Last updated: Nov. 25, 1996 General Staff The producer of sensorium is Shin'ichi Takemura*, a professor at the Tohoku University of Art and Design, and head of Project Taos. In summer 1995, he was asked by the organizer of the Internet 1996 World Exposition (IWE '96) to provide a concept for the Japan theme pavilion. After that, members of Project Taos (Yasushi Watanabe, Yoshiaki Nishimura and Soichi Ueda) discussed this concept. Naoto Okude, assistant professor at Keio University (Shonan Fujisawa Campus [SFC]) and Takashi Tsutsui of Teikyo University also advised Project Taos. Yoshiaki Nishimura, a freelance planning director, has been in charge of integrated direction and total coordination. Nishimura and Soichi Ueda, a game and visual contents producer, and Koichi Kawamata, an SFC graduate (now at Dai Nippon Printing Co.), were in charge of prototype production. In December 1995, the project was launched and production of sensorium's contents began. Mitsuhiro Miyazaki, an art director at AXIS as well as a university lecturer, and Ichiro Higashiizumi, at Higraph, which is known for "good design in a good era," have been in charge of design and art direction. Tetsuya Ozaki, a former associate chief editor of 03 Tokyo Calling magazine and producer of a Kabuki Encyclopedia CD-ROM, joined the sensorium staff as editorial director for the main contents, linked senses. Later, Ozaki became involved in the overall direction of sensorium with Nishimura. In addition to Ueda and Nishimura, both Chizuko Samii, who studies textile dyeing and dance, and Kenji Shida, a student of environmental design at Tama Art College, joined later contributed to the Web production. The AXIS design team includes Toru Shimizu and Takahiro Nogami, a free-lance computer graphics designer. CGI programming on the comment form was done by Kawamata, on the Meeting Place and Pocket Park were programmed by Jonathan Hagan and David Moles from Joi or Joichi Ito's programming team, Eccosys, and technical coordination was done by Tomoaki Sakurai at Digital Garage. Translation with nuance in contexts was done by Kazue Kobata, who translated Lionel Watson's book, and is involved in Hakushu Art Camp, with support by Arturo Silva, Hiroshi Funasaka and Hiroko Suzuki. From the end of January 1996, Hiroko Kobori, who is involved in public relations and government relations in the satellite broadcasting industry, joined to supervise the English-language version production. Translation and/or editing was principally done by Hiroko Kobori, Michael D. Evans, Reginald L. Eginton, Daniel O'Brien of Emphasis, Richard Peacock, and Steven Flagg. Since February 1996, Yumiko Haruki, a free-lance programmer and a Web designer for the Mito Art Museum, has been in charge of Web engineering. Overall financial management of the project and other coordination is done by Seiichi Shimizu, a multimedia production director at Dainippon Printing. Yasushi Watanabe, a writer and a member of Project Taos, is in charge of public relations. This concludes the information about the sensorium general staff. (The above was written by NISH of sensorium staff) *Shin'ichi Takemura has also lectured with Hiroshi Ishii of the NTT/HI Institute at the "Conference of DOORS-2 @ Home" held in the Netherlands. *** Background to the Contents Linked Senses Linked senses, a textual collaboration, was launched at the suggestion of Tetsuya Ozaki. Editorial direction is by Tetsuya Ozaki; graphic design by Mitsuhiro Miyazaki and Toru Shimizu. The Web production was principally done by Takahiro Nogami, with Shida and Nishimura, and Ozaki handling the final touches. The library of Bruce Osborn has piles of photos, and the library seemed as if it were a magic suitcase from which we could take any photos we like. Yoshiko Inoue at Bruce's office, Ozone, and Yoko Tsurumaru helped us select photos and shoot new photos to match the text. (The above was written by Oz of sensorium staff.) *** Sensing Japan With support by Nishimura, Tetsuya Ozaki took on the role of overall direction of sensing Japan as editors-in-chief, and Ichiro Higashiizumi designed the top page map and the cute icons that depict figures of people "sensing" Japan. At the beginning, Samii and Nishimura were involved in design and the Web production, but