This is probably quite uncommon, but at Traveling Research Laboratory the designer also travels with the group. This is because of the unique characteristics of the research trip, making it extremely important for the designer to also share the fragments that might otherwise be gone unnoticed if it was a project to solely produce some kind of deliverable after the trip.
The reason is because there are happenings and fragments from the trip that might be overlooked but may be essential to recreate the experience through the final output, because normally it is rare for the designer to be on set (even though it is good in a way that the designer can bring subjectivity to the project).
However, traveling probably allows a lot of extra space and unexpected happenings, and it is probably safe to say that traveling in itself is extremely interesting and meaningful. I really want to bring out an objective point of view of what happened while keeping the original compelling details of the trip as it is, even though this might be the hardest part…
The artists and I have a very difficult time discussing and fighting over this issue every year while I work on the design. However, the more we try, the more we are able to understand each other’s thoughts in proportion to the time we share. Traveling is…
I don’t really know what I want to say anymore… I’ll have another think.
The conversation that revisits this theme, “Traveling, Research and Design” during open recording event “Think Party & Traveling” held on March 16, 2018 can be accessed and heard through the following podcast.
Appearance: Masataka Maruyama, mamoru, Motoyuki Shitamichi
- Hagiwara-san refers to Shunya Hagiwara, the web designer for this website
- The deliverables mentioned in 4’45″〜 can be found in the “Project Archive #1” page
