EVER WONDERED how the appliances that our grandparents used worked, how they looked and how they apply to life as we know it today? Bangkokians now have the chance to find out as the touring exhibition “Japanese Design Today 100” has landed in Bangkok and turned the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC)’s gallery into a time capsule, boasting 100 examples of recognisable daily products from the 1950s to the 2010s.

Until May 26, visitors can discover the innovative rice cooker, classic motorcycle, Zen-style wood furniture, smart camera as well as the popular cassette player and wristwatches we used while at school.

Manufacturer Sakura Seisakusho  adopted the ancient design of a dining table in making their functional Feb desk, which made its debut in 2007.

A collaboration between Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency (CEA) and the Japan Foundation, Bangkok, the show uses product design as a way of exchanging culture. Initiated in 2000, the exhibition has travelled to many countries including Canada, the US, El Salvador, China, Mongolia, Singapore, Finland and the Philippines.

Curated by four Japanese design experts – Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Masafumi Fukagawa, Shu Hagiwara and Noriko Kawakami – its collection was updated in 2014 to assemble 89 current masterpieces, along with 11 forms that have an important influence on the designs of today.

“Japan has a wealth of creative ideas, advanced technology and beautiful culture. The Japanese designers have managed to combine their traditions and innovation in creating unique products that can meet the needs of people on a daily basis,” says Apisit Laistrooglai, managing director of the Creative Economy Agency.

“This exhibition is showcasing the evolution of Japanese designs and the way functional products can serve everyday life. We want to spark ideas among Thai designers and the general public e in adapting and mixing local materials with traditional wisdom and new technology to create products that fit our lifestyle.”

Spread over 2,000 square metres, the works are divided into 10 categories based on their function, namely appliances, tableware and kitchenware, clothing and accessories, children’s supplies, stationary, recreational equipment, healthcare products and transportation vehicles, plus rescue and disaster relief products.

The Classic Japanese Design corner highlights the RC-10 electronic rice-cooker by Toshiba that dates back to the very beginnings of the electronic appliance industry in Japan. Designed by Yoshiharu Iwata, it launched in 1955 to shorten cooking time for rice with a single button. Today’s modern, high-performance rice cooker still cook the grains at the push of a button but can also be used for making simple pastries and side dishes like soft boiled eggs, tofu, bread or cakes.

The Kikkoman soy sauce bottle with its simple but functional design has been popular for almost 60 years. 

Collectors can check out the iconic 1959 Nikon F camera designed by Yusaku Kamekura, who created the remarkable logo of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the poster for the 1970 Expo in Osaka. It comes with a simple layout and easy-to-operate buttons that help veteran and amateur photographers capture clearly everything around them.

Japanese food lovers might be used to the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle designed by Kenji Ekuan. Launched in 1961, it has a simple yet smart design that allows people to pour sauce without opening the lid.

Then there’s the old-school Sony Walkman-2 cassette player – the must-have fashion gadget of ’80s youngsters. Different from the first model with an existing cassette tape recorder mechanism, this renewed series came with a fresh external structure, making it easy to carry and enjoy music in an outdoor ambience.

“This travelling exhibition is part of the cultural exchange programme between Japan and other countries around the world. Featuring striking Japanese innovations and classic designs by famous designers, it is also a commentary on changing lifestyles,” says Norihiko Yoshioka, director-general of the Japan Foundation, Bangkok.

“We might refresh the collection of products in next three or four years to ensure our exhibition genuinely relates to today’s designs. Our curators will select the old products that are still seen because that means they have become universal designs. Those that have disappeared from daily life will be cut out of the display.”

The Furniture and Houseware zone shines the spotlight on Japanese craftsmanship through the 1985 Folding Screen manufactured by Karacho, which was founded in Kyoto in 1624 and specialised in karakami (woodblock printed

paper). This handcrafted screen is constructed with ancient techniques and used to cover sliding doors and walls.

The Issey Miyake + Reality Lab raised environmental awareness with the wireless In-Ei Mogura lamp that draws inspiration from origami (the Japanese art of folding paper). Launched in 2010, its shade is fashioned out of non-woven fabric using recycled fibre from PET bottles to give soft light and three-dimensional shape, making it an easy-to-match decorative item for the modern living space.

Issey Miyake blends craftsmanship with modern ecodesign in its InEi Issey Miyake Mogura lamp. 

In 2013, Marude Chuki company came up with the casting vessels for mosquito incense coils, offering the lid in six Ise stencil-inspired patterns that are attractive no matter where they are placed. Designed by Hiroshi Yamasaki and Miya Suwa, all the pieces are crafted in the Kuwana region of Mie prefecture, one of two main industrial casting centres in Japan.