later, Higashiizumi combined the images into the whole. Kobe One Year After was on the Net from our first installment. Samii interviewed and wrote the excerpts about Takashi Tsumura and Mariyo Yagi, and Ozaki interviewed Masanobu Shibuya. Samii was involved in the Web production. Kaoru Sekiguchi, an editor of magazines and books, who visits Kobe often, interviewed Tsumura for Kobe One Year After, Part 2. Yoriko Nishida, a sound designer as well as a diver, took over the Shibuya part after the second of the series. Nishida and Noriko Soma, a programmer at the Game Museum Launch Committee, contributed to the Web production. Ozaki interviewed and wrote the excerpts about Takeshi Mizukoshi and Nishimura interviewed Yoshihiro Kawasaki. Samii and Shida were also involved in Web production. Ueda, Samii and Kobori interviewed a comet searcher, Tsuruhiko Kiuchi, whose pages have started since the end of July. Ueda was in charge of coordination and consulted on astronomical matters. Samii was in charge of overall direction. (The above was written by OZ) *** Senseware Graphic design is by Ichiro Higashiizumi. World Ear, a part of senseware, was planned by Yoriko Nishida, a sound designer at St. Giga, a digital radio channel, and by Nishimura. Direction of recording and data processing was done by Nishida. Yoko Yokouchi at St. Giga and Katsushi Kaneko contributed to data processing to extract information from the DAT library. Samii, Shida and Ueda joined forces for the Web production for the World Ear. Net Sound project, which was started in March 1996, was produced in collaboration with Hiroyuki Ohno, a professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Stetho was written by Tetsuya Narita, a student at the graduate school of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Suguru Yamaguchi, a sound designer, music producer and musician, who performs with the EXPO music group, also joined this project. In addition, Sakurai, who is from Digital Garage and a member of IWE/Tech WG, contributed his technical support. Nishimura took on the role of overall direction. Preparation on Star Place began from June and is initially scheduled to finish in time for the peak of the Perceid meteor shower predicted for August 12. Planning and production were conducted in collaboration with illustrator KINOCLINIC. Java Script and overall direction were done by Ueda. Breathing Earth was originally planned by Takemura, and overall direction was handled by Higashiizumi. Breathing Earth staff began brainstorming at the end of September. With Takuya Shimada of GK Tech as a core member, the staff discussed the project's visualization. Programming for the earthquake data was written by Haruki. Koichiro Eto also joined (see Web Hopper) the brainstorming sessions. An earth physician, Nobuhiro Furuse, participated in the brainstorming sessions and set up computers for the project at the International Database Center (IDC). Nishimura was the sub-director for the site. The programmers for the Web Hopper site, Koichiro Eto, a postgraduate student at Keio University, and his staff were involved from October. Professor Ohno and Tetsuya Narita at the Tokyo Institute of Technology assisted in the brainstorming sessions and in setting up computers at the Network Operation Center (NOC). Yamaguchi participated in the creation of sounds. Nishimura and Eto were in charge of the overall direction. For Web Doors production, Ozaki was in charge of the overall direction. Samii and Nobuya "Tenchan" Takemura, a graphic designer, participated in the the project. Higashiizumi coordinated the graphics. (The above was written by NISH of sensorium staff) *** Special thanks to: Teruo Matsudaira, Toshihumi Saegusa, Shigeo Sugeta, Naohiro Ichiba, Keita Takagi, Jun Murai, Joichi Ito, Katsura Hattori, Makoto Niimi, Koichiro Eto, Jun'ichiro Inuzuka, Yoshikazu Inui, Taka'aki Higuchi, Hideki Matsui, Hiroshi Masuyama, Satoshi Tajiri, Yasushi Togo, Yuichirou Kashiwabara, Hiroyuki Kitamura, Akira Nishimura, Cyrus Shaoul, Ted Crosman, Jun Nakajima, Seikyo Son, Yoshinori Inamoto, Shuichi Kakei, Yoshirou Ojima, Masayasu Anzai, Shoko Takemura, people at Naoto Okude's lab and Murai-Tokuda's lab at SFC and Ohno's lab at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Osamu Nakamura, Kazuhiko Nakamura.