From July 15 to the 17th, downtown LA hosted Future City – Little Tokyo Design Week; a four-day festival celebrating innovations in design and technology. With the evolution of sustainable urban development as its chief goal, this first installment of LTDW showcased container exhibits, film screenings, fashion shows, dance parties, product demos, performances, music, and awards ceremonies. And a caravan of LA’s finest food trucks, of course.
The Chinese Zodiac has deemed 2011 the year of the rabbit. In case you’ve wondered what that means exactly, I did some efficient Googling.
The rabbit, which is the fourth sign of the 12 animal Zodiac signs, is considered to be the lucky sign. According to the Chinese, the rabbit brings a year to calm your nerves and catch your breath. This is a year to focus on negotiation, family, home, security, diplomacy, and relationships.
Giant Robot’s physical space in Santa Monica GR2 hosted “Post It Show 6” recently in conjunction with artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson at the helm as curators and I forgot to tell you about it… I did. I had even gone down there and shot nice images of some of the almost 2,000 pieces you could pick up starting at only $20.
One of the first things you might notice when walking into Giant Robot’s Pixel Pushers exhibit is the big-ass, high-tech car sitting in the middle of Scion Gallery — so clever and kitschy in its resemblance to a Nintendo controller, it’s aching for a test drive. And this is no ordinary automobile; it’s a Famicom Car. Literally, a giant video game system on wheels.
The front headlight projects the game action onto a gallery wall, a giant cartridge fits into the hood, and the seat belts are old school Nintendo controllers, which you use to play Chevy Ray Johnston’s Return of the Quack video game.
Things got a little crazy with Giant Robot at The Japanese American National Museum last week. Between a raucous outburst by punk rockers The Binge, the usual array of bizarre surrealist paintings, transsexual action figures, homemade video games, and of course robots of all sizes, what began as a homemade magazine distributed to friends had officially exploded into a pop culture juggernaut. Eric Nakamura’s 15th GR anniversary featured some of the most inventive and original art by a variety of painters, plasterers, programmers, toymakers, and musicians.