Manufacturer Sakura Seisakusho and designer Yoshifumi Nakamura adopted the ancient design of a dining

table in making their functional Feb desk, which made its debut in 2007. Named after the Nigatsudo (the hall of the second month) in the grounds of Todaiji Temple, it comes with foldable legs and is designed to be flexible for people sitting on the floor.

“Japanese design pays attention to quality and reflects unique traditions. In Japan, we still see young and old generations working together. They have cultural capital and always survey their own speciality,” says Songwad Sukmaungma, senior curator of CEA.

“Focusing on functionality and classic style, we can see how some Japanese products combine knowledge from the West and the East.”

The Tableware and Cookware department presents the three 15.0% Ice Cream Spoons set designed by TeradaDesign Architects for Takata Lemnos. Launched in 2011, they’re made with solid aluminium and transmit the warmth of the user’s hand to the ice cream, making it smoother and easier to scoop.

Asakura Senpu’s water-repellent wrapping cloth can be turned into a bucket to carry up to 10 litres of water.

Other items include the 2009 Cupmen 1 Hold On designed by Akira Mabuchi, which features a man- figure who changes colour when you place it on the lid of a instant noodles cup and stops you burning your mouth.

Asakura Senpu’s water-repellent wrapping cloth launched in 2006 can be turned into a bucket to carry up to 10 litres of water and A-Net’s 1994 Home 1 coat designed by Kosuke Tsumura features several pockets to contain daily necessities, a must for those faced with a disaster situation.

The exhibition will move to TCDC Chiang Mai from June 8 to 30 and show at Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts Gallery between July 12 and 28.

MAKE A DATE

>> The Japanese Design Today 100 exhibition continued through May 26 at the Gallery Room of TCDC Bangkok until May 26.

>> It’s open Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30am to 9pm. Admission is free.

>>  Find out more by calling (02) 105-7400 extensions 213 or 214 or visit Web.TDCD.or.th.

More powerful yet just as slim and sleek as earlier models, Apple’s new iMac is now powered by 8-core Intel 9th-generation processors and its graphic horse power is unleashed by superfast Radeon Pro Vega graphics.

There are two new series, one with a display size of 21.5 inches and the other 27 inches. The standard configurations of the 27-inch new iMac feature 6-core Intel Core i5 processors across the line with up to 3.7 GHz base close speed. And this series can be configured up to an 8-core Core i9 processor. Compared to the previous generation, the new 27-inch iMac’s performance is up to 2.4 times faster.

The new 21.5-inch iMac, meanwhile, comes with Retina 4K display and its standard configurations feature quad-core Intel Core i3 and 6-core Intel Core i5 processors with 3.6 GHz and 3.0GHz base clock speed respectively. It can be configured up to a 6-core Intel Core i7 processor. Compared to the |previous 21.5-inch iMac, |the new model is up to 60 per cent faster.

In terms of graphic horsepower, both series feature powerful Radeon Pro 500X-series discrete graphics with Polaris architecture for faster gaming 3D graphics and video editing.

The new 27-inch iMac comes with Radeon Pro 580X and 8GB of video memory while the new 21.5-inch iMac has Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of video memory.

For faster graphics rendering, you can opt to configure the 27-inc iMac with a Radeon Pro Vega 48 graphics with 8 GB of HBM2 (Hind-Bandwidth Memory), which is up to 50 per cent faster than Radeon Pro 580X.

And for the 21.5-inch iMac, you can opt for Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics with 4GB of HBM2 memory that provides up to 80 per cent more speed than the Radeon Pro 560X.

I got my hands on the 21.5-inch iMac with normal configuration. It’s powered by Intel Core i5 3GHz with 8GB of RAM and one terabyte of storage. It uses Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of memory as the graphics engine. And the computer runs on macOS Mojave Version 10.4.4 operating system.

The Mojave OS is fast and smooth. It’s intuitive to use and the system didn’t freeze during the test.

I found that the new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display handled business applications at high speed. LibreOffice ran fast and web pages, photos and videos were also rendered very fast.

Apple says the new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display can edit 4K video using Final Cut Pro X: Multicam editing of Simultaneous 4K streams up to nine times faster than a baseline quad-core iMac.

The Retina 4K display is really great for viewing photos and watching videos so you can use the new 21.5-inch iMac for both working and entertainment. With 1 billion colours and 500 nits of brightness, graphics leap off the screen. Text is razor-sharp and photos really do come to life. Films and TV shows look amazing and graphics and games have terrific detail.

The Retina display uses P3 colour that shifts away from standard white LEDs to advanced red-green phosphor LEDs. That means all three colours– red, green, and blue –are more equally represented and show real-world colour with more balance and precision

Apple says that its innovative spatial and temporal dithering technique provides support for 1 billion colours, elevating the Pro photo and video editing experience, and providing more true-to-life colour for everyday activities like browsing the web and online shopping and I could find no reason to dispute this.

