Reinventing the Mac: Japanese Style
Japan's Mac Case Mod Movement Has Taken the Spirit of Its People and Imprinted It on Apple Computers

By Akiko Nakamura > Images by Jeff Laitila

The artistic traditions of Japan span several thousand years. Paintings depicting the feudal lords of Japan, their empires, adventures, and the fables surrounding their legend are emblazoned on the collective unconscious of Japan's citizens in the form of thousands of paintings.

The works show up everywhere: on walls, cookware, kimonos, weaponry, and temples. The Japanese embroider every aspect of their lives with illustrative pictograms that speak to their currency of ideas.

Even today, walking through the congested streets of Shinjuku, one's eyes are assaulted by a cavalcade of cute logos made of little cartoon bear creatures, harmless pink doggies, and a myriad collection of hybrid creatures all out pacing the next in terms of cuteness and simplicity. The design ethos of modern Japan straddles two distinct motifs: stark, angular, futurism when it comes to buildings and interior design, and loud, colorful, and youthful when it comes to product packaging and signage.

In Japan, this design theory is commonly referred to as wabi-sabi. The are many ways to define wabi sabi, but most explicit in its meaning is the beauty of things impermanent, imperfect, and transient. Indeed, the cities of Japan appear to be in constant flux, and wabi sabi is a thread of Japanese culture that is woven deeply into the country's communal fabric.

This dichotomy of the hard and soft, the permanent and transitional, makes for a odd landscape that is a visual smorgasbord evocative of a real-life Disney World where any moment one could be abducted by imperial storm troopers, or pounced upon by someone in a purple dinosaur suit. The view in Japan takes some getting used to.

Now adding to this kaleidoscope of visual stimuli is a new breed of artists that will be familiar to most American computer geeksÑthe computer case modification artist. Known in common computer parlance as "case mods," this genre of creativity is where computer users get to physically remake the shape and look of their favorite computers to more closely match their personalities. Some case mods go for the drastic by completely removing the casing of a computer and giving it a new look altogether. But most Japanese case mod creators tend towards the decorative side of case moding.

Hirokazu Kuwata takes the PowerBook® G4 into brand new territory by adorning its cover with ornate traditional Japanese designs that instantly give the computer a museum level cache as soon as one gets a look at it. Kuwata's take on the iBook® is on the other side of the spectrum. For the iBook, Kuwata ripped a page from the book of Takashi Murakami and created a faux Louis Vuitton branded iBook that looks completely professional and would probably sell out quickly if offered in the United States.

Ken Nakano's modification of the generic Apple laptop is both unnerving and inspiring for its authentic consistency of design and construction. Amazingly, what Nakano constructed was a laptop that doubled as a briefcase. To say that this case mod looks like something out of Q's workshop in "James Bond" would not be overstating the matter in the least. Nakano also created a completely translucent laptop that gives off a distinctly Borg-ish look as the computer's complex guts stare menacingly out at you from underneath thin sheets of plastic.

Perhaps one of the most popular Mac modifications that has made its way around the world via the Internet is Keita Suyama's all-black flat screen iMac®. Simply put, this is the iMac that many, many Mac fans would gladly pay a premium to own. Describing the process of modifying his iMac, Suyama actually mentions inadvertently damaging the functions of the iMac, something a case mod hobbyist must always guard against. Eventually, Suyama got the Mac to work again, but his experience typifies the lengths true Mac fans will go to just to give their machines a distinctive look and feel. Sitting on his desk against the muted light coming from an overcast Japan sky, the black iMac resonates quietly as the embodiment of computing power.

Apple® Computer will most likely never take the ideas of Suyama, Nakano, or Kuwata to heart by actually producing such machines for even limited release. Sure, Japan's Mac case mods might give iMac designer Jonathan Ives "some" ideas but that's not the point. While there are professional services out there that will modify the look of your Mac for the right price, that's not the point either. The point is that there is a passionate Mac fan dialogue, informed by artistic sensibilities, being engaged within the Mac community in Japan...something that will foster the growth and knowledge of Japanese Mac users everywhere.