INDEX
Strategies for Engaging Individuals: Practical Methods in Community Centers and Parks
-Both of you seem to have had a shift in perspective towards your immediate surroundings due to the pandemic.
Kishino: That’s right. Also, I think a lot of people were aware of this, but you realized that actually getting a lot of people together in a physical setting is precious, whatever it is. A chemical reaction takes place that is unique to the field. That was so obvious that I didn’t realize it until I lost it once. This is one of the good things about going through the Corona Vortex. We could not make any progress by arguing on the Internet, but when we actually meet face-to-face, we can see the approximate drop-off point. I think this is because on the Internet, the deadline is unlimited and you can continue to argue as much as you want, whereas in the physical setting, people are aware that “I’m leaving in an hour, so it’s time to find a compromise.
Ideguchi: In that sense, the Little Tokyo-like use of the hall I mentioned earlier is also a good thing, isn’t it? After all, people come to halls to see things that are stimulating, exciting, and cutting-edge.
One of my most memorable experiences was when Shintaro Sakamoto gave a live performance at a cabaret in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto, organized by the FRUE people. I thought that this kind of thing is necessary for the local community. It was fun for me to be a part of it. And if this is the “hare” part of “hare and ke,” I am now more conscious of the “ke” part as well.
Kishino: I understand. I, too, have been focusing on enhancing the “ke” side. Holding an event is like a fireworks display, but I wanted to emphasize the everyday scenery. Specifically, I wanted to value the coziness of the park. I felt that a large outdoor park would be fine for the human density, even with the Corona Vortex, so instead of holding an “event,” I personally brought a DJ set to the park and played the sounds. Of course, I had to apply for an occupancy permit.
-That’s amazing [laughs].
Kishino: At first, I just brought a desk, turntables, mixer, and speakers and played. But this made it hard for people to approach me. They are just hobbyists. So I put up a sign that said “free to browse,” and put up a kind of skeleton tent around it, and it gave a very welcoming feeling. As a result, some people approached me and even offered to help me carry the equipment because they wanted me to do it again.
This experience made me think about “public”. I realized that even if the event is held in a public space, there is a surprisingly strong “invisible threshold” that is not even recognized by the people who are participating in the event. If there is no mechanism in place, people will feel that there are strange people or that it is a circle that has nothing to do with them. What kind of mechanisms are needed to remove these hurdles and make it possible for everyone to participate, and for everyone to see and hear what is going on? It was also a time to learn about this.
Furthermore, from this point of view, I thought that “how not to create a community” is important in order to create an effect in so-called regional development. Since the existence of an inside means the existence of an outside, it is necessary to “devise ways to make it not look like there is an inside. The same is true of skeleton tents. I think the key is not to put up a curtain, not to partition with ropes, etc.
-The tent is half-open, or loosely closed, but not completely separated.
Kishino: Yes. The skeleton shows that there is no separation between inside and outside. Through such practices in the local community, I have been able to see things that I could not see before.
Ideguchi: I have also been experimenting with how to involve people. This is because it is said that two of the problems facing community centers are the aging of the population and the fixed number of users.
So, in an effort to create a community center where people in their mid-40s, the same generation as myself, could come, I first asked the rice and flower shops that I usually go to to teach a community center course. Since it was just early winter, the lineup of lectures included making modern shimenawa ropes with a florist, making New Year’s Eve soba noodles with a soba noodle shop, a winter-themed book talk with the manager of an independent bookstore, a Nagasaki Prefecture financial public relations advisor’s talk for children on “Money Matters from New Year’s Gifts,” a talk by a local A local artist gave a light workshop using the hall’s lighting equipment. The event was published as an omnibus lecture titled “Winter Dressing at Kita Community Center” in “Drie,” a public relations magazine shared by the three facilities under operation. We then distributed it to elementary schools in the neighborhood.
Ideguchi: Even in this age of the Internet, flyers given to children at school have a 100% reach rate to their parents. So many people in their 40s who were raising children started coming to the school. When they came, they realized that the community center had a lot more to offer than they had expected, as I mentioned earlier.
-So, it became the first step in getting people to know about community centers. The Nagasaki City Kita Community Center has been recognized as an “Excellent Center” in the 75th Excellent Community Center Awards by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2022, thanks to a series of approachable courses, promotional activities through its newsletter and the internet, among others.
Ideguchi: I was very happy. I really thought there was a lot we could do.
Also, what I was thinking about that course was that I wanted to make a new generation of not only users but also instructors. The problem of the aging and fixed population of the community center means, on the other hand, that the community is still going strong from the high economic growth period when leisure time was increasing and the community center was booming. The teachers and their students from those days are aging together. That’s wonderful, of course, but I think we also need to build a relationship with the next generation.
