Mumbai 2nd day/ 28 Dec 2012

Tomomi at Mumbai at 2nd day. 

 Holly animal, cows are on the street. Absolutely everywhere.
Cow keepers are having business to feed by street prayers.

 Grant Road station. Of course a lot of people.

 Road at Mumbai is so busy and chaotic. People don`t care about traffic lights.

 Local market.

 Train route map

 Many people are coming from station. Endless!

 Trains are always filled by people.

 Train sign design is followed by London Underground sign!

 University of Mumbai. Victorian building.

 City centre. Full of Victorian buildings.

 Gateway of India.

 Taj hotel

 I was on a boat to Elephanta Island.  Return journey costed just 2 pounds or so.

 At elephanta island, there are carriage service by people! Two people will help to climb a mountain walk. Two logs are attached to chairs! Very primitive design. Nice.

 Elephanta Island. Most of statues are broken by Portuguese about 500 years ago.
Here is a world heritage site, so the place was very well maintained.

 Mini train at Elephanta island. Slow as walk. But I was on there. Fun. 10 rupee.

Victoria Terminal. 

Mumbai, India / Muscat, Oman trip 1st day

I went to Mumbai, India and Muscat Oman from 26 December - 10 January for an exhibition at TechFest 2013 at IIT Bombay. 

It was hectic but very surprising trip. 

I am reminding about the trip on this blog! 

 I was initially thinking to have a visa on arrival, but I realized this system is too problematic, so I decided to get a visa last minutes;;; It was very thrilling. I just got it 6h before my departure; 

I used Oman air. So I stopped at Muscat airport.

 Shore line of Muscat.

 Traditional Omani clothing

 Very clean and new airpot. Oil money!!!

 I arrived at Mumbai.
Outside of airport has already chaos! Very surprising.
I arrived at India!

I saw the best naming hair salon ever. Unisex Salon `CUT THE CRAP`

 1st night`s meal. In total 1.2 pounds or so.

 I went to local big hindi temple. It was around 7 pm. So many people were getting into the temple to pray. Very exotic place in the middle of a big city.

 I went to long distance bus terminal to buy a ticket to Goa.
It was peak season, so I should pay 1600 rupee for one way. (Almost 20 pounds.)

 A festive float was passing in the public road. I had no idea what was that..!

Chai. 5 rupee

Exhibition at Mumbai, India/ IIT Bombay finished!

I was invited to show at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India. 3-5 January 2013.
http://www.techfest.org/home/event/inter_exhibits
IIT Bombay is a famous University of Science and Technology in India.
It was very honorable  I was invited to show with very high end exhibitors such as MIT, Keio Xlab and EPFL Swiss. Most of exhibitors at my space are robotic engineer background. Some people are media art like me. So very interesting line up.
There are huge huge crowds I have not experienced ever. First day 20000 people were visited, last day was thee times of the first day according to the exhibition organizer!

A lot of things are going very random way in India, so it was very stress or required very patient in any circumstances and stages. But it was very amazing experience to show there.  Huge huge crowds and opportunities to meet interesting people, and crazy environment every time.
I am from Tokyo, so I am get used to being at very busy society and love to be at busy places rather than boring quite area.  BUT, this is much more busier than in Tokyo!!! Everywhere is so chaotic and random, even though setting up exhibition.

But exhibition manager, coordinator, organizers (IIT Bombay students) are very helpful and humanized. Sometimes trouble happens, but there were full of smiles and comedy moments.

In general, I really loved to visit India. Everything is so random and bad and good things happens at the same time, all the time! But full of surprises. People said, this is a god`s state. It must be true, very spiritual and full of many different gods were there. So crazy, I have not encountered such a state with full of enthusiasm religious people;  And the different people`s believe make the place so chaotic. But I feel this is very human kind of place. People believe what they believe. It was very shockingly surprising place for me.

And I appreciate a lot for TechFest manager, coordinators and organizers. They were trying their all best in every stage. And giving smiles every time, thank you, again!

Definitely I will come back to India in the future.

Tomomi

 loooong que all the time!!

 with Keio Xlab exhibitors and IIT students.

 Exhibitors from Paris, Zurich and IIT student

 Nicolas from Paris and another exhibitor from India.

 Tech Fest after party. Very impressive shows from all over the world. Amusing!

Cow was in the middle of the road of campus. Hindi sacred animal, cow was everywhere.

 Exhibition stalls. Full of full of people!!!

 Robosoft, India robots.

 Lecture series line ups. I would like to see, but no time;; Shame.
Guest speakers are invited from all over the world.

 Next building was IIT student`s department`s study presentation. Interesting studies.

 EGON! Character of TechFest

Oshibe is on DQ magazine, Australia

My interactive sound sculpture piece "Oshibe" was on DQ Magazine 2010 Spring. I receive the PDF just today. I haven't seen the data for a while even though it was released two years ago! 

I heard my piece was on the issue via a design founder, so I contacted to the publisher. 

Then the editor sent me the file quickly, and I could face to the article finally! 

It is lovely to see my article in such a high end design magazine. My Oshibe is introduced very nicely.