Gas As Interface is a Japanese graphic design agency, producing dvds, magazines, and in charge of a wide van of interesting projects. Moreover they have opened a space in Tokyo called Calm&Punk Gallery.
Interview with Shinjiro Nishino, Representative Director of Gas As Interface and Calm & Punk Gallery.
How did GASBOOK started?
The first GASBOOK was released in 1996, and it was the time when the environment surrounding creative jobs, including graphic design and art, changed dramatically with the emergence of Macintosh and personal computer. The new channel of ‘software distribution’ opened, and we felt that there would be increasing number of artists and designers who have totally new concepts, values and attitudes, using the new tools. To challenge that as a software maker, we wanted to create a new media that stimulates those people and made the new type of book, CD-ROM magazine, featuring the artists of the time. We distributed them to the software channels, and that is how we started.
What is the meaning of GASBOOK?
The word ‘GAS’ was always on the corner of my head, thinking that maybe one day I can use it as a name of some project. When the idea of CD-ROM magazine came up, as something that expresses new type of artists and creativity, I thought about words like ‘Liquid Bible’, ‘Unformed Bible’, or ‘Foggy Bible’. ‘Liquid’ wasn’t ambiguous enough, and ‘fog’ didn’t sound right neither. Then the word ‘Gas’ came to the centre of my head as we call fog ‘gas’ in Japan, and looking for alternative word for ‘bible’(I didn’t want the sound that implies something religious), I pronounced ‘GASBOOK’, and it all clicked.
You're currently working as an intermediary agency between graphic designers and Japanese brands. How do you manage to contact all the people from your virtual catalogue?
I think it is the gathering of all the communications with people in the past 10 years. Respect to the artists, leverage among ourselves, and sustainability within time make us manage everyday life and business, I think.
How many people are working inside Gas?
20 people are working in Gas As Interface now. It was 2.5 people when the first GASBOOK was released, and it was 3 when we spun off from the parenting company 4 years ago.
You have opened a gallery in Tokyo called Calm & Punk, can you tell us more about it, and how do you want to develop it in the future? What kind of artists or shows are presented in the gallery?
Inspiration for Calm & Punk Gallery and Gas As Interface comes from similar origin. There is a space called 'Grove of a village shrine' in Japan, which is often seen in the middle of field. There is a shrine inside and trees stand around it. It is a space where people do festival, funeral, and pray for rich harvest too: the space that embodies both aspects in life. Sometimes it is ritual, and sometimes it is playful. It also used to be a place for sneak dating, and my idea for Calm & Punk was a space where dark/sensual/primitive sits together with the opposites.
As for the relationship with Calm & Punk Gallery and Gas As Interface, because Gas takes more on the business side as a nature of a company, Calm & Punk Gallery tries to be a space of experimentation for art forms and medias such as contemporary dance, fine art, and workshop, that is a little hard to connect to business directly.
Calm & Punk Gallery hosts 5-6 exhibitions a year. I think the idea of ‘new and old’ in terms of artists and art expressions is boring and useless, so we are open to anybody, famous/up-coming or domestic/international, as long as they and their works embrace universality and a sense of crudity. I would like to develop the function as a curator under Calm & Punk, regardless of the actual space.
How do you make your research on graphic designers? Books, magazines?
Communication to and from communication. The communication and relationship bring another great encounters.
What is your graphic design Bible?
The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall.
GASBOOK is changing Interface in Spring 2008, could you tell us more about it?
This is the second time that Gas is facing the change. The first change was in 2001 when we moved from CD-ROM magazine to wide-ranged project managements such as Gas book series, Gas DVDs, Atmosphere magazine, 20 million fragments (our fashion brand), distribution, licensing and coordination.
Thinking about the direction from now, we wanted to call each conversation and each project a ‘GASBOOK’. A telephone call with Event 10, for example, can be documented as the GASBOOK with Event 10 on 14th Feb, 2008 because GASBOOK and our network exist as a result of each communication.
The new concept of ‘GASBOOK’ is to compile the small and big bits and bobs of everyday and propose projects to our clients as a result of it. And by sharing such activities with society, we hope to create more opportunities and space for artists. The white GASBOOK (the details are not decided yet, so I cannot talk too much about this yet) can be symbolic to all of this, and the publication of GASBOOK Vision and People will present the direction, and GASBOOK.net will be the system to archive information and communication.
How do you distribute your books in Europe and USA? Are you happy with the ditribution? Do you want to develop it more?
The books and DVDs are distributed by Art Data in Europe, Ram in North America, and Via Alley in Australia. We would like to continue the releases as we want those publications to be loved and cherished in good hands around the world as they are now. We are very happy that people know us by GASBOOKS, GAS DVDs, and Atmosphere magazines, but I think we need to work on how to tell about other activities we do too.
In your opinion, what's the cultural and arty situation of Japan? What's in the air?
I feel that the discussion about the relationship between art/design and economy is being held more often in a positive aspect, thanks to the active careers and continuous works of people who have worked together through GASBOOKS (artists, business partners, readers, staff…). I think this is happening everywhere now, but the borderline among commercial, design, art, and business, which was once closed within each field, is melting, and the possibilities in new expressions and business chances have started to come out from there. It might take time until this becomes widespread, but the change in consciousness has already started within artists, designers, and whoever creates.
What's your next steps?
(after a very long pause…) Cultivating the ground to build a creative platform.
