Exhibition Archive
Exhibition information
351st Exhibition dʒi dʒi dʒi Dainippon Type Organization
November 04, 2015 - November 28, 2015
In November ginza graphic gallery (ggg) will be holding “dʒi dʒi dʒi Dainippon Type Organization,” an exhibition all about dʒi – in Japanese, 字, pronounced “ji,” meaning character or kana or letter of an alphabet.
Dainippon Type Organization was formed in 1993 by two young men: Hidechika, the one with a beard and without a surname, and Tetsuya Tsukada, the one with a surname and without a beard. As a team they probe new concepts and new possibilities in writing systems through their ongoing experiments in disarticulating, combining and reconfiguring Japanese characters, the two Japanese phonetic alphabets, and letters of the English alphabet. The result is an exhibition literally filled with dʒi of every kind imaginable.
The two partners in Dainippon Type Organization have been playing with writing systems for 22 years, and here the collective results of their escapades with dʒi will be on view for all to marvel at. Visitors are sure to come away with a newfound sense of the fun and profoundness of dʒi. “gggBooks-117 Dainippon Type Organization” will be published in tandem with the exhibition.
Venue
ginza graphic gallery (ggg)
DNP Ginza Building, 7-2, Ginza 7-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Tel: +81-3-3571-5206
11:00a.m. to 7:00p.m. (Fridays until 8:00p.m. / Saturdays until 6:00p.m.)
Closed on Sundays and national holidays
Entrance is free of charge.
Exhibition Special Website
Events
★ Gallery Radʒio (Radio): “Talk Night Dainippon”
Every Friday (November 6 / 13 / 20 / 27) 6:30p.m. to 8:00p.m.
Entrance is free of charge, and visitors may come and leave at any time.
A booth will be set up within the gallery, and for 90 minutes every Friday evening talk by the two members of Dainippon Type Organization will be broadcast inside the exhibition area – just like a radio program. The pair will talk about their works on display, chat with specially invited guests, and answer questions from visitors, who will have the opportunity to listen to the radʒio show as they walk around looking at the works.
★ dʒi dʒi dʒi Campaign for Kids
This campaign is for children – the Japanese character for which is 子, which happens to be the lower element of the character 字. In this campaign, young visitors to the gallery will be given a present in the form of a hat that looks like 宀 (u-kanmuri), the top part of the character. (Please note that hats will be available in a limited number.)
★ dʒi dʒi dʒi Campaign for Gramps
This campaign is for elderly men – which in Japanese is colloquially designated using the character 爺, pronounced “dʒidʒii” and having a connotation similar to “gramps” in English. Anyone who thinks he qualifies to be called a dʒidʒii is welcome to enter the lottery in which the one lucky senior will be given a specially prepared pair of pants befitting his status. (Oh, and by the way, elderly women are free to participate, too.)
Message
Hello, everybody, this is Dainippon Type Organization. We originally started our experiments with writing systems back in 1993, when we thought about how Japanese katakana originated from parts of kanji characters; and we figured if that’s the case, then if we were to combine katakana, we should be able to come up with something resembling kanji, right? In those days we had great admiration for the Tokyo Type Directors Club (Tokyo TDC), so we thought that if we are going to choose a name for ourselves, why not take one that would be bigger than the Tokyo TDC’s? That’s how we arrived at Dainippon Type Organization. For 22 years we have been playing with dʒi, dʒi and more dʒi. And now here we are, with our own show at ggg – which must be fate (ggg = dʒi dʒi dʒi). Anyway, that’s why we named our show “dʒi dʒi dʒi.” We hope you enjoy it.
Dainippon Type Organization
Formed by Hidechika and Tetsuya Tsukada in 1993, Dainippon Type Organization is an experimental typography group that seeks new concepts in type design by disarticulating, combining and reconfiguring the existing written components of Japanese characters and kana, alphabet letters, etc. They have held their own exhibitions in London, Barcelona and Tokyo, and participated in group exhibitions worldwide. In 2012, together with Masahiko Furukata they mounted the exhibition “Design a Letter Yourself, with Algorithmic Thinking!” at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo. In 2013, they received a Tokyo Type Directors Club (TDC) Award for their research and development, in collaboration with Yokokaku (as the Shinsekai Type Study Group), of "New" kana written horizontally. In October 2014, they launched type.center, a website (http://type.center) “of letters, by letters, and for letters.” Their major publications are “TYPE CARD PLAY BOOK” (ACTAR) and “Dainipponji” (Seibundo Shinkosha).
