Sharing

Collaborative upcycled indigo dye artworks with Midoriya in Amami Ohshima

December 2025

Satoko Okuda, Noa Sora Jack, George Furukata, Taro Furukata & James Jack

Workshop with Fiona Amundsen

June 2025

We held a workshop led by Fiona Amundsen, an artist from Aotearoa New Zealand. In this workshop, participants made photographic developer from seaweed. By boiling the seaweed, letting it sit overnight, and mixing in calcium carbonate and other ingredients, homemade developer was created from the seaweed. Participants then took photographs using pinhole cameras they had made themselves and developed the images using the homemade developer. Participants gained diverse insights: observing how different seaweed types produced distinct images, experiencing analog photography with pinhole cameras, and learning to create developer from everyday materials. Seaweed carries the ocean's memory — absorbing and preserving traces of radiation and pollution. Observing the marine environment and overlaying seaweed's accumulated memory with the images before us while creating was a profoundly rewarding experience.

Photos: Lorenz Huter

Upcycling@Art as Ecological Practice

April 2025-March 2026

Artists James Jack and Taro Furukata are engaging in collaborative artistic research that returns reciprocity to the center focusing on integrating alternative economies with contemporary artistic ecosystems, asking the question, "How can we decentralize power towards informal sharing economies?" We are co-creating artworks with sailcloth, hand embroidery, and natural dyes while gathering interviews with upcyclers in Shodoshima, Singapore, Hiroshima and Germany. Our practice of upcycling as a creative and practical model seeks to diversify existing systems with expanded imagination working with objects from the past to paint colorful futures with friends at M1 during “Art as Ecological Practice” yearlong programs. Support provided by JSPS Kakenhi 24K03568.

Myu Hanaoka M.1

September 2025

Continuing growth with symbionts in Germany for Fall Assembly will include a residency by artist Myu Hanaoka as part of the "Arts of Upcycling” (2024-2027) initiated by artists James Jack and Taro Furukata. This collaborative artistic research returns reciprocity to the center focusing on integrating alternative economies with contemporary artistic ecosystems, asking the question, "How can we decentralize power towards informal sharing economies?" We are co-creating artworks with sailcloth, hand embroidery, and natural dyes while gathering interviews with upcyclers in Shodoshima, Singapore, Hiroshima and Germany. Building upon spring assembly resident artist Meika Mizuno, creative engagement with local plants, ecosystems and fibers will continue to spin. Our practice of upcycling as a creative and practical model seeks to diversify existing systems with expanded imagination working with objects from the past to paint colorful futures with friends in Art as Ecological Practice. Support provided by JSPS Kakenhi 24K03568.