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"tFont/fTime" Exhibition website

First exhibition of Semitra, a group of creators combining great informational media sensibility and technology
"Typeface with a temporal element" themed displays at YCAM's exhibition space and on the Internet

"Semitransparent Design" is a creative team that has been connecting the realm of design with cutting-edge informational media technology in works ranging from web design to graphic and interactive design since starting off in 2003.
YCAM now presents "tFont/fTime", an exhibition of the "Semitra" group of artists that emerged from this collective.
Semitra have been attracting attention with their design work on various commercial websites, films, displays and other advertising media (digital signage). With a special focus on typeface design, this exhibition introduces a new work based on the unique idea of creating a font that changes hour by hour. The installation space creates unique typeface-scape which has connection to website in realtime, allowing visitors to participate/interact directly at the venue or via the Internet.

Design of Time × Font
Observing a continually transforming typeface in an installation and online

With a special focus on font design, this exhibition introduces new works based on the unique idea of a typeface that transforms hour by hour. Centering around four new installation pieces (shown at Studio B) incorporating the "tFont" typeface with an added element of time, as well as "fTime", which expresses time through typeface design, the exhibition allows the visitor to witness the generation and processing of this particular kind of font design via networks and visual relays. In addition, a number of large-sized signboards displayed in and outside the Center complete the ever-changing "fontscape" that pervades YCAM in a combination of real and informational environments dedicated entirely to the design of typeface and time.


Participate while viewing real-time images of the exhibition space via the Internet
An exhibition to be experienced from 12 locations in and around YCAM, and from your own computer

"tFont/fTime" stands for "time-font/font-time", and represents the result of an attempt to explore font design based on the novel idea of visualizing the transformation process of a gradually changing typeface.
The letters of messages supplied via a special website (http://www.semitraexhibition.com/) or email (m@semitra.com) become parts of artworks that ultimately emerge at YCAM's exhibition spaces. Messages are displayed in the original "tFont" typeface, and once placed on the "fTime" time axis, they are processed through visitors' actions and such media as cameras and monitors. The font's transformation process can also be observed in the form of "fontscapes" in images of the exhibition transmitted in real-time via the Internet. In addition to four new installation pieces exhibited at Studio B, these fontscapes unfurl at a total of twelve locations inside and outside the YCAM building, including the foyer and the Chuo Park.
All exhibited works are fed with common data of visitors' actions and supplied messages, which are then translated into configurations of typefaces, lighting, etc. to affect each respective work.




"tFont/fTime" Exhibition Works
(new work: commissioned by YCAM)
01. Movable Type（Studio B）* Live Straming
02. Typesetting（Studio B）*　Live Straming / Messages are displayed
03. California Job Case（Studio B）*　Live Straming
04. No Flash Photography Allowed（Studio B）*　Live Straming / Messages are displayed
05. LCD/CRT（Foyer）*
06. No Flash Photography Allowed - Projection（Foyer）*
07. Large Scaled Sign - LED（Foyer）
08. Large Scaled Sign - Sculpture（Central Park）
09. "tFont" Photograph Installation（Gallery second floor）
10. Large Projection from Studio B（Gallery second floor）*
11. Semitransparent Design's activities for Commercial Works（Information Space "BIT THINGS"）
12. Terminals for Access on the Web site（Information Space "BIT THINGS"）
* These works are linked each other and shared visual deterioration system on typeface by central server.


＜Main Woks＞
01. Movable Type

A font that can be played like music
Six turntables are set up in the exhibition space. Playing records on them triggers displays of letters from A to Z in alphabetical sequence on a screen in the front. By operating the turntable in a DJ-like "scratching" fashion, the visitor can change (distort) the shapes of the letters, and enjoy the resulting combinations of visuals and sounds demonstrating how this font design happens on a directionally manipulable time axis just like music or a movie.
At the same time, the letters gradually decompose during their repeated "playback" throughout the Center's opening hours. While the operation of the turntables results in a "distortion" that highlights a momentary relationship between the body and letters, the additional time axis introduced via the server causes further "decomposition". In this work, actual time as manipulated by the visitor overlaps with the notion of time added by the media, to produce a composite time axis that represents a new type of "fontscape".


