‘Natsukashii’ in Japanese is used to communicate a feeling of ‘Those were such nice times...’. Our project, under that name, is a participatory performance installation devised by EkoO Studio and commissioned by the Design Museum and Haunted machines. Members of the public are invited to enter a mini Japanese living room and have a tea. Inside they can experience the melancholy feeling that is produced when someone is gone. Entering this space they will travel through time until 2055 when Millennials generation will be old enough to remember those times when internet was only the beginning. Using Japanese traditions and aesthetics the project explores the relationship between home, privacy and loneliness in the future where ‘living with others’ won’t be about people but objects.

Talking to an object rather than a human

This interactive project has three main props: teapot, Kimono and warmed cushion. Base on our idea, we suppose that people can communicate with objects in the future which is possible. Thus, we set up a storytelling teapot. In the meantime, we are also expecting that the audience will be surprised that a teapot talks to them, not performer when they cross into the living room. Because mostly we think that we suppose to talk to human rather than objects.