Internet Yami-ichi
2012-
イベント Event
S*%t happens. Didn't used to. Like when some small off-handed private comment turns into an SNS flame war. Or worrying about not getting enough “Likes”. The Youtube videos you can't watch anymore because somebody complained. Or the apps you can't play because they were rejected by Apple. Once upon a time, the Internet was supposed to be a place for "liberty". Nowadays it's so uptight. So let's turn off, log-out, and drop in, on the real world. The Internet Yami-Ichi is a flea market for “browsing” face-to-face. Take your own Internet liberties* here, with us. * But no dangerous or illegal goods, please! This black market wants to remain free and useful!
Internet Yami-ichi* (Internet Black Market) is flea market-style event for buying and selling internet-ish goods and services in real life.
The internet is not what it used to be. Especially with the rise of social media, and ubiquitous smart-phones permanently on-line, our off-line lives have become increasingly inter-dependent upon our on-line lives. The organization of this much of society on this common infrastructure necessitates the establishment of rules which have made it a lot more uptight.
The Internet Yami-ichi was born from our inalienable right to turn off, log out, and meet up, and enjoy what we want in an un-monitored new space, and confirm that everything that we enjoyed on-line was put there by one of us, and we can enjoy it together off-line too.
Like the early Internet, the Yami-Ichi atmosphere is rich with irony and humor. The best of what we share and exchange at the Yami-Ichi is popular for being witty, playful, provocative.
After the first event started in 2012, it has been spreading to 12 cities in the world, such as Tokyo, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam and New York.

*Yami-Ichi means black market in Japanese, and the word Yami also implies "sick for" and "addicted to". We call it black market only because "when we see the internet as the front distribution, that makes the "reality" the back distribution", not because we want to break the law. Ours is a bright black market without illegal stuff.

Some items sold at Yami-ichi
Previous events
2012 11.4 Tokyo Denki University ,Tokyo, Japan
2013 6.30 Kaibutsu Inc. Office, Tokyo, Japan
2014 2.2 Transmediale, Berlin, Germany
2014 9.28 Sapporo International Art Festival, Sapporo, Japan
2014 9.28 Les Ateliers des Tanneurs, Brussels, Belgium
2015 5.9,10 HACK/PLAY Festival, Amsterdam, Netherland
2015 8.29 National Museum of Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan
2015 8.29 Artspace Boan, Seoul, Korea
2015 9.5 Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
2015 9.12 Knockdown Center, New York, USA
2015 10.17 Nora St. Cluade, New Orleans, USA
2015 11.14 NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Dundee, Scotland
2016 4.9 NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2016 5.20-22 Offprint Festival, Tate Modern, London, UK
2016 5.21 Polytech, Moscow, Russia
2016 5.29 Sydney biennale, Sydney, Australia
2016 10.16 Japan Media Arts Festival 20 years aniversary, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
2016 10.22 Internet Yami-ichi in Barcelona, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain
2016 11.6 Internet Yami-ichi in NY2, Knockdown Center, New York, USA
2017 4.22 Basel, HeK, Switzerland
2017 9.30,10.1 Internet Yami-ichi in Brussels 2, iMal, Brussels, Belgium
2017 10.28 The Influencers Festival, Barcelona, Spain
2017 11.9 Cuckoo's nest, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018 3.8-11 Micro Internet Yami-ichi in Nada Art Fair, New York, USA