community

"in japan, people create design for their community, to make everyday functions go smoothly and they seem to enjoy it: i can see care in the work. many cultures enjoy doing handmade design. san fran- cisco has a lot of handmade design on its streets, from people who are not designers: but most of this is created for private business, not for public or social interest. in information design today, there is: public interest and commercial interest.

in the US, i live in an environment where information design is mostly: professional, commercial, digital. what i found in japan and show here, is the exact opposite: amateur, public, analog." (joachim müller-lancé)

there are numerous construction sites in tokyo - during my stay there, i regularly had to pass a site, always, even at nighttimes, there was somebody, seeming to be solely responsible to guide you safely across the site, though this could only be a simple sidewalk marked with bright adhesive-tape.