About
About Techno-Shugei Club
Founded in Tokyo in 2008 by Kyoko Kasuya and Tomofumi Yoshida, Techno-Shugei Club is an art unit that combines the separate fields of handcraft and electronics into works we call "Techno-Shugei." We make works and run workshops.
In 2014 we incorporated as Ofsheep Inc.
At the time we formed, interactive works required specialized knowledge of electronics and programming, which limited who could take part. Handcraft, by contrast, is something almost everyone has experienced through school, with accessible books, tools, and materials close at hand. By layering these two together, Techno-Shugei proposes a new framework for making interactive works without specialized engineering knowledge.
Around the same time, the e-textile movement was also gaining ground internationally, including Leah Buechley's LilyPad (2008), a microcontroller board for building circuits with conductive thread. We named our own practice "Techno-Shugei" and have continued sharing it in Japanese. In 2009, we also gave a demo presentation at ISWC (International Symposium on Wearable Computers) in Linz, Austria.
Rather than using finished, multi-function hardware provided by corporations or researchers, we combine single-function parts by hand. We publish the resulting works and how we made them, so that others can see them and build further. We value a cycle close to the culture of handcraft, and of open-source making. In 2015, we gave a keynote talk at Open Source Conference 2015 Kansai@Kyoto.
Since forming in 2008, we have shared this thinking through a research presentation at Entertainment Computing 2009 (EC2009) and features in the Information Processing Society of Japan's journal and the Journal of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan.
- Kyoko Kasuya, Tomofumi Yoshida, Sachiko Kodama. "Techno Shugei: A New Concept of Warm and Easy Electronic Handcrafts for Non-engineering People." Entertainment Computing 2009 (EC2009), Sep. 2009.
- Tomofumi Yoshida, Kyoko Kasuya, Sachiko Kodama. "Techno-Shugei Club: Electronic-Fabric Crafts Based on the Concept of Device Arts." Demo, 13th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC 2009), Linz, Austria, Sep. 2009.
- Kyoko Kasuya, Tomofumi Yoshida. "Techno-Shugei Club" (Raku Raku Practical VR, No. 22). Journal of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 176–179, Dec. 2010.
- Kyoko Kasuya, Tomofumi Yoshida. "Techno-Shugei" (Feature: Physical Computing for Summer Vacation Crafts). Journal of Information Processing Society of Japan, Vol. 52, No. 8, Aug. 2011.
- 2008Kyoko Kasuya and Tomofumi Yoshida began activities as Techno-Shugei Club
- 2009Held first solo exhibition; exhibited at Make: Tokyo Meeting; presented research at Entertainment Computing 2009 (EC2009); gave a demo presentation at ISWC 2009 in Linz, Austria
- 2010Published the book "Techno-Shugei" (Works Corporation); featured in Otona no Kagaku Magazine; contributed to the "Raku Raku Practical VR" series in the Journal of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan (Vol. 15, No. 4)
- 2011Contributed a feature on Techno-Shugei practice to the Information Processing Society of Japan's journal
- 2012Exhibited at the Bloomberg Pavilion, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; supervised the book "Making Soft, Glowing Animals with Wool Felt" (Mynavi)
- 2013Participated as a guest panelist in the "TECHTILE" workshop at YCAM (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media)
- 2014Incorporated as Ofsheep Inc.; sold works at Cat's ISSUE, Isetan Shinjuku
- 2015Gave a keynote talk and exhibited at Open Source Conference 2015 Kansai@Kyoto; contributed an essay to the book "Maker Pro" (O'Reilly Japan)
- 2018Supervised the Japanese edition of "Getting Started with Soldering" (O'Reilly Japan); exhibited at Maker Faire Tokyo
Full details of workshops, exhibitions, and sales activities are published in the activity archive.
For inquiries about teaching materials, workshops, or talks, please contact us by email.