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Money Matters.

(Akihabara TV Catalog, 2000/06, Submitted 2000/05/20)

Yamagata Hiroo



OK, so you want me to talk about money here. All right. Obviously, at this point, Akihabara TV has absolutely no economic significance. None. Zero. Nada. Too small, too unnoticed, too unrecognizable, too difficult to find, and there's no discernible benefit on the Akihabara stores' side. The stores are basically just being nice and doing a favor. (Maybe not. But that's what it seems from the outside.) End of story. Good day.

What? Oh, there's nothing WRONG with it, we all know that money is the source of all evil and corruption so it's even GOOD that this thing is economically non-existent and totally ignoreable....NOT. Well, OK, that's fine for the first few times, just to prove that you're basically harmless and doesn't blow things up or anything. But if this is to continue (and if you want to talk about money), you gotta think harder. And I personally think that the point is to provide less freedom to the artists.

As anyone knows, MTV hires a lot of experimental animators to work on their splash logos. MTV logo is the final punch line, and as long as you get there within the given timeline, you can get away with anything. I like that. Maybe an ATV logo or something? Whatever. But more often than not, in any creative area, restrictions are what makes things interesting. How to get around that restriction, or how you even exploit them, is the thing that makes the work tick. In architecture, in business operations, anything. In several of the works, I felt that the Akihabara-ness of the event was not fully exploited. They could be here, but they would do equally fine elsewhere. Anchor them. Make them fit together. Give them purpose, and with that, you can give them utility. And then, only then, would this thing have any economic significance. And then, I'll talk about money. So, keep suffering, and keep it going. Who knows? Maybe next time, this thing just might fly.

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