Blurring Boundaries

My name is Dahei Shibata, and I am affiliated with Dentsu Lab Tokyo.

I was with a company called WOW for about 10 years, but through a connection, I've been seconded to Dentsu Inc. for about two years now. My usual work involves planning, directing, and producing video-related projects like TV programs, exhibitions, advertisements, and music videos. Today, I'll be speaking on the theme of "blurring boundaries" using examples from my past work.

An Antithesis to Simplification and Abstraction as Design Functions

Previously, I created a segment called "Gradation" for the NHK E TV program "Design Ah."

This work began with the idea of doing the exact opposite of design's fundamental function: simplifying and abstracting information (like making complex things easier to use or conveying difficult concepts simply).

We focused on information that is often stripped away in the typical design process, experimenting to see if we could find diversity and richness within it. This time, we expressed that using the technique of "gradation."

"Gradation" ©NHK
Composed by: CORNELIUS, Vocals: Kana Otsubo (Spangle call Lilli line), Lyrics/Concept/Video Production: Taihei Shibata

What is Gradation?

The term "gradation" here does not refer solely to a simple color gradient. As shown in the diagram below, it refers to the process of progressively increasing the number of elements between two polarized factors, thereby blurring the boundary between them.

It is the opposite of simplification and abstraction; it is a process of making information more complex and concrete.

"Smoothly bridging the gap between black and white"
"The difference in shape between a circle and a triangle, made gradual"
"The transition from 0 to 1, made gradual"

In this way, by applying the magic of gradation, we smoothly connect the boundaries between various things.

Below is an excerpt from the main video.
We applied gradients to various things.

1. Blurring the boundary between curry and rice

2. Smoothing the boundary between skin and hair

3. Blending the differences between restroom pictograms

 
4. Softening the differences in vegetable shapes and colors

In this way, by creating gradients and blurring boundaries in various things, we observed that complexity and diversity indeed emerge, enriching the information.

Leave ambiguous things ambiguous

While slightly different from gradation, the technique of enriching information by leaving things ambiguous has been widely used since ancient times. Especially in art, film, novels, anime, etc., expressions that deliberately make content hard to understand or even end ambiguously have been favored. Mystery sparks speculation and discussion, contributing to the depth of the story.

We may never know if Mona Lisa is smiling or sad, but that very mystery creates her charm.

Drawing lines and categorizing things is an inherent function of the human brain, inseparable from everyday cognitive activities.

It's the function that allows us to group pudding, cake, and chocolate as "sweet things," or apples, soccer balls, and 100-yen coins as "round things." Without this function, even if we saw many different types of cats in front of us, we wouldn't recognize them as "Oh, there are lots of cats." Instead, we'd perceive each as a separate, distinct thing, causing our brain to overload.

While this is an incredibly useful function for survival, it also has drawbacks from categorizing everything indiscriminately.

I believe it often leads to divisions, as we view things through biased lenses or unconsciously sort them into folders we've created ourselves.

(In nature, there are no embankments or walls creating divisions; all boundaries are vaguely connected.)

The world is full of things that defy clear categorization—genre-less, border-less entities.

The more we grow into adulthood, the more our knowledge and experience increase, leading to more folders and increasingly detailed criteria for categorization. As I created this gradient, I found myself thinking: if we could see the world again through the innocent eyes of small children, if we could learn to accept ambiguous things as they are, perhaps we would glimpse a diverse, complex, and richly layered world.