Unleashing Inner Creativity | Artist Oliver Bin | ISSUE #15

Mr. Bin is an artist who expresses himself through rap, photography, and video, while also running the music PR brand and distributing original rap content on YouTube as a marketer. However, he has quite an unusual background.

He lived reclusively for six months in a remote village. This was closely covered by a local broadcasting station and made into a documentary.

Afterward, he lived a nomadic life in Tokyo, changing residences monthly. He shared his daily experiences and thoughts through podcasts titled 'I'm a Salaryman Rapper in Tokyo with No Home' and 'A Minimalist Rapper Who Even Gave Up His Home', using these insights to fuel his creative endeavors.

Oliver Bin has expanded his activities so widely that he could be called a living multimedia. During an interview, he laughed and said, 'I get bored easily, so I can't stick to anything,' but it seems more accurate to say that he has shaped each idea and moved to a higher dimension of creativity.

'By the age of 30, I want to be in a position where I can choose to live overseas.'

Bin shares his future goals. When he thought about what he wanted to do and the skills that would be in demand overseas, the keywords 'creative' and 'marketing' came to mind. Having been active as a rapper, he started creating rap video content in 2021, distributing it on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

'The approach changes with the platform,' he says, deliberately not tightly linking each platform, conducting repeated experiments.

Oliver Bin has been outputting in various fields, but his interest in creating content has always been there since childhood. It was just fun, and as he continued to create, the proportion of making it a job gradually increased to where he is now. There are two formative experiences that led him to pursue a creative path.

The first is the reclusive mindset of Oliver Bin. As a child, he felt that in Japanese culture, which values harmony, children who express themselves are often bullied or suppressed. During his escape to study in the U.S., he was fascinated by a culture where he could express himself confidently. People would watch and engage, providing feedback, which made him feel comfortable with such natural communication.

The second is his long-held dream of becoming famous. 'Though I have a reclusive mindset, there's a passion inside, like an American rapper,' he says with a laugh.

'I can't become a sports player, and I'm not smart, but I could dream the American Dream with music.' Since he couldn't play instruments, he thought rap would be the first step and started creating music.

The moment of touching creativity in his memory. In the realm of visual arts, it was triggered by buying a camera during his second year of university. The reason for buying the camera was unique and interesting.

He used to take photos of the blackboard as lecture notes, but one day his smartphone suddenly broke. He recalls, 'Since there will be many opportunities to replace a smartphone in life, I thought I might as well buy a camera.' He used a feature phone for calls and a camera for recording. So, he started using a camera purely for recording purposes rather than expression.

That was around 2016 or 2017, when smartphones were already mainstream.

As long as he could make calls, he was satisfied. This minimalist thinking, not requiring a camera to have call functions, connects to his current lifestyle, as seen in this episode.

Starting with a camera for recording purposes, Oliver Bin's current style of expression connects photography, video, and audio. If he were to give himself a title, he would currently say he is an artist and marketing director. He is so upstream to downstream in creativity that we want to give him the new term 'multimedia player'.

He is delighted when any reaction is generated towards his creativity. There were times when he felt uneasy about what he was doing when numbers didn't accompany his work. However, a reaction is proof that someone was emotionally moved by his content. When he could monetize original content without riding the algorithm wave, he felt a tangible sense of joy that his usually unspoken inner humor reached someone, a feeling he still cherishes.

Finally, Oliver Bin talks about wanting to continue his current activities more vigorously and create a cycle of living where he can challenge the next with what he loves. He is likely to move his base overseas soon, and cizucu supports his journey as he creates content on a global scale. We will continue to create good services to realize a system where photographers, visual artists, and other creatives with hidden passions can take on new challenges through their creative activities.