Design Workshop: Summer 2007: Neighborhood Naratives

At the end of the summer workshop we will display our work from the course and have an opening. For the opening you will each write a description of your project to be displayed with your final project. Below are the students descriptions from last summer, and images and/or links to some of their projects.

Yukiko Ishida My block consists of Ishinohashi Park. The park is decorated with fountains and circular tunnels surrounding an open, concrete plaza. These fountains are small metal scultures and have various cutouts of cute sea creatures. Nearby features include a wide, cement canal, an entrance to Azabu-Juban station, a police box, an overhead intersection of three highways, and various homeless encampments.

Amist this vast intersection of paths, the fountains and beauty of the park is neglected. Many people walk briskly through, focused on their way to shopping, school and work. Skateborders take a corner of the pavement after creating a makeshift hurdle to jump. Men and women sit and to wait for their friends with their mobile phones as company. The homeless sit and wait too, having nowhere else to go. The fountains just keep on presenting the show that is watched by none. On one side of the park, there is a plaque declaring Minato ward as a City of Peace. The description is as follows:

Delcaration as a City of Peace Minato Ward, Tokyo, August 15, 1985
All people are one in wishing to preserve the beauty of earth and the permanence of world peace. Thee sentiments will never change. We are working to build a community dedicated to the welfare of its citizens, while striving for true pease and the preservation of our cultural traditions. Our duty to the generations that will follow is to hand over into their keeping a society built on the bortherhood of all people and a natural environment that is flouishing and beautiful.
We request our government to abide firmly by the "three nonnuclear principles" (renouncing possession, production and introduction of nuclear weapons) and appealing to all citizens everywhere to seek the abolition of nuclear weapons. As it is our earnest wish for world peace, we hereby declare Minato Ward to be a City of Peace.

I find it odd that the park can be described as anything natural. Bathed in concrete, the park lacks vegetation and the traditional mindset that beauty can be found in nature. Thus my project serves to re-instill the park with traditional beauty. I present a frame that houses a set of eight sliding fusama screens. Four of the screens display images of the current park. These screens slide away to reveal the park images manipulated to show what I envision to be a more natural and beautiful environment- A park closer to the vision presented on the declaration. The added elements are taken from images of shrines and temples in Kyoto, adding the elegance found within traditional gardens and architecture.

Screen

John Lee
My project is a book consisting of all original dialogue and photography. The book is based upon a block within the ward of Minato-ku. The title of our assignment was “Neighborhood Narratives.” Our objective was to find a block within the ward of Minato-ku and design either an interactive piece or a print piece describing some of the more unique traits of the particular area that we choose to pursue. My particular block was Azabu-juban street and Zoshiki Street. The reason I chose this block was it’s distinctly western atmosphere that permeated, whether it were the businesses, the architecture, the people, etc. The name of my particular piece is entitled “Home”sick”, to reflect my sort of backwards set of emotions that I’ve been going thru since arriving in Japan. My neighborhood narrative consists of 3 chapters or sections. The first section deals with the emotions that I went through during the first 2 weeks of residing in Tokyo and Kyoto. Those particular emotions that I go thru sort of massages you gently into the section section, for the second section deals more with the block itself, and the sort of confusion that I was feeling when I was walking along the block. The third section is my conclusion, and as you read thru these sections, they are written in a very impulsive manner. In a nutshell, I wrote down exactly what was running thru my head at that particular moment. Later on, I edited them to make them sound a bit more eloquent or refined so that the dialogue fits within the format of what is considered a “narrative”. The photography consists of images from my particular block that I focused upon. All the photos were taken both during the day and night, however I chose to use images that were taken at night, for I felt I could capture a more dynamic sense of the block. Another component to this project is a sound piece. I will not go into detail as to what the sound is of, other than the fact that it was recorded within the confines of my block and that my voice sort of pops in here and there. As with the photos, the sound was captured at night as well. This narrative deals more with my personal journey in Japan, and how this particular block within Minato-ku sort of made me realize a few things about myself and how I dealt with these issues.

