Naohiro Ukawa × Naoki Sato "Media Production Going Independent!!!"

Dentsu Design Talk #107 (held November 26, 2013) featured a talk session titled "Media Production Going Independent!!!" with Naohiro Ukawa, organizer of the popular live streaming media "DOMMUNE," and Naoki Sato (ASYL), who is also Design Director at 3331 Arts Chiyoda. The session explored the origins of Ukawa's creative vision, which dynamically evolves with the changing landscape of media—from graphics and video to SNS media via live streaming.

(Planning & Production: Dentsu Inc. Human Resources Bureau, Aki Kanahara     Article Editing: Sugatsuke Office     Composition Support: Eiji Kobayashi)
　

　

　

Transforming Semi-Public Spaces into Media

The session began with an update on Mr. Sato's current activities. He is currently involved in operating the art center "3331 Arts Chiyoda" (hereafter 3331), which renovated a disused school building in Akihabara. The center has gained attention by hosting events like musician Otomo Yoshihide's "Ensembles Exhibition" and manga artist Otomo Katsuhiro's original artwork exhibition "Otomo Katsuhiro GENGA Exhibition." It has also achieved success as a privately operated community space. Sato attributes this success to the importance of "semi-public spaces" within the city. He pointed out that such event spaces "won't draw people in unless they create an environment that makes it easy for outsiders to enter, no matter how interesting or outstanding the activities inside are." Expressing his determination, he stated, "We really need to properly establish 3331 as a media platform; that's truly the next step," before shifting the conversation to the main topic of the session: Mr. Ukawa's activities.

 

The Year Social Media Took Hold: 2007

Mr. Ukawa, who operates DOMMUNE—a new form of media combining a live streaming site and studio, having recorded over 2,000 programs and 5,000 hours as a private archive to date—began by recounting how he was inspired by Mr. Sato's tentative launch of the Ustream event "Painting Club" in 2007. He reflected that around the same time, he was exploring "how to effectively utilize social media as a platform for sharing videos." He defined 2010 as "the first year of social media," while characterizing 2007 as "the year Twitter rapidly gained traction, and live streaming also began to gradually permeate." This led to the DOMMUNE concept: "Let's turn the floor itself into a studio to elevate underground artists into the mainstream." He explained that two key events sparked this concept: "The closure in 2008 of 'Mixrooffice,' the office-cum-club space that had served as their base for two years," and "the experimental interactive online classes he had been conducting since 2003 as a professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design."

 

The "Collapse of Media Concepts" that Triggered DOMMUNE

Ukawa divides his career into "before" and "after" 2009, stating, "I want people to focus not just on the timing of launching a media platform, but on what happened in 2009 itself." He reflects that 2009 was the year he began realizing "the concepts and formats of traditional publishing, television programming, and advertising were collapsing," citing the successive suspensions and discontinuations of cultural magazines like STUDIO VOICE, Advertising Critique, and Esquire Japan. Amidst this shift to a new media paradigm, Ukawa intuitively felt, "This isn't the time for this," and seized the opportunity to abandon his "Before" form of expression and transition to DOMMUNE, his "After" endeavor.

Ukawa states that the place he should remain is "a site where experimentation is always possible." For him, DOMMUNE is "the place where I should exist, as a site for repeated experimentation toward new goals."

 

The Concept of Sharing the Space

Furthermore, Ukawa states that a crucial element of DOMMUNE is that "not everything is virtual; there is a physical studio space where anyone can come" – meaning "the studio = the scene." He described DOMMUNE as composed of three spaces: the "primary space" being the physical floor (venue) where bodies interact; the "secondary space" being each viewer's individual viewing environment, scattered across timelines; and the "tertiary space" being Twitter, the timeline where the venue, viewers, and Ukawa himself interact. He added, "You never know where people are viewing the timeline space, and sometimes people in the studio are tweeting. Moreover, I myself in the studio am tweeting. Within this three-way interplay of sites, there exists an expression of 'now' (a site transcending space) that exists only in this moment."

Sato also pointed out the importance of DOMMUNE's two-part structure of talk and live music. In response, Ukawa explained that, prompted by the suspension of many culture magazines, they aimed to preserve discourse and culture through talk-format videos. Furthermore, DOMMUNE prioritizes the live experience for viewers, so it does not make archives available online. The only exception is screenings at YCAM (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media) in Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Explaining the reason, he says, "It's the idea of transcending the first, second, and third sites, reintroducing the body as an intermediary, and sharing the images face-to-face. We want to share the sense of distance and the physical presence of the people who come there."

 

People are fascinated by happenings

Ukawa then addressed DOMMUNE's defining element—its happenings—referencing numerous on-air incidents while showing footage. He emphasized that DOMMUNE cultivates a fertile ground for enjoying happenings and that its live broadcast format is crucial. "Conventional documentary films and regular TV programs, even if live, aren't truly documentary in essence," he stated, asserting that the nature of DOMMUNE—which allows simultaneous experience of spontaneous events—represents the modern "documentary." Sato also states, "Traditional documentaries are edited and controlled by the creators. DOMMUNE possesses the inherent spontaneity of visual media and the true meaning of documentary." Citing derivative media like the annual free festival "FREEDOMMUNE" held at Makuhari Messe since 2011, which draws tens of thousands of attendees, he pointed out that Ukawa's activities, due to their experimental nature, "cannot be confined to a single stage; they inevitably encroach upon other media and forms of expression."

 

From "Enlightening Advertising" to "Contagious Advertising"

Ukawa cited the innovative collaboration between Dentsu Inc. and Lexus at "FREEDOMMUNE" as an example, stating, "Rather than the traditional enlightenment method of repeatedly chanting a product name to implant it in the mind and guide consumers to the register, contagious expression techniques that spread spontaneously, like buzz communication, have become the trend since the 2000s." He also discussed the shift in the core of advertising methods following the spread of SNS. He attributed this shift to the internet's archiving of information eliminating "rare footage." What matters now, he said, is genuinely considering from a social perspective "what content within viral (word-of-mouth) networks can be perceived as having promotional value." In other words, the value standard for "rarity" is shifting toward experiencing events in the present moment and sharing them. He further explained that symbols like Twitter hashtags—which offer "space for participation, allowing users to either join in or become creators themselves"—enable recipients to craft their own narratives. This facilitates "not just spreading the finished story, but propagating the re-edited versions each recipient creates."

He concluded the session with these words: "We can share images appearing here and now with an undefined multitude of people and be moved by that connection. I want to delve deeper into the meaning of this, so I continue experimenting."

 

(End)