Casio EX-F1 Ultra-high Speed Digital Camera

Casio Computer Co Ltd will release a digital camera "EX-F1" in March 2008. The EX-F1 is a totally new type of digital camera that delivers speed and digital functions never before available. This new concept in digital cameras lets you shoot photographs that capture every moment of a moving subject, and movies that open up a whole new world invisible to the naked eye.

Capturing up to 60 frames per second at full-resolution and a staggering 1200 fps if you drop the image size to 336 x 96, this innovative camera will also shoot 1920 x 1080 Full HD movies at 60fps.

From an interview with Casio's Jin Nakayama, general manager for QV Unit of Planning Department.

[the EX-F1] can shoot pictures that even a digital SLR with a high-speed auto-focus function cannot shoot and pictures that are invisible to the naked eye...

When it is difficult to take a picture of an object, take a movie of it. The wall between movies and still pictures is formed by immature technologies...

Whether it is a movie or a still picture does not matter. The (ideal) still picture might be the one taken from a movie....

Check out the super slow motion videos here

tech specs on dpreview

Money shot: will the EX-F1 breath new life into the porn video industry?

Your Shipment of Fail has Arrived

http://failblog.wordpress.com/

No Pay No Play

I'm having a discussion over on this TED forum about copyright and piracy. Feel free to jump in! (See the 'Discuss this talk' section below the vid.)

Improving one's photography

I don't claim to a be good photographer by any means--I've only pursued it with any passion for a couple months--but I wanted to pass along some tip and techniques which have helped me.

Understanding your basic photographic concepts like aperature, depth of field, and shutter speed is important (read your manual!), but it doesn't matter how technically excellent your photo is if the composition sucks.

I think this is a great starting place. Kodak has a lot of simple tips and techniques. Read the Ten Tips article, try experimenting with all the ideas, then read it again.

Here's another article on composition which had helped me a lot. Everytime I read it I get more out of it. Rinse and repeat.

Here's a great single-source collection of articles on photographic composition I've found. Some of the articles are actually on landscape painting, but they are also very helpful:
http://photoinf.com/

Finally, learn from the pros. This list of photog reps which should supply plenty of inspiration (tip of the hat to Spence for the links):

http://www.katybarker.com/
http://www.judycasey.com/
http://www.jgkinc.net/
http://www.marekandassociates.com/
http://www.monacoreps.com/
http://www.billcharles.com/
http://www.corneliaadams.com/
http://www.managementartists.com/
http://www.apostrophe.net/
http://www.jedroot.com/
http://www.sergethomass.com/
http://www.creativeexchangeagency.com/
http://www.oliverpiro.com/
http://www.art-dept.com/
http://www.pmionline.net/
http://www.artandcommerce.com/
http://www.artpartner.com/
http://www.afgmanagement.com/
http://www.moomanagement.com/
http://www.morganlockyer.com/
http://www.artwingny.com/
http://www.janicemoses.com/
http://www.ba-reps.com/
http://www.barbaralaurie.com/
http://www.chrisboalsartists.com/
http://www.tomboothinc.com/
http://www.margecasey.com/
http://www.clmus.com/
http://www.edgereps.com/
http://www.evcreative.com/
http://www.exposureny.com/
http://www.infocus-ny.com/
http://www.i2iphoto.com/
http://www.tonyjayinc.com/
http://www.triciajoyce.com/
http://www.sarahlaird.com/
http://www.lamprechtbennett.com/
http://www.brucelevingroup.com/
http://www.mapltd.com/
http://www.wschupfer.com/
http://www.radicalmedia.com/
http://www.sgmnyc.com/
http://www.artistsandcreatives.com/
http://www.exposureny.com/
http://www.p-achard.com/
http://www.stocklandmartel.com/main.aspx
http://www.bird-production.com/

Hitotoki

Went to a HITOTOKI reading tonight at PINK COW in Shibuya. Some of the readings were quite good, and I thought it was much more compelling to hear them read than to simply read them oneself. I wrote something but haven't sent it in yet, but I wish I had so I may have had a chance to read it. Hopefully this will become a regular event.

