Motion Science

Through exceptional design pieces specially crafted, the exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight interrogates fundamental forces and laws of nature and fuse cutting-edge technologies with playful designs.

We experience motion every single moment as any other object existing in time and space, unavoidably being subject to the laws of nature.

Motion is the very proof of liveness when referring to the organic, but for the mechanic, genius and science are also necessary. Seiichi Hishikawa, a versatile figure in the Japanese creative scene, has mastered the science of motion in many of his works and has been invited to direct the current exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight under the title “Motion Science”.

Science Motion — **Top**: Shohei Fujimoto, *Move, then remain. Remain, then move*. **Above**: Riota Kuwakubo, *Lost #13*. Photos Keizo Kioku

Motion design as a form of art that brings movement to tangible artifices is a theme that the director has been exploring for almost twenty years since the foundation of his practice Drawing and Manual. Coherent with prior exhibitions in the museum, Hishikawa has pursued to bring an entertaining and ludic approach for the visitors gathering a talented group of collaborators and private companies with akin design spirit.

The exhibition interrogates fundamental forces and laws of nature, such as gravity or light waves, through exceptional design pieces that have been specially crafted for this occasion and fuse cutting-edge technologies with playful designs. Design Sight has been turned into something resembling a large vibrant workshop, where ingenious references to experiments explaining the foundational principles of motion continuously move, make sounds and produce optical effects. This time, many experiments that typically are meant for viewing in the pages of scientific books, come into life through active participation of the visitors.

Motion Science — Euclid (Masahiko Sato, Takashi Kiriyama), *Hill of reign*. Photo Keizo Kioku

The tour opens exploring manifestations of motion with a replica of 1885 “Benz Patent Motorwagen”, considered the first vehicle propelled by a combustion engine and thus making a remark towards the paradigmatic change that motorization brought to the ways we consider movement in our dailyness. Also reproductions of images “Encyclopedia / Agriculture and economy, waterwheel” from 1751–1772, displayed at the wall of the sunken lobby, pays tribute to understanding foundations of mechanization. At the opposite wall, the work of the people involved in the exhibition has been documented into the short movie “Behind the Scenes of ‘Motion Science’ Exhibition”.

The two main galleries are introduced by the exhibit “if apple”, through a screen continuously displaying a falling apple that bursts into pieces making the sound of breaking something completely different. As in the previous works mentioned above, this is reminiscence to past knowledge, depicting an apple as the object that triggered the discovery of the universal gravitation law.

Dimly lit, the walls of the first gallery become the canvas for “Lost #13”, an installation conceived by Ryota Kuwakubo in format of a tiny train with a led on the head wagon moving along diverse objects of everyday use displayed on the floor. The kinetic shadows and shapes create an unexpected journey through the elements.

The center of the main room features several installations. For instance, in “124 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes”, ordinary objects have turned into a humming sound machine where the sides of cardboard boxes act as drums when hit rhythmically by cotton balls held to spinning wires. Other works embody more scientific concepts, such as “atOms” (Bernoulli’s principle) with a spinning ball suspended in constant air flux, or “Walking in Strobe Light Rain” featuring rotating umbrellas that become screens of simple motion pictures using a strobe light. Others as “Zoetrope of the Forest” display a revolving tree which viewed through a perforated spinning disc creates the effect of slow motion.

Students from Kano Lab in the Department of Creative Design Course at Tohoku Institute of Technology guided by Hishikawa have created the “Project Motion / Cycle”, which allows to experience interconnectivity between slide and crank mechanism and a group of suspended wooden spheres that form sine wave movement.

The walls of the main room showcase movements captured by digital technologies. “metrogram3D” by Hiroshi Koi simulates real-time visualization of subway movements in Tokyo, something that characterizes contemporary motion in a dynamic city such as Tokyo. The ever-growing complexity and unpredictability of big data visualizations is also shown through the drawing machine “SEMI-SENSELESS DRAWING MODULES #2 – LETTERS” that generates compositions of lines from the texts the visitors have written. In turn, “ISSEY MIYAKE A-POC INSIDE” maps the motion of human bodies walking by showing only the main lines and anchor points that characterize the movement.

Sixty Eight by Nils Völker at the end of the route in the lobby is a set of simple garbage bags that seem like breathing organisms by being subsequently inflated and deflated of air. Nearby, Double Helix by Tatsuya Narita is also an attempt to capture another elusive motion of nature – fire. Finally, in the narrow pathway below the stairs lampshade of “reflection in the sculpture” by young Japanese artists Mai Ikinaga and Hitoshi Azumi slowly expands and contracts, closing the exhibition with dancing motion of light spots reflected on the walls.

Hishikawa compares motion to a heartbeat that represents the sensitivity to life. Together with design and creativity, he believes it can be a force to revitalize society. Through “Motion Science” he has intended not only to trigger curiosity for creation and learning, but to give tools that can help responsible decision-making on how to relate with nature for the younger generation.

until 27 September 2015
Motion Science
21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo