a-small-lab by Chris Berthelsen. Focusing on research and practice in creativity. Based in Tokyo
email: chris@a-small-lab.com
twitter: @a_small_lab
linkedin: chrisberthelsen0
Founder & Maker at a-small-lab
2007-2008: Research Student in Innovation at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Commerce and Management (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Scholarship Recipient) (Tokyo, Japan)
2005-2006: Masters Degree in International Business at the University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand)
1997-2000: BA (Art History) at the University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand)
1997-2000: BCom (Economics) at the University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand)
Recent Updates: [view complete(ish) project list]
**Tokyo Local Fruit Study**東京の地元で出来た果物を食べたり、育てたり、分け合ったりしていますか。地元で取れた、非商業の果物に関する話を集めています。あなたの話を聞かせてください。
アンケートは：こちら
Do you eat, grow, or share local fruit in Tokyo? We are collecting stories about Tokyo local, or non-commercial, fruit. Please share yours.
Click here to start survey
**Article/Interview**
Piece on the Olympus cover-up featuring my ex-pat management research.
View [HERE]
**Human(e) Aspects of Tokyo: Creative climate, small places of anarchy, stigmergy.**
Notes and a few projects for a guest lecture at Dr. Christian Dimmer's Public/Private Seminar, Waseda University (Nov. 16, 2011)
Download/Viewing Options [HERE]
**Recent Articles (Nov)**
The Non-Intentional Landscape of Tokyo - a collage/sketch text on This Big City
Featured on Archinect
Featured on Kaboom.org (a national nonprofit dedicated to saving play for America's children)
**Patterns of Japanese Creativity**
This ongoing study reviews the Japanese business and management literature to uncover the principles, strategies and circumstances at the heart of the creative successes of Japanese companies.
NEW: Page Samples and Exercises from forthcoming book [LINK]
Project Resource[LINK to Project Resource]
**Hand Made**
Starting to post rough collage notes/writing on the hand made city and Tokyo. Frequently updated.
> http://a-small-lab.com/text/
**Hand Made Play**
Notes from a collaborative + open research project investigating, enjoying, and learning from the self-initiated and non-commercial play of children in Tokyo.
> http://a-small-lab.com/hand-made-play/
**Tokyo Colour-In Preview and Activities**
Tokyo colour-in. The colouring-in book of Tokyo street art (180p)
A colouring-in book of Tokyo street art created to introduce little hands and minds to the fine-grained hand made aspect of human(e) creativity on the street.
Take a look at the preview [HERE]
and check the slowly growing set of activities for use with the book [HERE]
**Amidakuji - Storytelling Game**
Produced in collaboration with Mammoth School and Knee High Media for the third issue of the Mammoth School free paper, "Amidakuji" builds on a traditional Japanese game for fun and weird storytelling. Illustrated by the fantastic Hiyoko Imai.
Downloads and video [HERE]
**Recent Articles**
Small Places of Anarchy in the City on This Big City
無政府的小處 | This Big City 城事
Featured on Planetizen
Collaborative Mental Mapping on Engaging Cities
Photo-Realistic Model of Tokyo on Polis
Featured on Archinect
Featured on Green Japan - Tokyo’s Creative Greenness Revealed
**Guest**
At Mega-Cities: Design Anthropology and Urban Landscapes, a Tokyo University graduate seminar on mega-cities taught by Jared Braiterman.
It was lovely to be asked to be a guest speaker/weirdo at the final class of this seminar (in which my FIXES research is part of the syllabus).
**Understanding the Child-Scale in the City (1): Excerpts from Rainy Day Treasures (雨の日の宝物）**
What is the child-scale? How can we begin to understand it? How can this experience inform building and design ideas and practice?
Play is intensely important. Start developing an idea of (non)designing for playing. The walk that this extract depicts brought forth ideas of grain/granularity of street surfaces (materials), balance and tracing (paths, curbs), humble events, routine/ritual, liquid (refreshment, ballistics, power)... for a start.
