A project to implement the students’ ideas—which were developed in my “Social Creation” course at KMD—into the community is still active even after the course has ended. It will finally kick off in earnest at the Takeshiba Minato Festa next weekend.

Specifically, the students are working on two projects: city branding and how to foster serendipity in the city while maintaining social distancing.

Based on our fieldwork, which revealed that “a sense of unity within the town” is a major challenge, our branding strategy—simply put—aims to foster that sense of unity through visual identity (VI). To that end, we have been discussing how to create a system that allows every individual involved in the town to feel like a member of its community.We are envisioning a branding strategy where the town’s design continues to evolve with each season and event—without straying from the core concept—while involving various artists, businesses, and, in some cases, children in the design and development process.

Cities and towns are places where a wide range of people—including government officials, businesses, artists, and citizens—carry out their activities. We believe it is important to incorporate the perspectives of this diverse group of people and work together to build our communities. We hope this will foster a sense of belonging and ownership among residents, and lead to the creation of towns that never grow tiresome—places people will want to visit again and again.

Furthermore, we have established the overall theme of the design process as “Change tomorrow,” and we plan to visualize this concept through workshops—while sharing our vision—and use it to develop advertising materials and merchandise in the future.

Another initiative is designed to foster serendipity in the city.I believe that key considerations moving forward will be how to create a hybrid of real and virtual spaces, and how to foster serendipity within them. Initially, we were planning events designed to increase the amount of time people spent in the area, but due to the pandemic, the focus shifted to the challenge of how to foster interactions between people—or between people and the city—while maintaining social distancing.People walking through the city carry devices, and when device-carrying individuals come within a certain distance of one another, a musical session begins, creating chance encounters. Alternatively, music is completed when people with devices gather at a city monument.When you approach the beach, the sound of waves plays in the background. When you approach a food truck, the sound of sizzling food plays, stimulating your desire to buy. For example, if you register the number of times you’ve seen a Shiki Theatre production, a sound plays when someone with the same number of viewings approaches, prompting a conversation. When we conducted a pilot test among our own group, conversations actually began naturally.

I’m so happy that this didn’t just end with the class—we took it a step further and, over the course of a year, successfully implemented it in the community through a student-led initiative (*^^*) Great job, everyone!

Press Release for the Takeshiba Minato Festa

https://www.tokyu-land.co.jp/…/8e16f2d8e55067f93cde642c…

Social Creation

https://socialcreation.jp/

The photo shows the students I received from Ms. Shimokawa, taken while they were strolling around Takeshiba (*^^*)