qubibi: Through Tubes, We Now Are
"Everything is tubular, or hollow, or covered and wrapped. Perhaps we are passing through all of it."
Through Tubes, We Now Are began as a drawing tool, a simple instrument made for qubibi's own practice. Lines appeared, then began generating themselves. Sound followed. Over years of quiet pushing toward something ambiguous, the boundary between using the tool and making the work dissolved. At its most essential, the entire system anchors on a single X mark at the apex, the point from which all lines hold.
The interactive work uses the TT drawing system to fully embody its title. Tubes of various shapes are drawn by the user and rendered in real time through the same spare logic that defines TT. Inside those tubes, people are born. Occasionally dogs, occasionally birds. Time moves forward.
For those who reach the end of a tube, is that where "hello world" begins? If so, the timestamp there becomes a birthday. If it marks an ending, it becomes a day of death. Either way, the tube can only ever be observed from the outside. Only those who have passed through can confirm what is there.
The tube, qubibi believes, is a road.
Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme. Nothing is lost, nothing created, everything transforms. This principle runs through the visible world, through sound, through passing time. On the timelines we all scroll, something must disappear for something else to appear. qubibi holds that responsibility.
All sound in the work is dynamically generated. Music, qubibi says, is essential, and nothing grows more tedious than sound weighted with too much meaning. The search is always for the sound that could exist nowhere else.
qubibi / Kazumasa Teshigawara
Born in Tokyo. After junior high school, he worked at a textile processing factory in Nihonbashi, passing through a number of trades before entering web design in 1998. He went independent in 2006 and founded qubibi.
His work spans interactive systems, generative sound, and digital art. Notable projects include hello world, MIMIZU, and Door, among many others. From 2014 to 2024 he served as a part-time lecturer in Design Basics at Tama Art University's Department of Integrated Design.
His work has been recognized by D&AD, One Show Interactive, Cannes Lions, and the Japan Media Arts Festival, and has been exhibited in solo exhibitions across Zurich, Paris, London, New York, Berlin, and beyond.
A. Interactive Pieces (3x) / 1 ETH The centerpiece of the collection. Three interactive works with dynamic, code-generated visuals and sound, all sharing the same underlying behavior across color variations: one black-on-white, one white-on-black, and one to two colorful editions.
B. Still Images (12x) / 0.2 ETH Concept art-style works spanning the full cast of the TT world: people (2), birds (2), dogs (2), and tubes (6).
C. Video Works (3x) / 0.4 ETH Animations following tubes as they come into being, with people and animals passing through until they reach the end. Each frame is printed on paper and shot as stop-motion.
Collection