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Sharon Marcussen
Living here in Tokyo, every day I walk out into the city not knowing what new adventure awaits me and what different types of people will cross my path. My project has to do with these unexpected encounters and my obsession with exaggerating and documenting them. I see life as a collection of short stories, with each person I encounter a new character with a story that needs unlocking. I like trying to imagine where people are going and what it is they do. Here in Tokyo everyone is very much a mystery to me, as people keep to themselves when passing in the street, even little children walk about like they have important business to attend to.

On one of my walks in Minato-ku, I needed to find a bathroom badly, and I came across this map by chance that showed there was a little park up the road with a place I could go. I walked up the block and I just saw office buildings everywhere…no park. So I started walking back and noticed this guy walking down a large ramp and I thought perhaps the park is up there? So I went to explore and sure enough when I had reached the top of the ramp it opened up into this park that seemed to float in the sky, as it was a couple stories above street level. It was bizarre and beautiful and very unexpected. As I walked through the lush gardens, there were salary-men asleep on benches and sitting in the grass, people walking their dogs, mothers chatting while their kids played. Here the array of people I pass on the streets and barely acknowledge me all seemed quite friendly and would greet me with smiles when I passed. For once I felt a part of the community instead of just an outsider looking in. As for the bathroom that led me here, I stared in amazement and decided I was not going to be able to use it, as there were no doors on the stalls. But that should have been no surprise, as I should just assume the unexpected with everything here.

As I descended the ramp that led down to the street and passed others going up, I couldn’t help but smile, imaging I had discovered a secret of theirs...this magical park in the sky.

Link to Animation

Print from animation

Print from animation

Matt Silverman
When visiting Japan, one will instantly notice that multiples exist everywhere. No matter where you look, you will find a crowd. When there isn’t room to build out, people build up, all of the way up. When riding the subway during certain key hours, one would be lucky to not be shoved into the car, shoved around the car as your neighbors attempt to exit to their desired train stations, and finally when the time is right, shoved out of the car and onto the platform. This shoving is not due to rudeness however. Instead it is due to the fact that every square inch of that subway car was filled to maximum capacity with human beings, living, breathing, silent multiples, many of which are probably wearing similar shirts, jackets, shoes, ties, glasses, etc… At this point, the reader may be thinking to his or herself, that I am making a culturally insensitive comment on the Japanese people. This is not the case by any means. The Japanese have managed to convert crippling numbers into something manageable and dare I say, user friendly.

This is the point of my project, comfort in repetition. Japan is a well oiled machine. Every single part serves it’s purpose and does not overstep it’s boundaries. It cannot overstep those boundaries for fear that the entire unit will come crashing down around itself. The key to making the sheer numbers work for the good of mankind is not in their contents but in their presentation and organization. In order to keep Japan and it’s countless amount of people afloat, all forms of physical matter, stimulation, and entertainment must exist within a very strict, regimented system.

When one attempts to imagine the amount of people, products, buildings, etc… that are contained within this tiny island, he or she may begin to feel overwhelmed however once living under these conditions, one will find that this is not the case. As intimidating as the numbers may seem on paper, Japan is actually a fairly calm and organized location. This is due to the fact that everything exists within a system. The elimination of chaos makes for a unique and useful living environment. This is what I attempted to capture in my project.

It is entitled “Lull System” and is comprised of two elements. A print piece and a multimedia piece. Due to the limitations of the assignment, the majority of the piece is centered around the Minato-ku district. The print piece consists of three parts. The first part is a series of postcards created from pictures that I have taken in Japan that show patterns and repetition. The photos are manipulated digitally in order to add a calming effect to the repetition. The second part of the print piece is a small booklet that provides a brief description of the project. Finally, the third part of the print piece is custom packaging that I am creating in order to house the cards and the multimedia portion of the project. This media portion is a CD with a single track of music that I composed, following the same guidelines mentioned above, comfort in repetition. The song consists of a series of patterns meant to calm the listener while he or she views the cards.

