Update: This tour is currently underway, and we are sharing the postcards by email from where I am, every so often, and also, writing protected-page posts with passwords I am sharing with those who opt in for updates, through the crowdfunding page. Details here.
草の戸も住替る代ぞひなの家
面八句を庵の柱に懸置。
I’m inspired very much by the work of Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, whose travels I heard about from the father of a family I met in Kyoto years ago. He told me about that poet’s journeying, or rather, the style of it. Emphasis on pure and authentic enthusiasm for going for the learning’s sake, I was quite curious. The gist of the feelings of those stories stayed with me for years. The earnestness inspired the underpainting for the project ahead, too.
Atelier S P A C E | Japan, ‘The Way.’
‘When you put something into the world, you add lightness, Dipika’ –IK
I could write more about it. Surely I could look at ways to share with you the very important things that I feel about slowing, stilling, and getting into the Quiet.
I could, but I think, with the internet being too big, too fast, too hard to find snippets of poise inside of, I will refrain. From overwriting, here.
I’m publishing zines for the Atelier S P A C E project, and we go where we go, as and when and how the going takes us. It’s a central tenet of our philosophy and approach, so it’s a good time to stop, take time away from the desk, and go out into nature to ‘refill the tank’ as Mark Twain put it, reportedly, somewhere, sometime.
I like the notion of letting the tank fill. It runs counter to the more, now, ‘content’ milling that we see these days. With AI, all bets are off. I know by even just writing here, I’m training future AI to talk more naturally.
It’s not something I can help. But what I can do is save the best of my stories, sharings, and journeys—the ones with insight, with value (to those of us who care about the poise, and who stay curious)—in my zines, and just there.
The zines are S P A C E.
- Update: We’re 60% towards our crowdfunding goal for ‘The Way’. Checkit!
A popup zine show at Atelier S P A C E | Mito, 2019. The little black booklets are zines from the S P A C E | Finland collection, 2018.
Choosing to make Atelier S P A C E | ‘The Way’
S P A C E has a crowdfunding campaign page going for ‘The Way’ and it’s very affirming to see that some of the people who I used to know, around the world, are coming to participate ambiently in that dialogue. Curtains haven’t risen yet, but soon enough, I will share through the platform, there, with just those who’ve contributed and also clicked ‘Yes’ on ‘Shall we keep you updated?’ Because opting in is key.
Who wants stuff without opting in? Not me. The amazing thing is, at the time of this writing, 100% of the people who have contributed to the campaign so far have clicked ‘Yes.’ So I’m all excited to write those updates, write the zines, too, and share with just those who opt in, because internet is full already of people’s ‘creative outlet’ outputs, and I don’t want to add to the noise. Conversations can begin, however, with zines and dialogues and Opting In. Did I say Opting In too many times? Sheesh, you’d think that was my keyword phrase or something for SEO. It’s not. (That’s ‘The Way’, lol). Not that anyone is searching for The Way. Hmmm.
Looking for new stories in Japan along ‘The Way’
But yeah. Updates. I will share those weeklyish. Photos and stories, inspired by the route ahead. Taking my time. Offline.
Not sure where I’ll go, exactly, but I have a general sketch of things route-wise, now. It’s going to be many trains, it’s going to be avoiding Tokyo and Osaka, because of ‘overtourism’ and not wanting to be part of that problem. It’s going to be, I think, a generally different sort of visit for me to this country where I have studied for a year when I was in college, worked for two summers when I wasn’t, and then, generally, gone to and fro within but mostly on Japan Rail pass, so this will be different. Off those heavily trodden rail lines and much more countryside-esque.
Maybe because of a poster I saw, once, when I was studying abroad there, just after high school. Words, in those days, weren’t things I understood then, but with time and growing more familiar, I could, and I did. It went, on that poster, something like: わたしは今、日本のどこかにいる。
It was an ad for the rail lines’ special for young people who might wanna go places, far, on the off-peak-hours slower trains. The 青春18きっぷ. (Upon further investigation, now, I see there are a lot of restrictions.)
Cool, I thought, way back then, enjoying the poster and feeling fresh and alive knowing others also find romance in the call of the far horizons. I dig it. And now, I’m like, I wanna try that, too. I wanna make it myself. That’s the goal, for me, with ‘The Way.’
Making the collection, S P A C E | Winter 2024/25 ‘The Way’
Zines will be influenced by whatever I find, wherever I go, when I get to the encounters ahead. And meet them. I’ll put these together in my best layouts and graphic spreads, edits for stories (probably some poems), for the Winter 2024/25 collection, ‘The Way.’ Like every season of Atelier S P A C E, there will be a set of 12.
Read zines this winter from my travels. They’re going to be published as S P A C E | Winter 2024/25, ‘The Way.’ Curious? You can get them, if you select ‘I want all 12 zines from Japan!’ on the now-live crowdfunding page. See link beow. More, from there. Thanks for support. I appreciate it.
- Update: We’re 60% towards our crowdfunding goal for ‘The Way’. Checkit!