Paper short abstract:

Tour performances by Takayama Akira and the Port B collective prefigured the large scale challenges of life in Evacuation Japan, historically tracing and foreshadowing what it means to seek refuge in Japan. Can these encounters lead to imagining a new affective commons and culture of refuge?

Paper long abstract:

Tour performances by Takayama Akira and the Port B collective prefigured the large scale challenges of life in Evacuation Japan. From the augmented reality immersive stories of linguistic and culinary difference of Asian migrants and refugees (Tokyo Heterotopia) to those seeking refuge from the grind of Yamanote temporality (Complete Manual of Evacuation), these tour performances historically trace and foreshadow what it means to seek refuge in Japan.

Programmed encounters of refuge, often mediated but affective and sensorial, assemble unlikely and uneven participants (Yokohama Commons). A distilled architecture of refuge, opens up the possibility of exchange and dialogue, and the temporary suspension or overturning of hierarchies of knowledge (Tokyo School Excursion, McDonald’s Radio University, Babel:The City and Its Towers). In this era of corporate controlled online ‘public’ spheres can these encounters lead to a differential commons, a space and set of social practices that don’t attempt to unify but offer connection through shared affective encounters (Public Speech Project, JArt Call Center)? Can these temporary architectures and encounters lead to imagining a new culture of refuge in Evacuation Japan?