I'm talking to the guys behind Hitotoki about a possible collaboration with White Rabbit Press. We'll see!

FOX NEWS PORN - Video!

Thought this was brilliant. Apparently some of my dear friends haven't seen it yet, so needed to post it:

http://foxnewsporn.com/

Devendra Banhart - Sight To Behold

It's a sight to behold
When you got small words to mold
And you can make 'em your own

Still love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
I'm told

It's like golden corn
And i love its golden glow
It's the little head inside your little hole
And out spring some sparkling thoughts

Still love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
Love it would be much better

It's like finding home
In an old folk song
That you've never ever heard
Still you know every word
And for sure you can sing along

But love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
Love it would be much better
I know, i know

IWGP homeless shelters

Click image for larger view.

I think I'm done shooting homeless at night for a while. The cold is too painful. Felt like my feet were frozen the night I shot this one.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park at Night

Not really sure if I like this photo much or not... what do you think?

Click the image for a larger view

Ikebukuro Night Shot

Here's one of the shots from some night photography I did in Ikebukuro last month. Nice colors. Click the image for a larger version--they always look better.

TED Talk: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes

I'm a huge fan of the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design). I think Richard St. John really nailed it with his talk about success.

I ran into trouble embedding the video, so just watch it and then come back and share your thoughts ;)

Link to TED video: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes

One cold night with the homeless in Ikebukuro

The Swedish Dånk! collective has been invited by Stadmuseum (the city museum in Göteborg) to do an audio-installation about homeless people in Gothenburg and in other cities around the globe. They've asked me to contribute some field recordings from where homeless people can be found in Tokyo for the project. Here a link to some of the photos I snapped during the night I recorded. Some of them are crap (shooting at night without a flash is always a challenge), but I like enough of them to share:

Link to photo gallery

The makeshift shelter in the photo above is on a median between several lanes of high-speed traffic and below a pedestrian bridge, elevated freeway and train overpass making it very noisy and polluted with carbon monoxide. The man who sleeps here has to cross the road and climb the fence to enter and exit.

To let you know how cold it was that night, by the time I got back home at 6 AM it was snowing.

The audio file below was recorded from the same pedestrian brige where I took the photo above. It's unedited except for having added a one second fade in/out on the ends and coverting from the 96Khz/24-bit recorded file down to this 3.7 MB mp3 file (the original three minute recording is a whopping 106 MB).

I think the Gothenburg designers are going to do some kind of remixing with them. If there is a website component to the project I'll supply that link at a later date.

It's always interesting to do these kinds of field recordings, because during the process you really become aware of the various rhythms and textures which we normally just seem to filter out. I guess it's kind of like fishing--often it's just an excuse to spend some time in nature. Some of my nighttime exposures can take several minutes, which gives me some time to let the surroundings really sink in.

It was pretty loud on location, so turn up the volume for the full effect. See if you can identify the low rumble of the train passing, the creaking and groaning of the overpass and pedestrian bridge which was bouncing from the traffic load above. The car traffic comes in waves--modulated by the traffic signals further up the street. I like the sound of the motorcycle which passes a little before the 3 minute mark.

audio/08012301.mp3

Pictures shot with a Canon EOS 5D with help from a Canon TC-80N3 timer remote controller. Lens is a Canon 28mm/1.8 prime.

Audio recorded with a Sony PCM-D1.

Photo Clues Lead to Camera's Owner

Just a little feel good story. I've reunited a couple mobile phones with their owners here in Tokyo and it's always a nice experience.

I remember once we were driving from Houston to Galveston and there was this little dog running around on a several lanes of high-speed traffic. It probably wouldn't have lasted much longer had we not stopped. It had a a dog tag with it's name, Niko, and the owner's phone number. So we called from our mobile phone and they navigated us to their home several blocks away. Two young girls ran out shouting with glee to have their dog back. Their parents tried to pay us for our efforts, but the girls expressions of happiness were reward enough.

Do you have any interesting stories of reuniting someone with their lost belongings?

