workshop_blog

Check out these images,
this object is not CG, but a real video game controller.

This "Extreme-style console controller" is made by Takamasa Sumi,
for "The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2005" at the Fukuoka Asia Art Museum.

Height : 2.2m (6.5 feet)
Full length:3.4m (11 feet)
Weight:  over 50kg (110 pounds)
Material : FRP, steel , Mazor color, Sega Saturn with Light gun controller,
TV monitor and "Death Crimson software".

You can get more information from a flash movie on this website.
http://www.tetusinman.com/fusigi_haku_web/
(The movie is subtitled in English.)

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bu9t-sm/crimson0.html
"Huge Crimson" in Japanese
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bu9t-sm/artrek.html
Fine-arts solid modeling studio ARTREK : Takamasa Sumi's works

This videogame controller is inspired by the CULT Videogame,
"Death Crimson" for SegaSaturn by Ecole Software.  http://www.e56.info/
( Look at the top of the controller, where a SegaSaturn is embedded! )
"Death Crimson" had once been known as the worst  "KUSO-GAME (crappy game)" ever made. 
It scored 1.0909 out of 10 (10 being perfect) on the "first week" user's review on SegaSaturn Magazine,
which was the lowest score ever recorded in the users' review.

However,  after years of being at the bottom,
"Death Crimson" is now a CULT FAVORITE (just like Ed Wood's movies).
The original "Death Crimson" videogame regularly sells for $80 or more in Akihabara.
Finally , Ecole Software had to reprint the game  to help satisfy the demands.
http://www.planetps2.com/mmcafe/soup_03-15-01.html
The reprint version of "Death Crimson"  sold out in a matter of weeks after it was released.

"Sekkaku dakara ... " (With much trouble, though...  ) become a common catch-phrase for
Japanese videogamers, similar to the "All your base are belong to us" sensation that
Zero Wing had on the US several years ago.
The before day of last day of the exhibition, Takamasa Sumi and Mr.Manabe (the president of Ecole Software)
discussed from the perspective of  the "post-modern art world, videogame and fan community".
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/cgi-bin/eng/event/event.cgi?year=2005&eid=10117

This mammoth controller and mad game console is now going to be shipped to the EU
for Art Exhibition  in C21, from 11 February to 9 April 2006 (maybe)
- a year-long cultural and community arts event in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, UK.
http://www.c21.tv/event-detail.asp?i=37%0D
http://www.c21.tv/home.asp
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/eng/corres/cpd_index.html
The huge controller is one hundred percent functional, but the only game you can play
with it is "Death Crimson" because the game disc is locked in with quick-drying glue,
and no way to remove it.

P.S.
The first time you play Death Crimson, you can expect to survive for under 30 seconds, literally.

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/eng/home.html
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/cgi-bin/eng/exhibition/exhibition.cgi?eid=10139
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/FT/eng/2005/index.html
http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/cgi-bin/eng/event/event.cgi?year=2005&eid=10117

WONDER MUSEUM : SUMI TAKAMASA
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bu9t-sm/index.html
http://www.tetusinman.com/fusigi_haku_web/ (flash movie)
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~bu9t-sm/crimson0.html 

Ecole Software (The god of "Death Crimson")
http://www.e56.info/

C21:(Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, UK.)
Parallel Realities : Asian Art Now, a touring exhibition of work from the Third Fukuoka Triennale, Japan
http://www.c21.tv/event-detail.asp?i=37
http://www.c21.tv/

Special thanks:
Bt garner(Mindrec) (Thank you for correction of my "Engrish" writing)
Dave Shadoff(Thank you for correction of my "Engrish" writing)
hikaru(nankado)(Thank you for correction of my "Engrish" writing and good advice.)

Mr Raiji Kuroda (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum)
Wonder Museum "clues", especially Fushigiko-chans.
and
Mr.Manabe (the president of Ecole Software)
Mr. Takamasa Sumi (Wonder Museum : Fine-arts solid modeling studio ARTREK)