“I see design work as something where you have a theme and you must find the answers to it” Yoshirotten explains about his subjects and tools. “In addition to those answers, I always keep in mind that my mission is to find new ways to express myself. My work is digital graphic art and design, but truth be told, I use very analog techniques without using much computer effects. For instance, I go out and scan the streets and plants with a hand scanner and apply them to my work. My final outputs are digitally made, but my approach is rather manual and analog.
That way, you can’t produce the same thing twice, and the work becomes more original. The equipment used for such an analog approach is my life’s work, and I keep my eyes open for them every day—graphics are printed out with a receipt printer; the noise of TV radios, a relic of the Showa era, are used for lighting as a spatial effect; and the waveforms of oscilloscopes, which visualize electrical vibrations, are converted into graphics. Even these now-forgotten analog devices, with a unique perspective, can become the key to creating new expression.” Yoshirotten’s cutting-edge work spun out from his analog methods is an apex of his daily life’s work of experimentation and failure—new creations where the past and present intersect come to life.
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Yoshirotten Head of the creative studio YAR. His activities range widely from graphic design, art direction to spatial design. Recently, in collaboration with Mika Ninagawa, he provided graphics for Dries Van Noten. |
Photo Tomoaki Shimoyama | Text Shohei Kawamura | English Translation Akiko Watanabe & Rei Matsuoka |