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It's translated from Japanese. It makes more sense there. Especially if you don't leave out the load-bearing quote marks.

by astrange 11mo ago

wahnfrieden 11mo ago
It's not translated from Japanese, it's originally in English. "A-POC" for "A Piece of Cloth". It refers to garments sewn from a single cut of a ream of cloth. It was translated into Japanese as 一枚の布 which isn't any more meaningful, but the original trademark is in English. edit: What are you disagreeing with? That's what I'm referring to. The Issey Miyake trademark, which the label uses as "A-POC" as an English acronym, and translates into Japanese only to explain it to the domestic market rather than as the trademark itself. I linked that MoMa article elsewhere in this thread
- 0x457 11mo ago
  Well, no? This is A-POC it was inspired by: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100361 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100361 and I'm pretty sure this is where that meaning you are referring to originated from.
  - wahnfrieden 11mo ago
    Yes...
    - 0x457 11mo ago
      What I mean is: even though its true name is originally in English, Issey Miyake probably thought of it in Japanese, and it made more sense to him.
      - wahnfrieden 11mo ago
        Sure but the way his company translates "a piece of cloth" into Japanese has the same literal meaning. There's nothing more meaningful, it has the same exact meaning. My opinion is that it's chosen to be deliberately simplistic - what could be simpler or less expressive than a piece of fabric with fashion - because it highlights how much innovation in craft and resulting form results from the simple description taken as actually an extreme constraint: nothing but a single piece of cloth. And then when you perhaps think about it more, or see some of the work, you realize the complex ingenuity of it, in stark contrast to the simplicity of the phrase itself. That contrast enhances the impact by highlighting the gap between the humble description and the complexity of the result which nonetheless remains faithful to that simplicity. A more illustrative term might be more easily understandable, at the cost of elegance (in simplicity and constraint) and surprise (from your underestimation of the work based on its name). The term is branding. BTW another reference is Maurizio Amadei's "One Piece" work. Here's an installation/artwork he did that makes it easy to understand: https://lucentement.com/blogs/journal/m-a-by-maurizio-amadei-one-piece-project https://lucentement.com/blogs/journal/m-a-by-maurizio-amadei... He also has many products labeled "One Piece [X]" such as "One Piece Wallet" or "One Piece Boot", where they are made from a single piece of leather (never cut into multiple pieces) and with a minimal number of seams. He chooses a similarly simple term, "One Piece", with enigmatic effect.
- astrange 11mo ago
  The sentence structure 'inspired by the concept of "thing in quotation marks"' is what's translated.
  - wahnfrieden 11mo ago
    > 「一枚の布」のコンセプトからインスピレーション ... isn't any more meaningful than the English, it is exactly "inspired by the concept of "thing in quotation marks" I think this article was originally written in English anyway (only the English one credits an author, who is not Japanese)
    - astrange 11mo ago
      That use of quote marks is Japanese. It's used for emphasis, it gives the thing in quote marks an air of specialness like it's a fancy philosophical concept.
      - deleted 11mo ago
        [deleted]

It's translated from Japanese. It makes more sense there. Especially if you don't leave out the load-bearing quote marks.

wahnfrieden 11mo ago

It's not translated from Japanese, it's originally in English. "A-POC" for "A Piece of Cloth". It refers to garments sewn from a single cut of a ream of cloth. It was translated into Japanese as 一枚の布 which isn't any more meaningful, but the original trademark is in English. edit: What are you disagreeing with? That's what I'm referring to. The Issey Miyake trademark, which the label uses as "A-POC" as an English acronym, and translates into Japanese only to explain it to the domestic market rather than as the trademark itself. I linked that MoMa article elsewhere in this thread

0x457 11mo ago
Well, no? This is A-POC it was inspired by: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100361 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100361 and I'm pretty sure this is where that meaning you are referring to originated from.
- wahnfrieden 11mo ago
  Yes...
  - 0x457 11mo ago
    What I mean is: even though its true name is originally in English, Issey Miyake probably thought of it in Japanese, and it made more sense to him.
    - wahnfrieden 11mo ago
      Sure but the way his company translates "a piece of cloth" into Japanese has the same literal meaning. There's nothing more meaningful, it has the same exact meaning. My opinion is that it's chosen to be deliberately simplistic - what could be simpler or less expressive than a piece of fabric with fashion - because it highlights how much innovation in craft and resulting form results from the simple description taken as actually an extreme constraint: nothing but a single piece of cloth. And then when you perhaps think about it more, or see some of the work, you realize the complex ingenuity of it, in stark contrast to the simplicity of the phrase itself. That contrast enhances the impact by highlighting the gap between the humble description and the complexity of the result which nonetheless remains faithful to that simplicity. A more illustrative term might be more easily understandable, at the cost of elegance (in simplicity and constraint) and surprise (from your underestimation of the work based on its name). The term is branding. BTW another reference is Maurizio Amadei's "One Piece" work. Here's an installation/artwork he did that makes it easy to understand: https://lucentement.com/blogs/journal/m-a-by-maurizio-amadei-one-piece-project https://lucentement.com/blogs/journal/m-a-by-maurizio-amadei... He also has many products labeled "One Piece [X]" such as "One Piece Wallet" or "One Piece Boot", where they are made from a single piece of leather (never cut into multiple pieces) and with a minimal number of seams. He chooses a similarly simple term, "One Piece", with enigmatic effect.
astrange 11mo ago
The sentence structure 'inspired by the concept of "thing in quotation marks"' is what's translated.
- wahnfrieden 11mo ago
  > 「一枚の布」のコンセプトからインスピレーション ... isn't any more meaningful than the English, it is exactly "inspired by the concept of "thing in quotation marks" I think this article was originally written in English anyway (only the English one credits an author, who is not Japanese)
  - astrange 11mo ago
    That use of quote marks is Japanese. It's used for emphasis, it gives the thing in quote marks an air of specialness like it's a fancy philosophical concept.
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]