Laptops in the "Orange Tree" pub.

Alain (Nottingham) Meets Christophe (Tokyo)

For the first time.

First meeting

First meeting of Collaborators

Emma Lewis outlines the plan of action.

Start of the second leg of the exchange

Tokyo students arrive in Nottingham for the start of their two week exchange making work at Nottingham Trent University and exhibiting and performing in Nottingham and London.

Hey Ho

here are some juicy pics from the trip, i normally employ a herd of midgets to do my documentation for me - but alas they couldn't come with so these are my somewhat less than clear stills

Michael Lomon+Cheryl Heng

The Wandering Fool/The Blundering Womb - Sound installation

Not sure whose this was, but isnt it pretty!

The one on the left is actually the only british tourist in the photo

Wow look at jemima's photos; oh you can't really see tham from that angle, oh well

Johnnys cumbersome forray out of performance into the world of fine art - stunning

Kids dance every night infront of mirrors and windows in the train stations - just to see themselves. Literally, this is all they do, dance at their reflection - as good as the moves are, you can't help but wonder, does to much jigging mangle the brain?

Hopefully you'll get some photos from the others soon

lurve mike

From Frank in Nottingham

Good to see you are keeping the standards up, Mike.
Knickers and Karaoke!!
I have had some excellent peaches since arriving back in Blighty.

KAMPAI

Greetings all, now that Frank Abbot-san has departed, the burden of the blog falls to another Brit abroad - thank your lucky stars it was someone as dependable and sober in mind and body as i.

As our time in japan comes to an end, it seems important to attempt some explanation of just what kind of madness went on here - what do we know now that we didn`t before? How did this cultural exchange add to the work of students on both sides? Unfortunately, Having spent last night singing karaoke (free drink included) till seven in the morning, it may be of more use to tell of some of the adventures we have had in this vast megopolis.

Perhaps the funniest and downright filthiest part of our excursion occured just a few days into the trip - when Rosie and Jemima, having washed their clothes for the first time in japan -innocently hung their clobber out to dry. Now There`s nothing wrong with that is there?? Well, apparently that`s not quite the case - as the next morning, when our gals went to bring their clothes; there were no knickers left! Not one. You can leave a laptop outside here for a week and no-one would touch it, but when hanging out underwear you`d better lock protect the bastards.

One of my favourite aspects of our time here, has been the communication issues between students. The progression from the tentative first steps of a `konichiwa` bawled out with typical english clumsiness to the now often lengthy dialogues that are happening all over the place. Most japanese students have great patience when attempting an explanation of terms or ideas - it stands in great contrast to the regular babble of communication between two people.

Some terms have now been immortalised in musabi folklore...
orange balls - Some form of salmon egg used in various japanese dishes, johnny struggled with these and now just to mention the name is enough to arouse laughter all round.

Facking delicious - My attempt to translate cho oishi to english

Fresh Fruit - Fruit in general has now become a great humour lynchpin - mainly due to franks quite bizarre and not a little distressing obsession with the stuff.

Unfortunately, Rosie has gone missing with her camera, so this blog is picture-less, i will however upload plenty of images over the next few days so check back soon.

Now i must hurry back as it seems our karaoke escapades have had some rather serious repercussions and certain bad creases must be smoothed out.

Sionara
mike lomon

Ken Chiba at Yokohama 

Yokohama reception 

Emma and Professor Charles at Yokohama 

Close up of Rosies work 

Liz's work for Yokohama 

The Gallery owner in his flowershop with his motorbike 

Mikes video and Rosie and Liz's work at Yokohama 

Jemimas Photos at Yokohama 

Ollies piece at Yokohama 

Yokohama Performance filkmed by Yuichi. 

I go - I come back again.

Just a chance to mention the reception at Gallery Jin in Yokohama. We were pleased to see Ken Chiba once again and the artist he shares his Ginza gallery with, Keiko Kamma.The man who runs the gallery, (from the flower shop round the corner) made us very welcome and the little reception spilled out onto the streets. Yuichi, a graduate from Trent two years ago and now living in Yokohama, came along. He has a show at the gallery next year.
Johnny and Koyangi did a noise piece with their gear scattered across the floor of the minute gallery. Remarkably everything had stayed on the wall for the previous two days of the show. Someone was interested in purchasing Rosies piece of work about Nottingham and Tokyo. Professor Charles and his wife came along and we said cheerio as I headed off across Tokyo for the last time to pack for the flight today.
The project has got off to a good start. We have laid the basis for further co-operation and development of collaborative work between Nottingham Trent University students and Musabi students. It is really now up to the students to develop the creative work which will give rthe project its meaning. In the area of sound and noise there is already an international common culture around certain shared approaches to production and technology, and it was perhaps in that area that the most direct collaborative work was immediately prodced. Performance work seems to be at different points within the two countries and there may also be a difference in approach between fine art performance which comes from a visual position and performance which derives from a more theatrical and music based tradition. But there was much to like and learn on both sides and I can see stronger collaborative developments emerging there. In photography and visual arts, where the work is often internally directed, collaboration does not necessarily come natural and requires an explicit effort on the part of the artist to open up their thinking and create and engage in collaborative structures. It is there that perhaps the slowest emergence of new exchange practices and collaborations will happen-but they could be ome of the most interesting.
Finally, one of the things it as been useful to observe from this project is how misleading it often is to generalise about one particular culture or approach. As soon as you start to get into formulating strategies around ideas like `this is the way the British think` or `the Japanese approach is so and so` you come a cropper when you try and apply it to individual work. Obviously there are different cultural contexts which both countries have, but one can easily exaggerate the way that these determine the actual production of work.

Farewell Blog

This is probably the last blog I do as I go back to UK on Friday. The students are staying for 2 more days and I have handed the blog over to them to finish. I am sure they will do it very nicely.
Cheers Frank

Plan of Musabi show 

Tutorials around work in show. 

Tutorials around work in show 

Labels for Musabi Show 

Musabi Show. Rosie`s piece in the Foreground, Kego's in the distance. 

Musabi show 

Musabi show 

Musabi show 

Musabi Show