a week ago we’ve been aware that Icelanders produce the loveliest stuff, be it fancy knitwear or the most practical stamp calendars. (So please, will the financial crisis be kinder to them!) Now, once again, we went far north to picturesque Reykjavik during the annual Sequences Festival that has been [...]...

We know for sure that you, beloved reader, want to know all about upcoming Japanese graphic designers! Maybe artless sounds familiar to you? Tokyo-based artless, a.k.a. Shun Kawakami is one of the hottest in Japan with a sophisticated blend of monochrome graphics with delicate calligraphy. Interestingly, he realised that his creative uniqueness lied in working [...]...