X2 TOKYO – ASSISTANT

Cover image of X2 TOKYO

Data

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Team: Megumi Matsubara, Hiroi Ariyama
Completion year: 2010
Exhibition title: X2 TOKYO
Exhibition period: 29 Oct - 3 Nov 2010
Client: X2 TOKYO / Bridgestone Cycle
Purpose: Urban research, Workshop, Installation from an angle of bicycles
Project period: Jun - Nov 2010
Collaborators: Maywadenki
Takram
Strange Kinoko Dance Company
Photographers: Amana, ASSISTANT
Acknowledgement: Amana Images (cooporation) Workshop participants David Garcia (Workshop participant / Gradioffiti rider, audio documented) Satoko Shibahara (Workshop participant / Gradioffiti rider, video documented)
Urls: ASSISTANT on X2 TOKYO
GRADIOFFITI report
X2 TOKYO
Monocle article 2 Jun 2010
Notes: X2 TOKYO is a project promoting the widespread use of bicycles in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the improvement of convenience and lifestyles related to this, and the effects it has on the environment. (via Bridgestone Cycle)

An urban research project on the potential relationship between bicycles and Tokyo.

Invited by X2 TOKYO subtitled [cycle/connect/city], four artists were asked to develop ideas upon city life with bicycles in Tokyo over six months. Our ideas were showcased in two steps; an urban workshop GRADIOFFITI and the final installation as a one-to-one scale maquette to experience the fragmented feelings of cycling.

GRADIOFFITI is a term coined by Assistant comprising of RADIO and GRAFFITI: One of the workshop participants drives out on a bicycle in the town with a microphone and keeps talking to oneself, while others staying in the workshop room listen to the person’s self-talk through speakers and write them down on post-its to map them out on the wall. The collected spoken phrases are written on plastic garbage bags afterwards and thrown out at the waste-collection points on the streets where those words were originally uttered.
The workshop visualizes and shares the feelings of cycling in the city. The research continued for four more months, and GRADIOFFITI eventually turned into a one-to-one scale urban model; installation that showcased a physical experience of the city while cycling.