kyworks.net

In this project, a variety of positive words in present progressive form, such as "going", "inventing", "developing", "loving" etc. were put up on shop facades and printed in enormous scales on buildings and empty lands.

For audiences, it might not be clear what exactly is "going on", yet this project was carried out with the hope that in Noborito, which itself is "changing" under town re-demarcation, if one finds these positive words as they walk down the street, it would cheer up both the locals and the visitors.

For those who live there and for those who visit there, how the town is changing, is not something that is always felt. There is nowhere to start. Just like everything in everyday, it accumulates slowly, as if passing through our everyday life.

The Noborito "ing" project aims to make a tiny revolution in this everyday, in order to make people feel what they have ignored as "somebody else's business" as "my business". In other words, it is mixing up the boundary between these two "businesses".

Consciousness and emotion stimulated by the billboards and posters might not be directly related to the town re-demarcation project. Yet, if they make one notice something they had overlooked or make one think of themselves a little bit more, their everyday life might well become more fulfilling. It is not only in something special that discoveries and surprises are found, but they are there in our everyday life as well. It does not matter if it is big or small, something that functions as a catalyst and eyes that are looking for something new - they are enough to illuminate our everyday lives.

Many shops told me that customers looked at the posters and it started new conversations. Some even told me producing communications like these everywhere is the best solution for contemporary social problems.

As a mechanism to enliven our lives and as a social device to produce communication, I assume I can say this project worked well, and also that our activity was providing triggers to open one's heart.

2006.5.22. Koichiro Yamamoto

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