02. Typesetting

Messages supplied via the Internet are displayed in the "tFont"
Text supplied via a special website or email address is displayed in the font that is concurrently designed in "Movable Type" (see above). In other words, this work synchronizes the timing of message posts to the website with the constantly updated data of the font's decomposition inside the exhibition space, in order to make participants' messages visible. Real-time footage of this process is streamed on the Internet, allowing those who posted messages to witness the decomposition process of their own letters in the physical exhibition space. The synchronized timelines interlinking the venue and the Internet, visitors and exterior participants, overlap with the aspect of time introduced through the media used, while the typeface's appearance keeps changing. The work as a whole can be interpreted as a visualization of the unique sensation of time in today's information society, along with the exchange of messages between an unspecified group of users.


03. California Job Case

Overlooking the transformation process of the original "tFont"
In this work, the visitor can observe the decomposition process of a font on a projected chart of letters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9). Manipulating the playback speed with a turntable results in a layering of multiple time axes that cause the typeface to change its appearance by the minute. The chart - in a sense a list of samples of the "tFont" - demonstrates on 33 examples how letters gradually transform into a distinctive font.


04. No Flash Photography Allowed

Messages that only become visible when photographed
Countless blinking dots of light representing text messages supplied via the exhibition's special website or email are being displayed on a screen in the original "tFont". The viewer can only read these messages by photographing the dots of lights and adding a temporal aspect to create an "animation". With an exposure time that is different to that of the human eye, the camera captures what seems like nothing but an accumulation of blinking lights, and reveals readable text information. The operation (photographing) of a third party as a subsequent creative/communicative element suggests an alternative form of creativity that, inspired by the unique sensitivity of skating and street culture, generates new scenarios in urban settings. This is the foundation the members of Semitra base their interpretation of the unique aspects of perception and speed in web design upon.


05. LCD/CRT
Experience a font that changes its appearance through media
This installation consists of a total of ten monitors (composed of both LCD and CRT) that display a font designed in "fTime". Here the decomposition process is demonstrated on single letters extracted from "fTime" (which is continuously updated at the exhibition space and via the Internet), appearing in random order and with varying speed on monitors with different reproduction systems and resolution. The work is a symbolic hint at the emerging various relationships between typeface, time and output media.


07/08.
Neon and other signs shaped like the exhibition's key letters

Large-sized displays in the shapes of the exhibition's key letters "T" (time) and "F" (font) are installed in the foyer. These T- and F-shaped objects are made of moving LEDs that change colors each time a message is posted via the exhibition's website. More huge Ts and Fs are placed in the Chuo Park, serving as benches among others. Visitors can enjoy the daily changing "fontscapes" of letters blending into the environment of the YCAM building and its surroundings.


12.
Website for message posts and real-time images from the exhibition
Websitehttp://www.semitraexhibition.com/
During the exhibition period, this special website can be used at any time to access the venue. Users who post messages can witness by way of real-time footage how the text they supplied is being displayed in a gradually transforming font.

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"tFont" is a two-dimensional typeface with an added element of time. Dots of light arranged in seemingly random patterns describe in fact the shapes of letters that can only be read when photographed with long exposure. This typeface consists of dynamic and in their original state unreadable blinking lights, so it requires the additional step of photographing or filming in order to become readable. In other words, "tFont" is a typeface that was designed based on the premise of being shaped/modified by a third party. The web specific transmission of culture through shaping/modification that happens here hints at the various possibilities of creativity on the Internet.
The exhibition at YCAM this time is made up of an installation made out of the "tFont", and another one incorporating the newly developed "fTime". In the latter, the designers place a typeface on a time axis, and "play" the letters just as if they were playing music.
(Ryoji Tanaka / Semitra)


"tFont"

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■Related Event

Opening Event : Artist Talk
Sep 19 (Sat), 2009 15:00-17:00    Venue: Foyer    Admission Free
Panelist: Semitra    Guest panelist: Yugo Nakamura (tha), Yosuke Abe (tha)
Moderator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM), Daiya Aida (YCAM)
Talk event in which the artists themselves discuss their work with guests Yugo Nakamura and Yosuke Abe from the noted web and interface design studio "tha ltd."

*Also planned is a workshop program, as well as a guided gallery tour and other related events.(For details, please check the website.)


Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promorion,
Agency for Cultural Affairs
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Sponsor: Color Kinetics Japan Incorporated
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Technical Support: YCAM InterLab
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)