DVD Cover

Inside Packaging

Book Cover

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Back Cover

Postcard

Postcard Back

Thomas Whittle
My project attempts to cast a humorous eye on the concept of assimilating one’s self into another culture, here specifically referencing Japan. As an outsider, travel to a foreign country opens us up to a certain amount of scrutiny, and we become (intentionally or not) a representation of the whole of our home country. In Japan, with so many historically and culturally relevant values and customs, it requires more work to fit one’s self comfortably into this environment. My project surrounds personal experiences that I’ve had retrofitting my sense of self and the way I was raised into this new setting, using Menato-ku ward as template for the whole of Tokyo (and in a broader sense, Japan). Through personal anecdotes repurposed as tips and with a generous dose of sarcasm, I’ve attempted to outline certain experiences a foreigner might have on these shores, with highlights given to both things to avoid and things to attempt. Japan is, in a sense, thoroughly westernized, but there are key remnants of their past values that distort and change that westernization into something wholly unique and Japanese. As such, things that might otherwise have been quantifiable for a “gaijin” such as myself become themselves alien, unfamiliar. My own work has largely surrounded these sorts of experiences, or rather my reactions to the world as it unfolds around me. At home, there are at least “safe zones” that represent a return to normalcy, a reprieve from the absurdities of daily life. Japan, by necessity, has provided no such comfort area, and my reaction has been suitably amplified in response. I often work with humor because it is a great equalizer, and in this project the humor is focused on the actions (both positive and negative) of a fictional character, the “nameless gaijin.” I would imagine he might represent any of us, though he directly correlates to my own experience. My piece utilizes a heavily stylized form of illustration that is, in a sense, an amalgam of American and Japanese influences, which I’m certain speaks to the heart of the workshop’s intentions. The piece forms a booklet, and in that booklet is housed a supplementary cd that features a recording of similar materials to that covered in the main piece. The host of this recording is the aforementioned “nameless gaijin,” using my own voice to represent his, but with the intention of mocking the bouncing cadence of typical instructional cds. It carries with it the same thematic goal of the book itself, but rather than bulleting the information it takes the form of more of a dictation. In this way one gets the feeling of being led through several scenarios that might be encountered in Japan, with the appropriate actions spelled out for the listener in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. The purpose of the project is not to provide serious instruction, but rather to ease the reader into understanding the absurdity of living abroad and to relate through personal experience certain facets of Japanese culture that might prove alien.

Cover

Inside Front Cover and Introduction Page

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Inside back cover with CD holder

Back Cover

Ashley Butler
The concept of my project revolves around the idea of happiness within Japan. The idea behind this project came about when I stumbled upon my block. Despite the obvious language barrier, I felt welcomed walking down this particular street in Minato-ku. The block was friendly and for once I felt comfortable with my surroundings. The street was very homey. One thing that never changes no matter where you are is the representation of a smile. A smile is a universal gesture that creates a sense of comfort.

“Bisho”, the title of my project, is a collection of personal thoughts about the neighborhood. I asked both locals and foreigners about what made them happy and what they liked about the block. I came across a lot of different people. I interviewed a butcher, an American teenager, a mother, a dog owner, and even a Temple teacher.

After collecting the data, I had to come up with a unique way of displaying and sharing my findings. After a long process of fiddling with the idea, I settled on making a book. The book was originally going to be bounded vertically, but half way through the procedure I changed it to a horizontal layout. My book consists of varies collages of each person that I have interviewed. I used both Japanese and English words to incorporate both cultures. Each collage is very different to make the book more interesting as a whole.

