Because Kaya is a FULL SERVICE, AUDIENCE PARTICIPATORY kind of publisher, we present you with our Hyperart: Thomasson website.

Hyperart: Thomasson website. In the seventies, Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei and his buddies discovered “hyperart,” unintentional art created by the city itself. Urban objects and structures that had had a use in the past, but were now useless (e.g. telephone poles which no longer carried lines, or second story doorways in the wall that didn’t lead to a landing anymore), were everywhere, watching the city progress all around them, overlooked by passersby. Akasegawa named these objects “Thomassons” after an American baseball hitter recruited to a Japanese team, who came near to a strikeout record. Akasegawa wrote about these objects in a regular column in a Japanese photo magazine, and soon readers were submitting photos of Thomassons they had found to be evaluated. Akasegawa collected these humorous and profound columns into the book HYPERART: THOMASSON, and it was a big hit in 1980’s Japan. To celebrate the release of the first English translation (by Matt Fargo) of HYPERART: THOMASSON, Kaya is setting up a website [link] for a new generation of collaborators (i.e. YOU) to submit their Thomassons. Read the book to find out what it’s all about. Then go looking for Thomassons in your area. Don’t forget to bring your digital camera! When you have some Thomassons captured, upload the photos and your descriptions onto our website. Also, don’t miss the “SF Thomassons” page! Kaya is collaborating with Bay Area Asian American arts organization Kearny Street Workshop to produce a performance guided tour of San Francisco’s Thomassons. The SF Thomassons page will be populated by SF Thomassons discovered and photographed by Kearny Street Workshop artists. Stay tuned for more news on this project!