During the test, I enjoyed watching 4K YouTube clips and HD movies streamed from iflix.

The all-in-one design makes looks elegant and sleek. Everything – display, processor, graphics, storage and memory – is contained inside one simple enclosure. Thanks to its superslim profile and matching wireless keyboard and mouse, iMac gives you a clean and uncluttered desktop that allows you to focus more on your content.

The new 21.5-inch comes with blazing-fast connectivity. It has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, each delivering up to 40 Gbps data transfer for external drives and cameras, and ample bandwidth for video and display connectivity.

The new iMac also provides four USB 3 ports to give you plenty of options for connecting peripherals, including your printer, iPhone and thumb drive.

The 21.5-inch iMac comes with Magic Mouse 2 and the Magic Keyboard, which have been paired and ready to use. To customise your input devices, you can upgrade to Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, which are sold separately. The new 21.5-inch iMacs have a starting price of Bt37,900 while the new 27-inch iMacs start at Bt62,900, depending on configurations.

Key specs:

OS: macOS Mojave

Processor: 3.0GHz 6core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz)

Memory: 8GB of 2666MHz DDR4 memory; Configurable to 16GB, 32GB

Storage: 1TB hard drive

Display: 21.5inch (diagonal) 500nit LEDbacklit Retina 4K display 4096by2304 resolution with support for 1 billion colours

Camera: FaceTime HD camera

Wireless: 802.11ac WiFi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible Bluetooth 4.2 wireless technology

Audio: Stereo speakers, Microphone, 3.5 mm headphone jack

Connections and expansion: Two Thunderbolt 3 (USBC) ports, Four USB 3 ports, 10/100/1000BASET Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, 3.5 mm headphone jack

Input: Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2; Configurable with Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and Magic Trackpad 2

Dimensions: 45.0×52.8×17.5cm (HxWxD)

Weight: 5.60 kg

In the box: 21.5inch iMac with Retina 4K display Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, Power Cord, Lightning to USB Cable

GHANA LAUNCHED a fleet of drones Wednesday to carry medical supplies to remote areas, with President Nana Akufo-Addo declaring it would become the “world’s largest drone delivery service”.

The craft are part of an ambitious plan to leapfrog problems of medical access in a country with poor roads.

“No one in Ghana should die because they can’t access the medicine they need in an emergency,” Akufo-Addo said in a statement to mark the launch.

“That’s why Ghana is launching the world’s largest drone delivery service,” Akufo-Addo said. “It represents a major step towards giving everyone in this country universal access to lifesaving medicine.”

The drones have been flying test runs with blood and vaccines, but the project was officially inaugurated Wednesday at the main drone base in Omenako, 70 kilometres north of Accra.

Staff member Georgina Wilson prepares a drone for the delivery of medical supplies at the drone delivery service base run by operator Zipline in Omenako, 70 kilometres north of Accra.

Omenako is the first of four distribution centres which, when fully operational, will each have 30 drones serving 500 clinics within an 80-kilometre radius.

Operator Zipline, a US-based company, said the three other sites should be up and running by the end of 2019.

The drones are planned to ferry 150 different medicines, blood, and vaccines to more than 2,000 clinics serving over 12 million people – roughly 40 per cent of the population.

Zipline first began delivering blood and medicine in East Africa in 2016, deploying drones in Rwanda, a country dubbed the “land of a thousand hills” where access to many villages by road is difficult.

Now the company is expanding on the other side of the continent.

“Millions of people across the world – in both developed and developing countries – die each year because they can’t get the medicine they need when they need it,” said Zipline boss Keller Rinaudo.

For Ghana, a country of nearly 30 million people scattered across a land area about the size of former colonial ruler Britain, poor roads and a lack of ambulances are major challenges to health care access.

Drones, not dependent on bumpy roads that can take hours to navigate, offer a way to get medical supplies to clinics before a patient bleeds to death, for example.

“We are a developing country,” said Douglas Adu-Fokuo, a spokesman for the Ghana Health Service, noting that almost a third of maternal deaths are due to blood loss – easily preventable with a transfusion provided supplies are available.

“We can’t achieve everything in one go,” he added. “We have to start somewhere.”

The four-year contract to Zipline has a hefty price tag of $12.5 million (Bt400 million).

But the company says the cost is “on par with the current cost of delivery, which is usually a car, truck or motorcycle”, yet faster and more reliable.

Medics can order blood or medicine by sending a message by mobile phone.

Each battery-powered flying machine has a delivery distance of 80 kilometres speeding at 100kmph an hour and can carry up to 1.7 kilogrammes.