We want to move from being an interface to being a platform, which has various functions to offer to our dear artists.
Interview with Shinjiro Nishino, Representative Director of Gas As Interface and Calm & Punk Gallery.
How did GASBOOK started?
The first GASBOOK was released in 1996, and it was the time when the environment surrounding creative jobs, including graphic design and art, changed dramatically with the emergence of Macintosh and personal computer. The new channel of ‘software distribution’ opened, and we felt that there would be increasing number of artists and designers who have totally new concepts, values and attitudes, using the new tools. To challenge that as a software maker, we wanted to create a new media that stimulates those people and made the new type of book, CD-ROM magazine, featuring the artists of the time. We distributed them to the software channels, and that is how we started.
What is the meaning of GASBOOK?
The word ‘GAS’ was always on the corner of my head, thinking that maybe one day I can use it as a name of some project. When the idea of CD-ROM magazine came up, as something that expresses new type of artists and creativity, I thought about words like ‘Liquid Bible’, ‘Unformed Bible’, or ‘Foggy Bible’. ‘Liquid’ wasn’t ambiguous enough, and ‘fog’ didn’t sound right neither. Then the word ‘Gas’ came to the centre of my head as we call fog ‘gas’ in Japan, and looking for alternative word for ‘bible’(I didn’t want the sound that implies something religious), I pronounced ‘GASBOOK’, and it all clicked.
You're currently working as an intermediary agency between graphic designers and Japanese brands. How do you manage to contact all the people from your virtual catalogue?
I think it is the gathering of all the communications with people in the past 10 years. Respect to the artists, leverage among ourselves, and sustainability within time make us manage everyday life and business, I think.
How many people are working inside Gas?
20 people are working in Gas As Interface now. It was 2.5 people when the first GASBOOK was released, and it was 3 when we spun off from the parenting company 4 years ago.
You have opened a gallery in Tokyo called Calm & Punk, can you tell us more about it, and how do you want to develop it in the future? What kind of artists or shows are presented in the gallery?
Inspiration for Calm & Punk Gallery and Gas As Interface comes from similar origin. There is a space called 'Grove of a village shrine' in Japan, which is often seen in the middle of field. There is a shrine inside and trees stand around it. It is a space where people do festival, funeral, and pray for rich harvest too: the space that embodies both aspects in life. Sometimes it is ritual, and sometimes it is playful. It also used to be a place for sneak dating, and my idea for Calm & Punk was a space where dark/sensual/primitive sits together with the opposites.
As for the relationship with Calm & Punk Gallery and Gas As Interface, because Gas takes more on the business side as a nature of a company, Calm & Punk Gallery tries to be a space of experimentation for art forms and medias such as contemporary dance, fine art, and workshop, that is a little hard to connect to business directly.
Calm & Punk Gallery hosts 5-6 exhibitions a year. I think the idea of ‘new and old’ in terms of artists and art expressions is boring and useless, so we are open to anybody, famous/up-coming or domestic/international, as long as they and their works embrace universality and a sense of crudity. I would like to develop the function as a curator under Calm & Punk, regardless of the actual space.
How do you make your research on graphic designers? Books, magazines?
Communication to and from communication. The communication and relationship bring another great encounters.
What is your graphic design Bible?
The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall.
GASBOOK is changing Interface in Spring 2008, could you tell us more about it?
This is the second time that Gas is facing the change. The first change was in 2001 when we moved from CD-ROM magazine to wide-ranged project managements such as Gas book series, Gas DVDs, Atmosphere magazine, 20 million fragments (our fashion brand), distribution, licensing and coordination.
Thinking about the direction from now, we wanted to call each conversation and each project a ‘GASBOOK’. A telephone call with Event 10, for example, can be documented as the GASBOOK with Event 10 on 14th Feb, 2008 because GASBOOK and our network exist as a result of each communication.
The new concept of ‘GASBOOK’ is to compile the small and big bits and bobs of everyday and propose projects to our clients as a result of it. And by sharing such activities with society, we hope to create more opportunities and space for artists. The white GASBOOK (the details are not decided yet, so I cannot talk too much about this yet) can be symbolic to all of this, and the publication of GASBOOK Vision and People will present the direction, and GASBOOK.net will be the system to archive information and communication.
How do you distribute your books in Europe and USA? Are you happy with the ditribution? Do you want to develop it more?
The books and DVDs are distributed by Art Data in Europe, Ram in North America, and Via Alley in Australia. We would like to continue the releases as we want those publications to be loved and cherished in good hands around the world as they are now. We are very happy that people know us by GASBOOKS, GAS DVDs, and Atmosphere magazines, but I think we need to work on how to tell about other activities we do too.
In your opinion, what's the cultural and arty situation of Japan? What's in the air?
I feel that the discussion about the relationship between art/design and economy is being held more often in a positive aspect, thanks to the active careers and continuous works of people who have worked together through GASBOOKS (artists, business partners, readers, staff…). I think this is happening everywhere now, but the borderline among commercial, design, art, and business, which was once closed within each field, is melting, and the possibilities in new expressions and business chances have started to come out from there. It might take time until this becomes widespread, but the change in consciousness has already started within artists, designers, and whoever creates.
What's your next steps?
(after a very long pause…) Cultivating the ground to build a creative platform.
We want to move from being an interface to being a platform, which has various functions to offer to our dear artists.
