The Light of Tokyo Big Sight and a Dialogue from Beyond the Screen

○ "1996 was the year that the 'Print Club (Purikura)' began to trigger an explosive boom in society."

・As I gazed at the screen of a modern, sophisticated AI (artificial intelligence), such textbook historical facts were returned as chat text. With just a light tap of my fingertip on the smartphone in my hand, data from the past from all over the world was instantly organized and appeared before my eyes. Marveling at what a truly convenient era it has become, I tapped on the chat keyboard.
"I know. Because that summer, I stood within that boom with a different kind of fervor as a Mac user."
The moment I said that to the AI on the other side of the screen, my memory time-traveled in an instant to 30 years ago—the summer of the 1990s, to the vast exhibition hall of 'Tokyo Big Sight,' which still held the scent of brand-new construction.
The company was preparing to exhibit at a large-scale product exhibition held at Tokyo Big Sight.
"For the next exhibition, I want something that will be a highlight, a new surprise for our booth."
When that voice was raised during a preliminary business trip preparation meeting, I didn't hesitate to put forward an idea. It was a proposal to recreate the mechanism of 'Seal Print (Purikura),' which was starting to become popular in local game centers and among junior and senior high school girls at the time, exactly as it was in our own booth.
Take a portrait photo of customers visiting the booth on the spot with a digital camera, process it as digital data, and hand it over as a special, one-of-a-kind seal print for the world—a service that is not rare today, but at the time, it was an era where it was somewhat magical for individuals to turn photos into seals digitally.on-demandservice, but back then, it was still a somewhat magical era for individuals to turn photos into seals digitally.
When it comes to meetings at long-established companies, one would expect them to be cautious about new, unprecedented proposals, but this proposal of mine was adopted surprisingly 'smoothly'.
It wasn't just a trend-hopping whim. I had photography knowledge cultivated at a photo lab, image processing technology for scanners I had operated at a platemaking company, and above all, the backing of 'solid skills in Macintosh and output devices' that I had gained by buying a Centris 650 with my own money and studying intensely for 10 months at a community center.

○ "Thermal transfer micro-dry printers and sublimation printers began to spread to individual users in the mid-1990s. Attempts to make photo seals by connecting to a Mac are still talked about in Mac magazines of the time and on personal blogs and BBS (bulletin boards) of the early Internet as cutting-edge 'I tried it' projects."
・I nodded deeply at the fact that the modern AI had presented from the other side of the screen and replied in the chat.
"That's it. Back then, inkjet was still in its developmental stages, so to beautifully fix photo quality onto seal paper, those ribbon-type printers were the pinnacle. Connecting via SCSI or serial cables, applying drivers, and getting them running... that was the kind of technology it was..."
In response to my typing, the AI on the other side of the screen showed an admiring response.
○ "That is truly the skill and tenacity of a professional. It is the very fervor of the Mac magazines of that time."
Even so, because I had a strong desire to support this company and group from the sidelines in any way I could and to pour all my know-how into it, it was not a burden at all. Every day of the exhibition, as the ribbon made a whirring sound and layered vivid colors, customers would smile and say, 'Wow, amazing!' That moment was when all my skills—the photo lab, platemaking, and the intense study at the community center—fused together successfully.

[About this record] This article is an essay that reconstructs and reproduces the atmosphere of the time and the feeling of a transitional period in technology through dialogue with AI (artificial intelligence), based on fragments of the author's memory. Please enjoy it as a subjective record (memories of the time) based solely on personal experience.