Here's an interesting story of reuniting someone with their lost belongings--can't believe how diligent they were with their detective work:

It's good to know there are some honest people left in the world.

Google & NTT DoCoMo agreement confirmed

Google and Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo have reached an agreement whereby Google-powered searches will be the default through the operator’s i-mode portal, keyword based AdWords advertising will be included on search results pages, and handsets will have improved access to Google’s online application suite. Initially, Google Maps will be preloaded on all handsets and, for those devices with full browsers, Google will be the preset homepage; subsequently Gmail, YouTube and Picasa will all be integrated into the i-mode system.

Reported here:
google-phone

The Story of Stuff - (must see video!)

A dear old friend from high school passed this video link along to me the other day. It's quite well done. Please have a look:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Takoyaki Ojisan

Click photo to see larger version.

Took this with my Canon 5D in Shinjuku on Friday night. Unfortunately it seems like Blogger compresses images in some nasty way because the original looks much better. (sigh).

For those unacquainted with Japanese cuisine: he's cooking takoyaki--fried Octopus balls. Of course Octopi have eight legs, which yields four pair of balls. ;)

music work in progress

I was dabbling a bit with electronic music last year, but it's been a couple months since I've done anything. So today I spent a few hours and started working on a new track. It seems there is very little hope that I'll ever be any good at music, but at least I feel like I'm make a small bit of progress when comparing with recordings I made several months ago.

Anyway, this is just an early draft, but it seems like it has a little potential so thought I'd share it. I'm developing all my loops myself; not using any canned material.

Hopefully it will develop into something more interesting over the next couple weeks (I usually only give myself a few hours on the weekend to play around with music so it's slow going.)


demo_rev01.mp3

Koenji Gallery

Some snapshots from yesterday's fact-finding mission to Koenji with Vanessa and Jean:
Koenji Gallery

Your earphones suck!

Bought a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-CKM50 Inner Ear Earphones this week and they were sooooo worth it!

Definitely the best pair of earphones I've owned. Cost is 4,000 yen on Amazon.co.jp (I got mine at Bic Camera). Very reasonable price for a big improvement in sound.

They sound very clear and bright especially in the mids and highs. These earphones are MUCH more revealing than those crappy Apple headphone that came with my iPod Nano. Get rid of those things! Life is too short for crappy earphones!

Available only in Japan with 3 different colors.

Specifications
Type: Dynamic type
Driver: 12.5mm
Output overpressure value: 104dB/mW
Playback frequency zone: 5 - 24,000Hz
Largest input: 200mW
Impedance: 16 ohm
Mass: 7g
Plug: 3.5 gold plated stereo mini-plug
Cord/code length: 0.6m (Y type)

Included accessories:
1.0m extension cord, pouch, ear pieces (S, M and L)

Could chewing gum be the next fad diet?

Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. An article in this week's British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake.

The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with sorbitol.

Maybe that's why I'm so damn skinny?

details here

Ikeda Ryoji's first solo exhibition

Ikeda Ryoji's first solo exhibition will be held at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media from 2008-03-01 to 2008-05-08. I'm definitely going, and you should go too.

How many points are there in a line?
What is the number of numbers?
How can we verify that the random is random?

data.tron and data.film are parts of the datamatics project, which is a series of experiments that explore such questions, physically and mathematically. Visitors will experience the vast universe of data in the infinite between 0 and 1.

About Ikeda Ryoji (compiled from forma arts and media producers content)
Japan's leading electronic composer/artist, Ryoji Ikeda, focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself.

Since 1995, Ikeda has been intensely active through concerts, installations, and recordings, integrating sound, acoustics and sublime imagery. In the artist’s works, music, time and space are shaped by mathematical methods as Ikeda explores sound as sensation, pulling apart its physical properties to reveal its relationship with human perception.

Ikeda’s latest body of work, datamatics, is a long-term programme of moving image, sculptural, sound and new media works that use data as their theme and material to explore the ways in which abstracted views of reality – data – are used to encode, understand and control the world.

