Tokyo Residency

A research residency in Tokyo that shifted from a planned physical intervention toward surveillance, behaviour and the invisible systems shaping shared space.

The Tokyo residency was a period of observation, mapping and early testing around the use of shared space in the city. The initial intention was to develop a small physical intervention for public space: a device that could invite encounter or alter how a place is used.

Very quickly it became clear that this approach collided with the local context. Public space in Tokyo operates through a dense system of implicit rules, permissions and sensitivities. Taking space physically, even in small ways, often meets resistance.

The residency therefore shifted direction. Instead of inserting a physical object, the research turned toward the invisible layers that already structure behaviour in the city, particularly surveillance infrastructures and the ways people respond to them.

Experiments began around the use of video surveillance footage and the possibility of adding a virtual, game-like layer that could redirect attention and create moments of encounter without occupying space materially.

The residency did not lead to a single finished work. Its value lies in the shift it produced: from physical intervention to working with the existing informational and behavioural systems that shape urban space.