View the Excerpts (images, text) HERE
**Hand Made Tokyo Book Preview & Download**
Lots of preview images of the Hand Made Tokyo document of the 3331 Arts CYD Tokyo mapping workshop we did last summer.
A5, 126 pages
Take a look at the preview [HERE]
**FIXing the Neighbourhood: Investigations in Suburban Tokyo / Sketching for Usable Cities**
A scrambled, semi-off-the-cuff presentation for the Institute for Information Design Japan workshop “Transforming Neighbourhoods - Tokyo/Berlin" organised by Jan Lindenberg.
View the presentation: [HERE]
**Managing For Creativity in Japan**
View the resource page [Managing for Creativity in Japan]
Risk and Creative Climate in Japan: An annotated framework [PDF]
Risk and Creative Climate in Japan: An interview collage [PDF]
Being a Successful Manager in Japan: An annotated framework [PDF]
**CITIES Magazine: Tokyo Focus**
I'm delighted that Cities Magazine is devoting a 'Tokyo Focus' week to projects from a-small-lab.
"CITIES (with offices in Amsterdam and Stockholm) explores local practice in a global context. It goes beyond academic vocabulary such as industrial renewal, gentrification and densification, encouraging urban explorers to tell their own stories and to share their perspectives and experiences of life in the city." Visit their site [HERE]
**Building for Plants and Play**
We're designing and building a usable backyard in an unusable space deep in suburban Tokyo.
You can see some photos of the site [HERE]
**Mega-Cities: Design Anthropology and Urban Landscapes**
I'm delighted and honoured to have my FIXES work included in Jared Braiterman's Tokyo University graduate seminar on mega-cities.
You can download the syllabus [HERE]
**Keep Your City Delicious!**
Keep your city beautiful? How about keeping it delicious for a change!
Short examples from 'Keep your city delicious' (街をおいしく！）activities in Tokyo.
View the slideshow: [ON SLIDESHARE]
**A Board Game about City Accessibility**
Produced in collaboration with Mammoth School and Knee High Media for the second issue of the Mammoth School free paper, "Look-A-Round" is a board game which encourages learning about city accessibility.
View video, photos, and download [HERE]
**Structures and Textures of Nagoya (2003-4)**
A resource, a toolkit, of rare images of the structures and textures of the gradually decaying city of Nagoya, Japan (735 images)
This image resource is available for purchase for commercial (no use restrictions) and non-commerical use - Click here for more details.
**Kokonohanashi (ここの話）**
The kokonohanashi (「ここの話」 lit. 'talking about here') project works locally with a combination of analogue (notebooks, pens, laminated A4 posters, wire, legwork) and open low-tech digital tools (QR codes, stripped down Wordpress, email, smart-and-not-so-smart-phones) to investigate the development of a platform for discussion about, and positive action in, city space by the people who most matter - those who experience and use the place in their everyday lives.
View the project page: [Kokonohanashi Project]
Download the project introduction: [PDF file, 5.5mb]
Download a brief project report after the first iteration: [PDF file, 3mb]
Read a nice write up of the project at Tokyo Green Space [HERE]
**Small Report: 好きな公園 (Parks I like)**
A small report on aspects of loved neighbourhood parks with the help of a group of neighbourhood kids.
**City Blocks: An as yet unannounced collaborative public art/education project with a Tokyo-based publisher**
“Become familiar & comfortable with your environment, share and discuss, develop the facility to play with, rearrange, reimagine, create spaces and places. Explore the neighbourhoods of Japan through the eyes of other children, discover what they care for and have fun with."
**FIXES: The non-intentional design of Tokyo - a card game**
Based on the images and research of the FIXES: Non-Intentional Design (NID) Research in Tokyo project, this card game/resource aims to increase awareness of NID thinking and practice and to act as an entry point to a deeper experience of Tokyo as a lived city.
**Berlin Design Resource**
A photo resource and book was made for a major Japanese clothing design/retail company (800+ photos, book, context/translation).
Take a look at a couple of photos here [LINK]
**A long collage/essay on Tokyo**
Three out of seven nights, From 11pm-2am.
