About the artwork

Everyday all kinds of information reach Tokamachi from many parts of the world. Much of this is information about events that is sent from Tokyo, Niigata, New York, Baghdad, and Pyongyang. Sometimes news arrives from Sendai, where our university is located. In which direction are these cities located? How far are they from Tokamachi? What are peoples’ lives like there? These are milestones to provide geographic information on these faraway places. The concept of this project is to make seven milestones of the present (for the six cities mentioned above plus Tokamachi).We set up interfaces (interfaces of lawn) on which are printed the populations, maps, and greetings for each of the cities (the world outside) and for Tokamachi (the world inside). Through the milestones that give distance, time, and direction visitors can look at the daily life of each place. The daily life scenes were re-created with photographic models, and the photographic model for Tokamachi was created in a workshop together with local residents.