Shiina Araki
Tokyo, JAPAN
Project Question
How can modern Japanese people realise and inherit the values underlying the Japanese sense of beauty, such as 'Wabi-Sabi' and 'Valuing the invisible', which they have forgotten: values that are not bound by rules, find beauty in the invisible through imagination and see the negative as positive?
Aim and Objective
– To provide people with opportunities to express what they feel in their daily lives and realise that it is acceptable to tolerate their own values and freedom.
– To give people the opportunity to accept other people’s values and sense of beauty by allowing them to experience other people’s values and sense of beauty.
– To experience the beauty of the invisible, reminding them of Japanese values and culture, where beauty is created not by form but by imagination and emotion.
– To be able to value things that are not bound by form or appearance.
Final Outcome
I initiated a project to create letters using the senses of smell, hearing, touch and sight.
There are no rules for making this letter set. Audiences can use any paper they like, put their favourite music, sound or voice message on it with a QR code, or smell it with a drop of aromatic oil.
I have done this project so that the audience can freely express the thoughts and feelings they want to convey, not only in a visible form but also in an invisible form, such as smells and sounds.
Through this project, I thought that the project would help people to realise the underlying Japanese aesthetic values of a free standard of beauty not bound by rules, ‘the beauty of imagination’ and ‘acceptance of one’s own and others’ sense of beauty’. Through them, I wanted people to inherit the Japanese sense of beauty, not visible objects, but the value of themselves.
I also held an actual workshop where I could improve the project details by soliciting opinions.
How has your practice developed while studying the MA in Graphic Design with a global cohort?
I learned more about the area I live in than I did before. I have learnt that having a global perspective means developing a local mindset at the same time. In this class, students from different regions have different values and design characteristics, which has helped me to realise my design characteristics and to learn about social issues from different angles. The input of classmates from different backgrounds, design and other professional experiences also helped me to step out of my comfort zones to create my work. Overall, the two years I spent here were invaluable, and it was a good time that gave me confidence and made me realise that I needed to gain more experience.