A conversation about a seemingly ridiculous future.

Trembling Aspen | Series 04_My Life Here | Issue_15

Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous. ~ Jim Dator

Me: This would have seemed ridiculous a few weeks ago. [holding up my phone]
Interlocutor: Oh? What is it?
Me: It’s a newly created Instagram chat group. The three people in the group are Junko Iwaya, Yurie Kibi and me. 

I: You have to catch me up, who are Junko Iwaya and Yurie Kibi? 
M: Both Junko and Yurie work for Nikken Sekkei. Junko manages PYNT (pronounced pin, with a “t” on the end), and Yurie Kibi is the visionary behind PYNT, she made it happen. They are also, not coincidentally, both people around whom one feels immediately at ease.

I: Okay. So...what is PYNT? 
M: A co-creation platform for generating new options for the future of the city.

I: Ha, ha, ha. Very funny. Not the marketing brochure version, please. 
M: I’ll do my best...PYNT is a co-working and event space. It's takes up the whole third floor of the Nikken Sekkei corporate head offices in Iidabashi, which is an area in Tokyo. PYNT has [reading from their brochure] “a members-only floor that serves as an open platform for workshops, events, exhibitions, and experiments.” It’s hard to describe. Basically it's KocoGarden if KocoGarden had a gajillion dollar budget and was in downtown Tokyo. 

I: Who, or what is Nikken Sekkei? 
M: Oh, yeah, Nikken is the second largest architectural firm...in the world...? [pause to verify] Yep, second largest.

I: Not to minimize your value as a human being and whatnot, but why were you, an artist in residence from Koganecho, at the corporate head offices of Nikken Sekkei, the second largest architectural firm in the world? 
M: I was invited to join PYNT as a community partner. It only costs me my time. I was there to go through the required orientation.  Once the company board approves my membership. (The board approves the membership?!) I’ll have access to the members-only "co-creation and event space on the third floor" [it's in the brochure] used mostly by employees. As a full fledged member, I can host meetings and events. [which is one of the main reasons I applied, but more on that in upcoming issues if all goes as planned] I can even add books to “Our Library,” a small library populated by personal books that members share with other members. (🥹) 

I: Uh...what...how...did this happen? 
M: With ease and flow, as it turns out. It all started with me blurting out what I desired. Specifically, that I desired a bioregional regeneration initiative centred on the Ooka River in Yokohama. That lead to more conversations, which lead to me being invited to become a member of PYNT.  

I: So...why become a member?
M: I had hoped, by becoming a member, to eventually meet some folks I could talk to about a bioregional regeneration initiative.

I: How is that going? 
M: Well, this is the part where ridiculous futures comes in. It’s not ridiculous in terms of a giant architectural firm working with KocoGarden. That makes perfect sense to me, and it’s why I was there. I know what KocoGarden offers them. It’s that a few weeks ago, given existent sensory and factual data, the idea of it happening was, well...ridiculous. However, within 10 minutes of starting my orientation I met Takayuki-san, the President of Nikken’s research institute, who suggested I come meet his team and we find a project to work on together. Um, okay?... Maybe that’s how he greets everyone, I don’t know. It seemed sincere. Takayuki-san also runs Bar Takayuki, out of PYNT. Every Wednesday one of Nikken’s Executive Officers and the President of their Research Institute is a bar tender, serving drinks to employees and visitors. Judging by the smile on his face, he loves it.

I then met Yurie, who envisioned PYNT into being. She’s written a book called The Purpose Model, about how shared purpose can help catalyze teams. Which, by the way, is exactly what a bioregional initiative centred on the Ooka River hopes to do. To create a shared sense of purpose amongst a wide variety of existing and new ecological, social, economic and cultural regeneration efforts by drawing a line around the Ooka River watershed and saying: Anything regenerative happening within this bioregion, this piece of planet earth we claim as home, is part of a movement. A movement of people making their everyday lives better, for themselves and the more-than-human world, by making the place in which they live better. Let’s coordinate, collaborate and co-create together!

I: So why PYNT and KocoGarden? 
M: What PYNT is doing and what KocoGarden is doing is, in many ways, similar. 

At the same time what we are doing is radically different. 

The beauty of it is, while I like to feel sophisticated in ultra cool coffee shops as much as the next person, and ego-me likes the affirmation of people who manage large budgets and work in shiny towers, I don’t want to be doing what Junko and Yurie are doing. I’m happy doing what I’m doing and it’s what I’m best at. They don’t want to be doing what I’m doing. They’re happy doing what they’re doing and it’s what they’re best at. At the same time, we can—I hope—help each other do the things we’re doing. It's exactly these kinds of unholy alliances which, in the end, aren't really unholy at all. At least, they aren't unholy if they're between humans who see, understand and respect each other as human. And isn't that kind of the whole point of things?

Hey, I’m Steve, an artist-in-residence in Yokohama, Japan. I make collaborative art, participatory art, interactive new media installations, and abstract visual art. I explore themes of home, identity, belonging and how to live your life like a work of art. I write about it all in this very newsletter, Trembling Aspen.

I’m learning out loud so we can learn together.

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