A Brief History of the Tame: The Road to Japan

Following a traumatic 2 weeks spent climbing up and down a stepladder to fill the jam vat at a Devon cheesecake factory, I moved to Switzerland where I became the fastest tobogganer in the mountain resort of Kleine Scheidegg, perfecting the 360-degree handbreak turn, and smashing the 1934 world downhill ski record with my time of 26 mins down to Grindelwald.

Breaking my collarbone actually turned out to be a good thing, as it played a key part in my decision to head to Japan with a working holiday visa.

7 years and plenty of unpublishable adventures later (most of which are published on my other blog), I’d successfully completed a degree in Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield (including a year at Rikkyo University in Ikebukuro), and was happily married, living and working in Tokyo.

Having secured a job that was guaranteed to drive me nuts (repeating the same scripted 5-minute phone conversation with 300 students every two weeks), I vented my creative frustration through the production of Japan Podshow, a series of audio and video podcasts. This, and Twitter, opened the door to a fantastic community of supportive individuals, my friendship with which led me on a very interesting path through a couple of companies, and onto the core team behind TEDxTokyo.

Connections there enabled me to establish my own company, Wild Tame Co., Ltd. As Creative Director I work with a wide variety of clients on all kinds of digital media projects.

Past and Present Clients

Public Speaking

Over the past couple of years I have been requested to give live presentations on mobile / wearable / IoT technology at a wide variety of events, usually whilst operating the latest version of my ultimate social live-streaming machines. These include:

• Olympus (Tokyo)
• Daiwa Securities (Tokyo, 3 years running)
• Le Web (Paris)
• J.P. Morgan (Tokyo)
• Dentsu (Japan’s no.1 ad agency)
• Fab Cafe, Tokyo
• Wieden + Kennedy (Tokyo)
• Roppongi Hills Breakfast (MORI Building Co., Ltd)
• PechaKucha Tokyo (5 times by invitation)
• American Chambers of Commerce, Tokyo
• Mashable Social Media Day (Tokyo – twice)
• Plus many more…

Artist / Inventor

In addition to the above work, I continue to work on a number of digital art projects. These include:

• The invention of a series of unique wearable devices to solve everyday problems, such as the cloud-controlled mobile wearable chocolate vending machine hat, the wearable mobile Christmas Tree and the mobile photo printing studio
• Extreme mobile live stream broadcasts – the first to broadcast a continuous live stream of the full Tokyo Marathon from multiple iPhones to an audience of over 42,000; the first to live stream from the summit of Mount Fuji during a solar eclipse over a special mobile network
• The iRun: The Ultimate live video streaming machine (as featured in much of the media listed below)
• The Art of Running: large-scale pictures drawn on the streets using my feet, multiple GPS devices and mapping / imaging software.
• LED Art: Wearing a body suit of over 2020 LEDs, I create unique light-trace images
• Elephant Art: A series of hand-drawn cartoons featuring the exploits of an adventurous heard of elephants
• The original Remote-Controlled-Car-and-Wooden-Spoon-Mouse-Trap (didn’t quite perform as hoped)
• Numerous photography projects

And the rest

In my previous life as an employee

• IT Consultant, media producer, Impact Japan
• Video Producer, virgin earth inc (Japan)
• Marketing and Production Director, White Rabbit Press (Japan)
• Administrator, Overseas Broadcasting Center (Japan)
• Data Analyst, EDF Energy (UK)
• Waiter, Scheidegg Hotels (Switzerland)
• Gardener, responsible for restoring the Yew Tree Garden following 15 years of neglect
• Plus a heck of a lot more…

Voluntary work

• Livestreaming for many Tokyo based charitable events / organisations
• Core team, Communications Co-Lead for TEDxTokyo
• Translator for Meguro Ward Office
• Organic farming in France, Switzerland, Japan
• Camp Counselor for adults with physical and mental dissabilities (USA)
• Minibus driver for University of Sheffield nursery
• Translation / office work for OXFAM Japan (Tokyo)
• Participant in OXFAM Japan Trailwalker 2007
• Security staff working with OXFAM (GB) at Womad Festival
• Regular feature writer for international children’s magazine
• Author of numerous articles for university publications

Hobbies

Pushing mobile / IoT technology & Duct tape to the limits, Photography, writing, running, Japanese language, reading, smiling.