He has been hailed by critics as one of the most radical and innovative contemporary composers for his live performances, sound installations and recordings. His albums +/- (Touch, 1996), 0°C (Touch, 1998) and matrix (Touch, 2000) pioneered a new minimal world of electronic music, employing sine waves, electronic "glitch" sounds, and white noise. Ikeda's critically acclaimed, seventh solo album, dataplex (raster-noton, 2005), and the new release, test pattern (raster-noton, 25 February 2008) are part of the datamatics series.

Read more about datamastics here on the FORMA website.

Ryoji Ikeda's website is here.

Yamaguchi Center for the Arts and Media link here.

Yuka Yamaguchi

Yuka Yamaguchi is a lovely Japanese illustrator living in Canada who I met last night at PauseTalk where her work is on display until about mid-January.

Although her self-portraits may shock some, I view them as revealing Yamaguchi's great openness and sense of humor. Perhaps she is just more candid than other artists: sharing not only her outside appearance, but her insides too.

She speaks very candidly about her work and creative process, and it was especially interesting when she told us how she stopped drawing heads and faces on her body once she had a baby. She says she doesn't know the reason why, but I wonder if it's a reflection of the lost sense of one's own identity experienced when parenthood refocuses one's life and raising one's offspring causes your own life to take a back seat.

Yamaguchi-san also makes toys, such as C-Section Bunny. Her shop and gallery are located here, but alas, her shop is closed for the holidays until she returns to Canada from Japan (so check back in a couple weeks!)

John Maeda, TDC BCCKS

John Maeda designed a minibook for the anniversary of the Tokyo Type Director’s Club that is running as an exhibition this month in Tokyo at a variety of venues including Tsutaya Roppongi, Ginza Graphic Gallery, and Aoyama Book Center. The contents are visible here.

Who's John Maeda? World-renowned Japanese-American graphic designer, artist, comptuer scientist, and MIT professor. Esquire magazine recognized him as one of the 21 most important people for the 21st century.
I was fortunate enough to see his Post Digital exhibit at NTT ICC back in 2001.

Ebina Kenichi

I've really been watching way to many net videos lately haha. At least having a bad cold gives me a little bit of an excuse...

I really enjoy watching dance--everything from all sorts of modern dance to Japanese butoh, to figure skating (if it's OK to count figure skating as dance). I should really go to see live events more often because there are so many opportunities in this city.

Here's a jaw-dropping robot-dance clip I saw on YouTube tonight:



You can find another Ebina dance video at TED

TED Talks, Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world

Been sick for most of the week, so I've just been taking it easy and watching a lot of online videos. If you're looking for an alternative to the usual fair (tv, youtube, xbox) TED never disappoints:
http://www.ted.com

Just finished watching this one. I like how he characterizes Ayahuasca (which I drank a few times in Brazil in 2006.)
Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world

City Planet: Stewart Brand

Just finished watching this fascinating talk that Stewart Brand gave at Google on global urbanization--the movement of people from rural areas to cities. 1.3 million people are moving to cities every week, Brand tells us, which adds up to the largest demographic shift in history. Brand explores a lot of the positive implications of these trends on individual opportunity, wealth creation, world population, and on the environment.

Scissors is the New Rock

I think the Japanese play Paper, Scissors, Rock more than a lot of other cultures, so if you're living outside of Japan, you might not have as much an opportunity to put this into practice.

As reported by the Telegraph, New Scientist magazine ran an article where scientists present the optimal strategy to win.

According to the article:

the way to win is to start with scissors.

Research shows that stone, also called rock, is the most popular of the three possible moves in the game.

That means that your opponent is likely to choose paper, because they will expect to you to start the game with stone.

By going with scissors, you achieve an early victory.

And also

There are a number of different strategies to secure victory in the game once it gets going. New Scientist suggests: "You could try the double bluff, where you tell your opponent what you are going to throw - then do it.

"No one believes you'll do it, so they won't play the throw that beats the throw you are playing."

Alternatively you could throw the move that would have beaten your opponent's previous move. The logic here is that players subconsciously try to beat their own previous move.

