The man behind the Bitman
The Daily Yomiuri profiles Ryota Kuwakubo, a Japanese artist/inventor who just won the top prize for art in this year's Japan Media Arts Festival. Kowakubo's inventions are mainly high-tech gadgets with displays for 80's-style pixelated imagery that lend up looking a bit like Frogger crashing the design wing of the MOMA. Though rather than create stuffy pieces meant to be shown in museums or galleries, projects like Kowakubo's wearable Bitman medallion, the Vomoder, the loopScape (pictured at right), and the HeavenSeed (a beachball hooked up to speakers that can project sound), are meant to be toys that you can interact and play with.
