21_21 DESIGN SIGHT in Roppongi, Tokyo, kicked off its "Unit Exhibition - How Much? How Much? How Much?" special exhibition on February 20th, offering visitors the opportunity to experience a variety of units of measurement from the perspectives of science, everyday items, tradition, and more.
When "Temahima: Food and Living in Tohoku" (2012) and "Rice" (2014) were held, the standard units were the shakkanho system, so "if you didn't understand the units being used, it was hard to visualize," explains Tatsuya Maemura (21_21 DESIGN SIGHT), project leader. He felt that "understanding units allows you to share the creators' thoughts," and this project was born out of this.
The project team included Isamu Nakamura, who was in charge of the exhibition graphics; Koichi Suzuno (TORAFU ARCHITECTS), who oversaw the venue layout; Yoshinori Inamoto (AXIS), who worked on the text; Ken Okamoto, who worked on the venue graphics; Shunichi Suga, who was in charge of concept research; and Norihiko Terayama (studio note), who was in charge of the exhibition layout. The first floor shop space, supervised by Yamada Yu (method), will be open to the public free of charge as the concept shop "Measuring Shop," and will feature "Nakadai Material Library," which sells waste materials by weight, and original "unit tenugui" hand towels, a collaboration between tenugui specialty shop "Kamawanu" and Okamoto Ken.

Near the entrance, there will be "Giraffe's Eye" (Okada Kenichi + Hiyami Kunie (LENS)), which shows a video of the venue setup captured from directly above at different scales, and "How Big is an Apple?" (Perfectron), which displays spherical objects of similar size, such as apples and paper balloons, on a display when you make a sphere with your hand on a device.

Other interactive works on display will use a variety of units of measurement, including "Weight of Words" (Ono Yusuke + Okamoto Ken), which compares the weight of words with each voiced consonant mark equaling 1 gram; "The World of One Second" (Okazaki Tomohiro + Think the Earth), which displays what is happening in the world while you stand on a platform; and "Comparing Lengths: Rulers from 1 to 100" (composition: Terayama Norihiko), which brings together objects of various lengths from 1 centimetre to 100 centimetres.

Throughout the exhibition, talks and workshops will be held by the planning team and exhibiting artists. There will also be special events in conjunction with Roppongi Art Night.


Event Information
"Unit Exhibition - How Much, How Much, How Much?"
Venue: 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT
Address: Tokyo Midtown Garden, 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Dates: February 20th to May 31st
Time: 11:00 to 20:00 (last admission at 19:30)
Admission Fee: Adults 1,000 yen, University students 800 yen, Junior and senior high school students 500 yen, Free for elementary school students and younger
Closed: Tuesdays (open on May 5th)