Inside Story

"What do you think this is?" said Mikiyo Sekine, holding out an object made with a cut PET bottle. Sekine is on the RING CUBE operations and a member of the Personal MultiMedia Products Company Planning Office. She primarily works in the RING CUBE research space known as the Jikken Labo. Please take a look at the photograph below. Camera buffs will probably guess what this tool is used for. Sekine revealed the secret, saying "This is a tool for taking stored negative film shot with a film camera and converting it to digital data. You place the digital camera lens on the black tube and shoot the photos." This tool makes it possible to convert film to digital data even if you do not have a film scanner.

"In these experiments, we are assisted by retired employees who were involved in Ricoh's camera business," said Sekine. So the long and continuous tradition of Ricoh camera technology and photo culture is alive at RING CUBE. "In the Jikken Labo we are able to take on challenges that might lead to success but that also could end in failure. Our members enjoy facing these challenges," Sekine added.

"Sometimes we display the works created in the RING CUBE Creative Zone," said Sekine. The works displayed up to now include the results of the "Music and Photo Collaboration" and the "Literature and Photo Collaboration." For the former, slide shows were created with photographs shot to go with the music of an indie band. For the latter, participants selected a literary work and created their own paperback edition of the work using their own photographs as illustrations. "Even when the music was the same, people chose photographs in totally different styles, so that was quite interesting," said Sekine. For the books, the addition of the photographer's own images resulted in a precious one-of-a-kind volume. "I became aware of both the fun of creating my own works and the fun of making new discoveries by viewing the works of others," said Sekine. RING CUBE staff and members of the doughnuts support group participate in these experiments.