Sunday 29 November 2015

New Location: Japan

After spending the past few years working on a series of international events from my base just outside London, I'm delighted to be setting up a new, nomadic life for myself over on the other side of the world for a few months: Japan.


The experience of working temporarily within a number of different countries (UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain, UAE) over the last few months has hugely shaped both my interests and my perspective - along with my desire to experience a more varied range of cultural understanding. Knowledge sharing is a beautiful way to transcend barriers between people, and from the (translated) conferences, exhibitions and events I've produced so far in my career, what I've come to love more and more is witnessing connections being made between individuals, industries and cultures.
 
Moving to Japan has not been a difficult decision for me. I have been desperate to experience life and work beyond my own culture for a while now: America and Europe offer a stunning variation of ideas and approaches to art and technology, but it was the mild culture-shock of working in the UAE last month that helped me confirm my decision to cut ties with the UK for a while and leave in search of (my understanding of) stranger places.

I'll be spending the first few months of my Japanese adventure based on the Northern island of Hokkaido - where I will be indulging in one of my real, physical passions in life: powder skiing. From here, I'll be writing freelance while I continue my research into some of Japan's most interesting art/tech institutes - whether that be innovative companies in Tokyo, or arts museums / galleries / bodies elsewhere. I hope to find out more about Japan's arts and academic communities (especially in terms of Digital Humanities), in addition to grappling with the language as much as I can.

All ideas are welcome at this point, so if there's any way I could help with your project, then please do not hesitate to let me know. Please feel free to check up on my personal blog for more posts relating to my travels - and the interesting art, tech and design that I find along the way.