The secret to winning at rock, paper, scissors

I can't help but think that publishing these results will work against them as scissors becomes the new rock. Hopefully this important news won't make the rounds in the Japanese media.

Kwon Choul: Kabukicho Photojournalist

Back in 2000, when I first moved to Tokyo I missed the train one night and spent some time chatting with this Korean lady who worked in a Sunkus convenience store in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district. We became friends, and one day she introduced me to her husband who was a photographer.

They said that they moved to Japan from Korea because there wasn't as much appreciation for the arts in Korea, so as an artist, they thought he'd gave a better chance for success in Japan.

She had a lot of belief in her husband's art and was working three jobs to support him. Unfortunately I never saw any of his work back then, but I use to see him often, taking pictures on the streets in Kabukicho. Sadly, after I moved to Beijing in 2001, I lost touch with my new Korean friends.

Fast-forward seven years. I'm sitting in Shinjuku talking to a writer named Steven about a project I'm working on. It's related to Kabukicho, so he brought a few books he had that he thought might be useful to me. One was entitled, "Once Upon a Time in Kabukicho: 1996~2006" by Lee Xiao Mu. Lee-san is a Chinese associate of mine and expert on Kabukicho who I've already interviewed for the Kabukicho project, but I hadn't see this book before--he's authored 14 books on Kabukicho (in Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese).

Lee's a very interesting character. He trained in ballet and studied fashion before coming to Japan in 1988, where he's been working as a guide for visitors to Japan's biggest entertainment and red-light district. Last year I saw a autobiographical drama he penned which debuted at Kabukicho's Koma Theater. Lee is frequently interviewed by journalists trying to keep tabs on underworld happenings, and he recently signed a three year contract with Newsweek magazine (Japanese edition) to pen a monthly column.

So getting back to my story, "Once Upon a Time in Kabukicho: 1996~2006" is largely about underworld crime and various major and minor events that have taken place in Kabukicho during that period. But what really impressed me more than the writing is the more than 200 photos taken by Kwon Choul of things like such as mafia fights and beatings, police chases, murder scenes, building fires, immigration raids, a lady posed to jump off a building in a suicide attempt, and the like. It seems impossible that one person could have so often been in the right place at the right time to get so many great shots. But it makes since once you understand that the photographer has basically been shooting in Kabukicho every night of the week for years on end.

Even if you don't read Japanese, the book is worth it for the photography.

After seeing the book, I wondered: could this possibly be the same Korean husband of my friend from the convenience store? Steven and I walked over to Lee Xiao Mu's Chinese restaurant a few blocks away to learn more, and he gave me the photographer's phone number. Sure enough it's the same guy. We plan to meet tomorrow so I can see more of his photography, and I look forward to getting reacquainted with his wife after these many years. It will be a nice story is after all these years I end up publishing some of the work of her husband who she has worked so hard to support.

I'll see if I can get some photos from Kwon-san to post here.

If you live outside of Japan, "Once Upon a Time in Kabukicho" is available worldwide via my company's special order service:

White Rabbit Xpress

(Not much) more info about my Kabukicho project here:
New Product Teaser

Lee Xiao Mu's homepage is http://www.leexiaomu.com/

Info on his Hunan style restaurant appears here

Happy New Year 2008!

Photo I took of Tokyo Daibutsu last night after midnight.

New Year's is Japan's most important holiday and hatsumode--the year's first visit to a temple or shrine--festivities are held at practically every shrine and temple across the country. Just a short bike ride from my apartment is a temple with the distinction of being home to Japan's third largest sitting Buddah, known as Tokyo Daibutsu.

Hatsumode have a festival-like atmosphere with various food stands and thousands of people making wishes and purchasing lucky charms for a fortunate new year. It's ideal to visit a temple at midnight on New Year's eve, when the temple's bell is rung 108 times. In Buddhism we have 108 worldly passions (desires), which we repent by listening to the bell sounds.

I recorded the bell with my Sony PCM-D1

audio/daibutsubell.mp3

So do you like the color or black-and-white shot better?