Being Kawara Sensei’s Assistant

On Kawara (河原温) was a Japanese conceptual artist who worked primarily in the United States. He was born on December 24, 1932—Christmas Eve—in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, and is known to have died on July 10, 2014, in New York. He was intensely private, and only two photographs of him are publicly known.

His signature Today series began in New York on January 4, 1966. Its creative constraints were as follows. Paint today’s date on a canvas using the Gregorian calendar. Canvas sizes range from approximately 20 by 25 centimeters to 155 by 226 centimeters, with aspect ratios of roughly 1.25 to 1.65 and a depth of about 4 centimeters. Mix the “color of the day” with Liquitex paint, choose a prepared canvas, and coat its front and sides evenly in up to five layers. The color of the day was most often black or an almost-black dark gray, but he also used cerulean, dark green, orange, and red. Once the background dried, he painted the date in white in up to seven layers. The typefaces were Futura and Gill Sans.

Until his death, he could make no more than three paintings a day, and destroyed any that were not finished by midnight on the date depicted. Most were made while traveling. He made a cardboard box lined with newspaper to hold each work, and in the early days sometimes pasted that day’s newspaper to the back of the painting. The repeated, sustained work was a way of holding time on canvas and capturing a moment.

In a parallel universe where Kawara Sensei is still alive, you have been appointed his assistant. The aging artist no longer has the strength to make canvases, mix paint, or hold a brush. Sometimes, with his head bowed, he even mutters something incomprehensible in halting Korean, such as “Min Guhong Manufacturing…” As his assistant, you must continue the Today series, at least until he dies. But you have no interest in him, his life, or the Today series. Belonging to someone else’s life might be enjoyable, but you simply want to learn about Min Guhong Manufacturing or have a cup of coffee with organic cherry pie.

Still, having been appointed his assistant, you must accomplish the task. Caught between duty—what you must do—and desire—what you want to do—you finally have a thought: could you build a one-page website that automatically generates the Today series every day? Recently, you have become interested in giving things a new order using the basic, foundational computer languages of the web: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Following the spirit of New Order, you identify the elements of the Today series and make a simple list. The result is a list with two main entries.

• Today series
  • Today’s date
    • Background color: black, gray, red, orange, or blue
    • Typeface: Futura
  • Today’s news

All that remains is to give it a new order.