Each drop can bring three units of blood, with deliveries made by parachute. The drones are stoked at their depot to ensure that vaccines and supplies are kept cold, cutting the need for expensive cold-chain storage systems in remote areas.

Once the programme is up and running, plasma deliveries can be made for the first time to Ghana’s most remote northern areas. The journey by road was too long, and the expiry date of plasma too short, to make this possible until now.

COMPLETING and signing digital forms are common practice in the Thailand 4.0 era and Adobe is making inclusion in the digital economy ever easier with the launch of its Fill & Sign app.

The free app from Adobe lets you fill in, sign, and send any form fast. You can even snap a picture of a paper form and fill it in on your phone or tablet and then e-sign it and send.

Best of all, when you use it with iPad Pro or new iPad Air as well as the new iPad mini that supports Apple Pencil, you can use the stylus pen to sign your name on the form.

I tested the latest version of Adobe Fill & Sign or version 19.3.0 on the new iPad mini and I found that it worked fine. It let me fill my company health insurance form and send it back without having to travel to the office.

Adobe says the latest version has improved performance and stability and is proud to be offering a “green” app or an app that supports environment because it can help reduce the use of paper and the need for printing and faxing. And since you can fill and sign your form anywhere, you can also save energy and the cost of travelling.

The app supports the form that is created by Adobe Acrobat that is sent to you by email. You can use the your tablet’s camera to scan paper forms. Then you can tap to enter text or check marks in form fields. The app also allows you to create autofill entries for faster form filling.

The app allows you to easily create your signature with your finger or a stylus, then apply your signature or initials to the form. The form can then be saved and sent immediately via email.

RITZWELL, A Japanese brand of upholstered furniture that is known for its organic modernism and blend of balanced, simple forms with graceful materials, has recently been introduced to Thai market by Chanintr, a leading retailer of luxury home furnishing.

The highlight products include an easy chair and ottoman, sideboard, stool and table, most of them designed by the brand’s creative director Shinsaku Miyamoto.

Reminiscent of 1950s styles popular in Northern Europe, the Beatrix easy chair embodies a combination of design elements, the alternation of high-quality wood, fabrics and hide processed with plant extracts, balance with a soft padded cushion as well as the unusual shape of the wooden frame that supports the legs. The ottoman can be used as a coffee table, a stool or a footrest.

Beatrix easy chair and ottoman

The Jabara sideboard boasts a natural walnut body frame structure with solid wood sliding tambour doors, available in a range of measurements. The drawer front has been covered in thick leather. A hint of padding on the front of the drawers guarantees softness to the touch.

The sliding doors were also inspired by Japanese styles, clearly visible in the traditional slim vertical lines of the yoshido doors decorated with a sequence of cane elements, traditionally used in summer in older urban homes, as well as in the Sagano bamboo forest in Kyoto.

The Claude easy chair encompasses tranquillity and quietude with the flawless carving of the armrests and the unique lines of the legs. Meanwhile, the Marcel chair gives off the natural feel of the basic walnut and features a beautiful line from the rear legs up through the back.

The OS collection of tables is the key expression of Ritzwell’s design philosophy, a contemporary taste of Japanese furniture that blends with other furnishings. The natural solid wood top is supported by an elegant sculptured, ultra- light base in black powder-painted steel.

OS tables

Designed by Design: Atelier DQ, the Rivage is a collection of seats and armchairs with warm shades of wood and detailed stitching on the leather. The standout feature is the pleasant weave, which makes for a soft seat. The sheen of the leather, natural wood details and contemporary style make this product a standout for any living room.

SITTING EASY

>> Ritzwell collection is available at Craft Showroom on the third floor of Siam Paragon.

>> Call (02) 129 4577.

The film is supported by Polish Embassy in Thailand and was scheduled for Saturday, May 18 at 4pm. A new date for the screening will be announced when TK Park reopens to the public on July 1.

The film depicts five devoted friends who shared a great dream when they were kids – to rock the Polish metal music scene and draw big crowds to their concerts as the band Exterminator. The band broke up and now its leader, Marcys, works in his father’s store and his relationship with Magda is in crisis.

Guitar virtuoso Lizzy is a bank employee, bassist Jaromir punches a time card at a polyurethane foam factory and struggles to live up to his responsibilities of head of a family, and drummer Makar is in a mental institution. The fifth member, Cypek, emigrated for financial reasons. However, one day, old memories return. The mayor turns out to have been a great fan of Exterminator and promises to finance their reunion. But there is a catch: The guys have to betray their ideals and perform at a number of fairs, playing songs quite distant from their usual repertoire. Their male pride won’t let them compromise, and their long-standing friendship as well as their relationships with women will be put to a true test.

The film created a wave at festivals abroad and was a big hit at home.

For updates, visit http://www.TKPark.or.th.