Metapolis and Urban Life

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Day 1 - 10th September 2005

Arrival and Introductions

 Each participant was given a pre-assignment that was part of their introduction to the group:

Bring in a physical object found sometime between your arrival in Tokyo (or your departure from home if local) and the start of the workshop that captures the moment when you felt you’d finally arrived in Tokyo. Be prepared to briefly explain the context and significance of this personal urban object that you will share with the workshop. It cannot be a picture – it must be a physical object.

A round of quick introductions, which included gathering a collection of objects that signified each attendees arrival into Tokyo (or departure from home for those that live in the city).

Explorations of Tokyo

By mid morning the workshop was split into 5 groups and set off into different areas of the city to explore, observe and engage with Tokyo.  Each group was provided a complete Urban Study Kit complete with pens, tape, a Polaroid camera, three Microtask envelops, object cards, action cards, a bilingual and map of their area. Each group was assigned a separate district within Tokyo to explore (see below).

Shinjuku    ●    Shibuya    ●    Akihabara    ●    Asakusa    ●    Ikebukuro

Microtasks

On the hour each group was asked to open a separate envelope that was included in their Urban Study Kit. Inside each envelope was a set of two Microtasks.  The Microtasks were designed to be a lightweight mechanism to engage members of each group directly with the inhabitants of Tokyo. The tasks were not designed to be part of a scavenger hunt or even to be entirely completed.  Rather each group was to use them as a guide along with their own interpretation of the Microtasks to engage the city.

Microtask (Hour 1)

• Purchase and send a postcard to: 1459 18th Street #192, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA

and/or

• Send an email to eric@paulos.net

Microtask (Hour 2)

• Ask for directions to and visit a local shrine

and/or

• Ask for directions to and use a public restroom

Microtask (Hour 3)

• Purchase (or photograph) an object that is no Japanese

and/or

• Find out the rates of a local 'Love Hotel' (used for Shinjuku group)
• Ask a local what their favorite 'Manga' is and buy it (used for Shibuya group)
• Ask a local what their favorite snake food is and try it (used for Asakusa group)
• Find a piece of technology that you're not sure what its intended use is (used for Akihabara group)
• Ride the 'Chin-chin Densha' (used for Ikebukuro group)

Objects and Actions

The days' primary goal was the collection of urban actions and objects whether they be particular to Tokyo or common to urban lives globally.  Through photography, drawing, diagrams, words, and found objects these actions and objects were recorded by the groups onto cards in the pack, filling a wall on their return (download brief notes on each groups input).  By the end of the day the significance of these actions and objects were elaborated, presented, filtered down and finally voted upon by the whole group to select the most interesting for further exploration.

Images

There are more images to be found at the workshop's Flickr group.   Please tag any photos from your explorations of Tokyo for all to share.

Click thumbnails below for larger images

Collection of 'objects of arrival'	Object and action discussion
Study Kit	Object and action discussion
Round the table introductions	Objects and actions - detail from Akihabara
Developing the objects and actions	Shinjuku - objects and actions
Getting them up	Akihabara - objects and actions
Asakusa - objects and actions	Shibuya - objects and actions
Shibuya 2 - objects and actions	Objects and actions - detail from Shinjuku
Objects and actions - detail from Shibuya	Taking a closer look
Objects and actions - detail from Asakusa	Taking a closer look

An overview of the whole wall of objects and actions, click below for the hi-res image (4.6mb)