The hardest part of my project was trying to create different collages and having a way of bringing them all together. I settled on incorporating Japanese-style patterns. It took awhile to find the best patterns, but I created a small collage of patterns that I came across throughout my journey in Japan. I am happy with the outcome of its originality.
In addition to my book, I have an audio audio piece. I wrote a poem, which is the introduction to the book, and recorded it in the sound room. The poem is about my experience on the block and in Japan. I also collected laughter and have blended that with the poem. The laughter is a symbolization of happiness and helps connect my book with the poem. It’s an abstract piece but works well with the overall project. It’s recorded on a CD and located on the last page of the book. I’ve never used audio before, but I am pretty satisfied with the outcome.

My biggest concern was completing a project that looked professional. My project demonstrates what I have learned on the trip. “Bisho” is a personal document that blends my overall encounters with the culture. The purpose of my book was to share with people the connection that everyone has. I have learned that despite what country you live in, we aren’t as different as people anticipate; and this is what I hope is projected from my book.

Cover

Inside Front Cover and Intro

Spread with poem

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Piankhi Zimmerman
For my project, I am creating a CD Package with CD included. The theme of the Project is music of the Japanese ear. It may become the title, or I might use another title. It is about the music that Japanese people today listen to. I created a survey and went around the Minatoku area from Temple University Japan Campus to around Azabujuuban and Mita area. In the survey I asked the following questions in Japanese:
1. What song are you currently listening to?
2. Often what songs do you listen to?
3. What arists?
4. Where and when do you listen to music?
5. What is your favorite song?
6. Who is your favorite artist?
7. What do you look for or like in music?
8. Where do you live?
9. How old are you?
10. Are you male or femal?
11. Their favorite artist and what they look for in music.
I interviewed several people personally. In my outings I searched for people wearing earphones. I got to take pictures of some of them. I took pictures of some of the areas where people said they listened to music.

The information is given in a booklet form of a DC package. The last page will have a map with a key on where I went in Minatoku. The pages are a mix of photos of people I interviewed and settings often with an emphasis on their earphones and explanations of my findings thorough the interviews and experiences in Japan. The CD is a walk through of the different types of music I encountered that people enjoyed. There I will come before and after some tracks explaining and commenting on various music selections. It will most likely be an MP3 CD, because there is a lot of music to cover, and whole songs will be plaid along with a few mixes of my own of various excerpts of songs in the CD.

The them image on the front of the booklet is a photo of one of the participant’s ears with an earphone in in with the Japanese flag imposed in the image using the old red sunrays with the red sun covering the round earpiece. The sun rays do not penetrate the ear itself. The images of the participants are all in black and white to keep them seemingly homogonous. The music selections will show the diversity of tastes among Japanese people. The photos of the settings are left in color to bring some life to the booklet. I don’t want it to seem boring and dull, music is lively and so the booklet should seem lively. In each spread there is a picture of a participant and an explanation of one of the major aspects of the survey. The information is cut out of a base color. Various light colors are used in the text areas so the reading seems happier and calmer.

The CD cover is made from scratch. It will be similar to a jewel case, but hold the booklet in a slanted pouch in the front. Upon opening the CD cover the CD will be in a pouch on the inside in the same manner, but the pouch is slanted in the opposite direction. On the front cover the booklet’s cover image is repeated. The same design will be on the CD itself.

CD packaging spread

CD packaging spread

Mark Majdanski
My project is a reflection of how I perceive the types of transportation that are used in my block in Minato-ku. My block includes the intersection/station at Akasaka-mitsuke station. I chose this block because it was always very busy, and people were always going somewhere, in many different ways. The types of transportation I chose were: by train, foot, bike, taxi, car, and motorbike. To display this, I decided to make a series of 6 illustrative posters, each one on the different ways to travel around my block. Some of the types of transportation are almost purely recreational though, such as traveling by car, because people can get to where they are going much faster with many other modes of transportation, they just like to drive for the fun of it. Others are used mearly just to get from point a to point b, and serve a purely functional purpose, such as the taxis. In addition to the series of 6 posters I constructed a media piece, that consisted of sounds of my block and modes of transportation, presented in a rhythmic way.