Having successfully completed the Initial Foundation Course and the Renovation Memorial Ceremony, etc., the TOBI Gateway Project is gradually getting on the right track. At the TOBI Lab on April 22, we had Yū Sato, who is enrolled in the Doctorate program at the Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Intermedia Art, come as an instructor to interact with the TOBIRA candidates. Yu Sato’s workshop was structured in a three layer progression: “Single Page Story” → “Single Sheet Flag” → “Single Sheet Tale.” It was a 3-hour long marathon event, but as expected, the TOBIRA candidates handled it well.
The TOBI Gateway Project is a large organization of over 90 people, making it rather difficult for the TOBIRA candidates to make time to talk to each other in a relaxed environment. For this reason, we created the TOBI Lab to provide a time and place for them to freely use to get to know each other on a deeper level.
From April to June, the TOBI Lab makes the Art Study and Project rooms available on weekend afternoons (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) when the Foundation Courses are not held. Users can come and go freely. If there is someone else around when you swing by, it is fine to chat or take a look at the exhibits together. We hope this will be used as a space for free communication where the TOBIRAs can create networks with each other. They are Art Communicators, so communication must first begin amongst members of the same group of TOBIRAs who are most familiar with one other. (Itō)
2012.04.22