Open Base Saturdays #3: Creating with Things

Open Base Saturdays is a spin-off of the CCBT Meetup series of events that explores the concept of civic creativity through CCBT’s annual theme. Each session invites a guest from a different field to examine the annual theme from various angles.

The third edition’s guest speaker is Yamauchi Tomoki, a gardener who also teaches at Kyoto University of Education. Through the framework of the garden, Yamauchi inquires into the relationship between the city and nature, theories of creation, and interpersonal communication. His book When the Form of a Garden Emerges documents his fieldwork constructing Daishoin Garden at Kannon-ji, a temple in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto. In the book, he sees the garden not as a finished landscape, but as something in a constant of emergence through the interplay of people, plants, and the environment.

In his talk, Yamauchi will draw on his practice to explore the mindset of trying to observe the landscapes around us in more detail. In his book, he traces the process of creating a garden, over the course of which, he tells the reader, your perspective becomes more artisanal. How might our attitude toward what’s already there change when we attempt to examine cityscapes and environments in a little more detail?

Following the talk, Base After Hours offers an informal forum for taking a closer look at CCBT’s Tech Lab, chatting with other attendees in the Base space, asking the guest further questions, and reading books.

Audiences are welcome to bring their own drinks, sandwiches, and snacks to Open Base Saturdays.