visionplus7: impressions and inspiration

a bow to the look and feel of visionplus7, and to its content.

light on formality, without pomp, but with an excited, shy, curious and attentive team of friends, helpers and students.

dark, moody and concentrated in the lecture hall, with a surprising composition of contributors, to make information design something way bigger than what we roll around on our desks all day.

the paper messageboard, soon to become filled with expertly drawn characters from the "dragonball" manga series. new friends from all over the world, bonding in the speakers' lounge over o-cha and bento.

opening and closing parties on the university lawn, with interactive projections on a textile "running fence". goofing with students over beer; hearing stories of fellow westerners in japan.

bantering with student girls turning my 'kame' business card into an additional conference badge. showing off some cartooning; trying to explain my career in japanese...

200 pictures to be turned into the presentation of the year, the sun rising into the hotel window at 7 am, ohayo nihon... showering while the powerbook processes 130 megabytes of images, and then off to the presentation! major technical problems for 2 hours, me now a bundle of nerves. the microphone jitters in trembling hands, "minna-sama, youkoso. boku wa nihongo o sukoshi dake hanasu kara, kono presentation o eigo de shinakereba narimasen keredou..."

showing japan to the japanese where they don't care to look, what a concept... but now my pictures are carrying me like kinto-un; floating, charming, funny. i finish just 1 minute over the long-negotiated time bracket.

still, round-table and Q&A to endure, to offer my best thinking. then, my moderator asks me to provide the closing words -- but sleep-deprived, all i can say is, "who, me?". this ends up the key joke of the conference video, shown at ICC a few days after.

sleeping on the sofa in the speakers' lounge. crying as it's over, among my new friends. partying til midnight, karaoke til 4 am, then saying goodbye already...

i wish it would happen again.