Haptic Hara Horoscope
Kenya Hara-inspired advice for a peaceful fall
At the beginning of September, “Mars will be shifting from the evening sky to the morning sky and will begin emerging from the glow of the dawn on the eastern horizon in late September or early October.” This planetary activity is called conjunction, which is when a planet that circles beyond the Earth’s orbit passes us on the far side of the moon. This stealthy shift in the morning light signals the beginning of a quietly rewarding fall. Shortly afterwards, a new moon in Libra opens up new opportunities for balance and harmony.
Kenya Hara, who is best known as the art director at MUJI, has a way of soothing me into fall life. During September, the leaves on our street grow brighter and brighter until they are the colour of lime marmalade. A few weeks later they are gone, and for a while it feels colourless and desolate outside. This is when Kenya Hara’s minimalist enthusiasm for neutral tones and empty space makes me feel ready to welcome the pale greys and soft whites of the fog, rain, and snow to come.
In his books, Designing Design, White 白, and Ex-formation, Kenya Hara asks pleasant questions, like, ‘what are the architectural possibilities of macaroni?’ and ‘what information is contained in a stone and how can we extract it?’ To find answers to these questions, he uses all of his senses
because, as he explains, “the mind exists everywhere in the body.” When we use all our senses together, Kenya Hara believes it makes us feel peaceful.
CANCER (June 21–July 22)
Ex-formation is the title of a series of projects Kenya Hara conducted with his students at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. For Kenya Hara, to explore ex-formation is to make “known things unknown,” and to revive our curiosity about everyday items and ideas. Soft-serve Ice Cream Machine by students Shino Ito, Aya Kazama and Mona Tanaka was their response to the question: “what is resort?”.
“As soon as the cone is in our hands we forget the hustle and bustle of reality; we are instantly transported into ‘soft-serve ice cream time,’ Kenya Hara observes. He wonders if this transportation occurs through the sweetness of ice cream, which, like the time spent in a resort, is completely ephemeral.
The design team for Soft-serve Ice Cream Machine redesigned the familiar shape of the ice cream by using different shaped nozzles and using different hand motions while holding the cone underneath the nozzle. Each ice cream cone contains the same ice cream, but the experience changes from cone to cone.
The purpose of Ex-formation is to disrupt the modern person from responding to all information with an impatient, “I know, I know!” Saying, “I know, I know” ends a conversation before it begins. Cancers, naturally intuitive, and haters of small-talk, can sometimes move too quickly through the world, sidestepping surprises. As summer comes to a close, slow down and take a break to rest and wonder. Find your way into ‘soft-serve ice cream time’ so you can return refreshed and ready for action. The fall will take you somewhere new and delightful.
Power texture: ice
Power sensor: ear
LEO (July 23–August 22)
The Architects Macaroni Design Exhibition of 1995 was curated by Kenya Hara to answer the question: can food be designed? He felt that cooking can broadly be considered an act of design. For example, the shape of a boiled potato when crushed is transformed into mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, it was a failure as a product exhibition: the pasta wasn’t designed to be commercially produced. However, the larger purpose of the exhibit was to promote the Japan Institute of Architects. While most of us don’t really understand how a building is made, almost all of us have made macaroni, which puts us on equal ground to appreciate its design.
Art director Kaoru Kasai presented the OTTOCO pasta. Its shape was based on the traditional Japanese dance mask, with its “familiar protruding mouth.” To go with it, Kaoru Kasai made a recipe for Pie Stuffed with Pasta and Carbonara sauce. When the box of pie was delivered and opened, he imagined the little mouths of each OTTOCO exhaling little puffs of steam into the cool air. OTTOCO has never been commercially produced, but it is very easy to imagine using it. Similarly, most recipes that I’ve pinned on Pinterest are just things I like to imagine making, but don’t. Imaginary cooking is an underappreciated branch of cookery.
Leo, this season you may find yourself cooking up ideas and schemes with little possibility for commercial production. Pursue them anyway. They will lead somewhere unexpected that you need to go, and will pay off in the early New Year.
power texture: powder
power sensor: back of the neck
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