Mariko Asabuki
Novelist
What does “Clothing” mean to you?
I’m infatuated with cat fur.
What does “Contemporary Life” mean to you?
Death always flows like faint smoke or steam alongside a life where the boundary between life and death is clear (even though in reality it should be vague).
What are the things you are thinking about lately?
I don’t think of things much, but I feel like I’m always thinking about my next meal.
For today, October 26, 2020, I had sausage, pancakes, and coffee for breakfast.
For lunch I had white rice (in a pack) and stewed diced pork in a can.
Tonight I will probably have dried fish with mirin and miso soup.
For today, October 26, 2020, I had sausage, pancakes, and coffee for breakfast.
For lunch I had white rice (in a pack) and stewed diced pork in a can.
Tonight I will probably have dried fish with mirin and miso soup.
Kotaro Watanabe
Context Designer
What does “Clothing” mean to you?
I have never really thought about clothing much...
but I wonder why it is that the clothes that I like are the ones that I want to wear when I go on a trip. Maybe when I see a different world, I want to hold on to my usual self.
Maybe it’s that while clothes protect the body from the outside, at the same time they make you want to be yourself. They are interfaces that touch the world on the outside and the skin on the inside.
It’s really interesting that clothes bring out my own “dividual.”
That reminds me, I make matcha on a daily basis. During the time of Eisai in the Kamakura period, tea was thought of as medicine. When you ingest it, it protects you from the inside.
but I wonder why it is that the clothes that I like are the ones that I want to wear when I go on a trip. Maybe when I see a different world, I want to hold on to my usual self.
Maybe it’s that while clothes protect the body from the outside, at the same time they make you want to be yourself. They are interfaces that touch the world on the outside and the skin on the inside.
It’s really interesting that clothes bring out my own “dividual.”
That reminds me, I make matcha on a daily basis. During the time of Eisai in the Kamakura period, tea was thought of as medicine. When you ingest it, it protects you from the inside.
What does “Contemporary Life” mean to you?
Since the coronavirus outbreak, there are more opportunities to restore the balance between walking fast in life and taking the long way around, which I am happy about. Before, cooking troublesome dishes, burning incense, brewing coffee, and taking time to clean were bothersome tasks, but those bothersome tasks are kind of fun.
Or it sounds cool to say so, but in truth they are ways of escaping the reality of having urgent work to do.
Or it sounds cool to say so, but in truth they are ways of escaping the reality of having urgent work to do.
What are the things you are thinking about lately?
I think about my own path of context design. I think about a future where at some point the consumer transforms into a creator.
On one hand, I hope that my own work can connect with such a society. If a person is a creator, he can have his own sense of values, so the meaning imparted upon the world becomes increasingly multitiered. I think it would be good to have a world that transcends a single, easy-to-grasp yardstick efficiency or economic value, one that cannot be fully measured at once, one where comparisons cannot be made.
On the other hand, there is a pure form of joy in simply "creating something together”, as in the etymology of the word context, “to weave together”. The ideas that arise through dialogue, different visions that become apparent in linked verse, just like how films and novels get even more interesting depending on how you interpret them.
On one hand, I hope that my own work can connect with such a society. If a person is a creator, he can have his own sense of values, so the meaning imparted upon the world becomes increasingly multitiered. I think it would be good to have a world that transcends a single, easy-to-grasp yardstick efficiency or economic value, one that cannot be fully measured at once, one where comparisons cannot be made.
On the other hand, there is a pure form of joy in simply "creating something together”, as in the etymology of the word context, “to weave together”. The ideas that arise through dialogue, different visions that become apparent in linked verse, just like how films and novels get even more interesting depending on how you interpret them.
