Resisting starting a collection of Tokyo 2020 design artifacts, really… but here is one for the archive of the Olympic Games which may or may not happen and either way: Will the event still be called Tokyo 2020 when held in 2021? Sure why not… :)
Think of the store rooms and warehouses filled with printed plastic tarps and banners and signs and merchandise and other now rather unnecessary accruements. Warehouses full I tell ya!
Library Dudes – Dave & Ichiro lost in the stacks at “old” central library Okayama, Japan (a Showa-era beauty)
Items: Library, assorted vols. 1~5, ergo:
Dudes
Technologies
Dispensers
Environments
Rooms
For the record: Okayama City Central Library (map) 56 Futsukaichimachi, Kita Ward, Okayama, 700-0843, Japan
Items: Observed, at library / various technologies, vol. 2Items: Observed, at library / various dispensers, vol. 3Items: Observed, at library / various environments etc, vol. 4Items: Observed, at library / rooms and such vol. 5
Redux:
Library, patrons of sorts
Annotations Hat: cheap Thamel, Kathmandu Mask: hemp, also from Nepal via Japan Glasses: broken, from Bali Shirt: (my design) Ambassador, Chiang Mai Belt: brown, Fossil Trousers: uniqlo (also boxers & v-neck) Socks: (not seem but stripey), Buffalo, cheap at Ross in Montréal Shoes: (not exactly Team Zissou) Adidas Baby carrier: made in Japan (name escapes, update later)
Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 and ending with this dispatch.
Thank you for your perceived interest and erstwhile support.
Sunday, 16.8.20 #daveo50 / Fondly from #Okayama #Japan
Various artifacts in situ, as seen in “Kura Grain Barn Art Studio / Music Lounge” (which needs a proper name).
“Anytime is a good time for a vacation” (clock, detail)Roar & BurnThinking about my dear mother, I love you more than words can tellGuest book for kura barn art studio & music lounge (from Nepal)Hygrometer and Thermometer
Note: Inside the kura grainbarn studio/music lounge. It’s a magnificent 150+-year-old wooden structure but dang, gets hot and humid in the Japan summer and with so many books, records, papers, artifacts, etc, im working to keep the temperature and humidity under control. ~ Under 70% humidity now which is a big step as a few days ago it was over 80%! Still too high to be comfortable and ideal for sure. Have two fans and a dehumidifier going on timers, a whole bunch of those little packets of salty kind of stuff, and some other “boxes“ of dehumidifying agents. ~ Most of these items were stored in climate control storage for years so want to keep them in good condition and avoid any kind of unnecessary deterioration. Not a professional archivist but I’m doing what I can.
#daveo50 ~ 2020 / photo booth for zairyu (foreigner registration) card, Okayama, Japan
Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 with intent of chronicling existence through various primary evidence sourced from studio portraits, class photos, ID / passport photos, or occasionally other “casual/group/random” shots when the above don’t exist in my archive (note: not “artificial intelligence,” really me, pulled from shoeboxes, journals, wallets and whatnot – diligently scanned and dated via glasses and haircuts, lightly annotated).
Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 with intent of chronicling existence through various primary evidence sourced from studio portraits, class photos, ID / passport photos, or occasionally other “casual/group/random” shots when the above don’t exist in my archive (note: not “artificial intelligence,” really me, pulled from shoeboxes, journals, wallets and whatnot – diligently scanned and dated via glasses and haircuts, lightly annotated).
Continuing the story of the Olympia SM9 typewriter (from 2018 at Wonder Hotel) simply to show the difference a year of diligence and intrepidness can bring.
Yup, it truly was the most difficult of times, pulled in directions i didn’t want to go but then… states and provinces crossed, affairs sorted, planes and memories faced, trains and ferries joined / turmoil, bureaucracy, paperwork, disrespect and frustration, all well, just sort of sorted itself out. I mean, I know how but the point is: the time came when i was reunited with this typewriter and all was different from when i left it.
changing the ribbon, over and over for some reason…
Still the keys get jammed, the ribbon inexplicably requires flipping/rewinding after barely a page of typing but, now smudged with thumbprints from changing said ribbon and supplied with aerogrammes from often lost countries, used envelopes with franked stamps (and sometimes intimate thoughts), and the usual hotel stationery, I made things.
Aerogramme loaded on splendid work table
Mostly poems and erstwhile letters, quite literally banged out without regard for perfection, just passion! Rapid transcriptions from scribbled journals, imagined lives of a doppelgänger, and notes from undergrounds.
Then joyfully accessorized with inky stamps and collages of postage stamps which may or may not have anything to do with the poem at hand (actually, they were all very intentionally consciously chosen but hey… that’s for the art to say). Oh, you can find evidence of these sessions in Items: Forgotten cycle vol. 7 Espionage and bits in vol. 6 Circumnavigation.
from Items: Forgotten, vol. 7, Espionage
Now, the burly beast sits in a teakwood closet awaiting another opportunity to resist my indelicate fingers. Reminding me to touch gently with nuance and care.
waiting in teakwood closet (behind)
All this is to say, art saves lives (in some cases anyhow).
