こんにちは、1-10 CT部の仁科です。本記事では2023年の10月から12月の間、インターンシップに来られたカティさんの体験記をご紹介させていただきます。
カティさんは現在ドイツの大学院でDigital Media and Experimentというコースで勉強されています。この度のインターンシップは彼女の大学院のカリキュラムで、生徒全員がそれぞれ選んだ会社にアプライしてインターンシップをするというプロジェクトの一環として、遠い異国の日本、京都の1-10でのインターンシップを希望いただきました(チャレンジャー！！)。
およそ3か月のインターンシップでは、実際に制作進行中だった弊社プロジェクト(Concordiaなど)にも参加いただき、リアルなヴィジュアル制作や実装、現場設営などの一連のプロセスも体験いただきました。
この経験が彼女の未来にとって実りあるものであったことを祈りつつ、ここから先はカティさんの体験記(原文)に移りたいと思います。どうぞ！
An intern from the other side of the world
Hello, I’m Kati Lübeck, a german master student in the 3rd semester of Digital Media and Experiment. I had the honor to be an intern at 1-10 from October 10th until December 19th 2023 under the guidance of Satoshi Nishina.
My dream is to make interactive installations, that use gamification to arouse interest in as many people as possible. I want to make art that is reachable for everyone, even topics that are hard to digest. And I found that goal in 1-10’s work as well. So it seemed to be the perfect place to learn, how my passion could become my future job.
During my internship I was able to get to know the work process of 1-10. From working in real projects like „Concordia“ to experimenting with hardware and software by myself like making an interaction with LiDAR sensors. I learned the digital process of creating footage and the analog process of building a real projection mapping. I got insights into meetings and even visited both offices (in Kyoto and Tokyo) where I was able to meet many different kinds of designers. They let me observe their work and process, from programming an interaction in Touchdesigner to creating a character starting from a drawing to building it in 3D.
The work itself was really free. I was allowed to take breaks whenever needed. The work I did varied from being known territory to being a complete challenge. It was the perfect mix of learning new things but still feeling like I could become a good designer after my graduation. And any work I was given fitted exactly to what I imagined being a modern digital designer would look like.
1-10 even gave me the opportunity to visit exhibitions during my work time to get a deeper insight into Japanese modern digital art. For example I visited „Ambient Kyoto“ and Nijo Castle where at that time was an exhibition.
The social environment was very welcoming as well. Everyone treated me kindly and I felt like I belonged. Everyday we went to lunch together which was always a lot of fun. And no matter what question I had about their work or just living in Japan they answered everything patiently. In the end of my internship they even threw a little party for me. It really felt like I haven’t only met nice people but made some friends, too.
One of the projects I was allowed to take part of was „Concordia“. In commission of the city Tokyo we were supposed to create an interactive art projection that would light up Odaiba Beach in Tokyo at night from November 18th until January 8th.
1-10 made an installation consisting of six projections and a big sphere, which would also be projected on. The six areas were representatives of air, water, earth, plant, life and city. The sphere represented the moon and was floating above the water. Through interaction people could walk through the areas and explore different physics, like stars that drew a path wherever a person going or finding small objects and making them explode in sparkles as they were touching them. In addition there also was an AR-app which merged the projection and reality even more.
My tasks at this project consisted in a variety of digital and physical work. At first I was allowed to create a huge amount of animations of simple shapes, like circles, rectangles and triangles, that were appearing and disappearing. Later they would be visible in almost every area of the projection. In the first round I made more than 50 animations. I had the pleasure to work together with the talented designer Takashi Kawamura who gave me feedback on how to adjust the animations and picked the final versions.
The next step was to prepare for the projection so I went to the lab of 1-10 together with Satoshi Nishina and Yuta Inada. We started setting up the six PCs for the six areas – for example by installing MadMapper. Then they showed me how to map the areas as a dry run. Also I was able to see and test the interaction with LiDAR sensors for the first time.
A highlight for me was a trip to Tokyo where I worked at Odaiba Beach for six days straight. We started working on Sunday from afternoon into the night which I really enjoyed because I think it is the best time to be creative.
Arriving at Odaiba Beach for the first time was impressive. Seeing these six huge towers surrounded by technology and a fence, guarded by security was a view I have never seen before. Especially knowing that I was – even though a very small – part of this made me proud.
At the beach my duties shifted from being digital to being mostly physical which felt like the process of design itself: having an idea in mind which then comes to life, into reality.
I was helping the team getting furniture where it was needed, like tables, chairs and boxes but also notebooks, and light. I was printing labels with IP addresses and labeled them on electrical devices like sensors, computers, keyboards, adapters and cables. I also brought data via USB sticks to all towers. All of this included a lot of walking back and forth which was a great alternation to the usual sitting at a desk. I helped installing cables, too.
When it was time to map the projections and test the interaction I was helping by standing and walking around as a test person.
When my animations were shown over the big projectors onto the beach for the first time we were all walking around and letting the visuals affect us, thinking about adjustments. After some time Kawamura, Nishina and I decided that in such a big scale we needed slower animations. So I spent the next day doubling up the frames of every animation. In the next testing phase we were all happy with the results.
In the end my animations were more visible than I thought they would be. They were shown all across the whole projection. The scale of one single animation was large enough to fit 20 people in. I was thankful for the trust that the team had in me to give my animations such a huge platform.
What really impressed me was the size of the whole project. The projection was over 150m long so you could really sink into this world of light and color. But also the size of the team was huge. More than 200 people from different professions were working together hand in hand without even knowing each other. And all of this happened under the conditions of working at a public place which was sometimes flooded with people who were enjoying a day at the beach. Speaking of the beach, technology and sand aren’t the best friends and it was hard keeping them apart at all time. As soon as a grain of sand would get into the wrong place, we might have big issues later on without even knowing where the problem was. And even the weather wasn’t always being good, as strong wind or rain appeared on some days.
But when the grand opening night came (on November 18th) and I saw hundreds of people storming onto the beach, running around, smiling and laughing I knew it was all worth it. Even though it is all cables and code, data and technology: the power of a beautiful interactive light installation on people is magical. Serious adults become playing kids again. And that is all that I ever wanted to achieve.
If you want to know more about this project now, please visit the official website https://concordia-odaiba.jp
During my stay in Tokyo I was also able to visit the Tokyo office of 1-10. It’s an open space with lots of glass and filled with innovative technology. Yuta Nakagawa, a designer at 1-10, showed me two of the first inventions from Yoshiaki Sawabe (the founder of 1-10) himself which were „Cyber Boccia“ and a wheelchair racing game „Cyber Wheel X“ with amazingly designed interfaces. I was even able to test both them which I enjoyed. Nakagawa told me about how 1-10 started and the story of how Sawabe Yoshiaki became dedicated to inclusive design which impressed me a lot. At the age of 18 Yoshiaki had an accident with a motorcycle which left him in a wheelchair. After that, he started his own business and was committed to doing something to promote para-sport while the company grew as a technology and creative business. His ambitions inspire me a lot to use my voice for people that aren’t heard by society. As I have struggled with mental health, I feel like I could now turn this insight in psychologic disorders that I personally experienced into something useful to help others who struggle the way I did.
Thank you so much at 1-10 for letting me be an intern. I have learned a lot and this was an experience that I will never forget. And a special thanks to Satoshi Nishina for guiding me through the whole internship. ありがとうございます。