Creating user-friendly and positive environments for us all in future, from the perspective of DeafSpace

Aiming to develop co-creative settings where everyone can express themselves, metote-lab engages in projects to create “homes” (bases) from a broader perspective, including aspects such as environment, structure/arrangement, and spatial design. It also explores approaches to creative expression and space based on the physical sensibilities and language generated by the visual language of Japanese sign language.
5005 (Gomarumarugo), a cultural center focusing on sign language and interaction scheduled to open in Nishi-Nippori in October 2023, will also be used as an activity hub for metote-lab. The group will use the center to think about the kind of comfortable, reassuring space and environmental design necessary to cultivating spontaneous culture engendered by the eye ( “me”) and the hand ( “te”), and also to think about how we can create such an environment.

For our next event, we are joined by guest expert Megumi Fukushima for a talk session in which we think about culture, community, and environmental design in terms of DeafSpace, space that is designed to create a deaf-friendly environment based on the physical sensations involved in the language of signing.