IISE (Immersive Inclusive Sensory Environment)
SnoezeLab.
SnoezeLab. is the pairing of Hashimoto Atsuko, a specialist in making Snoezelen sensory rooms and developing digital content for infants, with Ichikawa Nozomi, who builds sustainable teams. It is a collaborative platform comprising corporations and organizations with a shared ethos.
Year Selected
2023
Project
IISE (Immersive Inclusive Sensory Environment)
Summary
Based on the concept of Snoezelen, a controlled multisensory environment commonly used at facilities for those with severe disabilities and children with developmental disabilities, this project presents new kinds of sensory rooms that utilize design and technology. At CCBT, SnoezeLab. will introduce initiatives by corporations in Japan as well as exhibit prototypes featuring various technologies. With a team that includes people with disabilities and mothers of children with disabilities, the project will itself actively embody an inclusive environment across the whole way it is run. It will hold workshops and talks, with the aim of promoting awareness and the availability of multisensory environment in Japan.
Presentation
See, Touch, Hear: Playing by Sensing
Dates: Tuesday, March 5–Sunday, March 10, 2024 / 1–7 p.m.
Venue: Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]
Profile
Hashimoto Atsuko
sensory rooms producer and researcher / Representative Director, SnoezeLab.
Hashimoto Atsuko specializes in planning and developing digital content for young infants and special needs children, and creating Snoezelen multisensory environments and other kinds of sensory rooms. After graduating with a degree in broadcasting from Nihon University College of Art, she completed a master’s degree in pedagogy at Tokyo Gakugei University, and then completed coach training with the Netherlands-based WorldWideSnoezelen. Since 2013, Hashimoto has run courses and created spaces, especially at child welfare and education facilities. Her other positions include president of Relax’Creation project, inclusive education project director at NHK Educational, and adjunct instructor at Kyoritsu Women’s University.
Ichikawa Nozomi
Founding Director, Polaris NPC; President, Mowen LLC; Director, Happy Community Connections Practices Research Institute
After graduating from junior college, Ichikawa Nozomi worked for an IT company. She left her job to raise a family, and then became involved in circular forms of child-care support, such as amigo and Setagaya Parenting Network. In 2011, she shifted her focus to reforming working styles and practices, and her business plan was selected in a competition run by the Cabinet Office to bolster community employment opportunities. This resulted in the nonprofit corporation Polaris, which she founded in 2012. In 2016, she stepped down as the head of Polaris to become founding director and shift its management to a followership model. In January 2023, Ichikawa founded Mowen LLC to promote experimental projects rooted in her more personal interests. She is currently engaged in a new project for DEATH Festival and more.
CCBT Art Incubation Program
One of CCBT’s core programs, the Art Incubation Program provides opportunities for creative talent to undertake new projects and makes those processes accessible to the public, facilitating forms of artistic expression, exploration, and action that change our city for the better. Selected through an open call, five artist fellows will act as CCBT partners, developing their projects, making the creative process public, exhibiting the results, and holding workshops and talks.
Details: CCBT Art Incubation Program
