When I Was Searching for Local Attractions, I Realized the Power of Art.
- First of all, what kind of a group of people is SENSE?
We are made up of members who originally met through a local media project called "circulation kyoto". What we are trying to do is to find out the dormant charms of the region and try to combine them with different charms in order to make the region more interesting. There are only three of us working on this project at the moment, but we were able to work together with people who have been working on local revitalization to organize "Rakusai Art Style". It would be more accurate to say that I helped with the planning of "Rakusai Art Style". This may be a more accurate way of thinking about it. We are not an event company, so we would like to continue to work together with interesting movements in the community.
- What kind of event is "Rakusai Art Style"?
The concept of "Rakusai Art Style" is to make art take root in Rakusai five to ten years from now. This is the concept behind the project. This time, as the first step towards this goal, we held an event with the cooperation of the people of Rakusai New Town Center Street. We came up with various plans with the aim of having a perspective of art that should be a part of our daily lives, rather than an extraordinary event, and that it would become a new lifestyle in Rakusai. This is something that cannot be done without a lot of effort, but 10 years from now. But I hope that in ten years from now, this will be a part of everyday life on weekends. I don't think there is anything wrong with being told that you have good taste, but I envision a community where everyone lives with a sense of style.
- The three of you? I don't think this is an event run by three people...
It was a lot of work, but most of this event was made possible with the cooperation of people who were originally involved in local activities, local commercial facilities, and people who work in the arts (art, music, etc.). Of course, the three of us didn't do everything. We had connections with local activists, the Kyoto City University of Arts and Saga University of Art and Design nearby, and we also had members who were connected with local people in the music industry, so we were able to ask for help from a lot of artists and musicians we had connections with.
We are working from the stance that we would like to be a catalyst in the community, so we are working vigorously on research, idea generation, and planning, but most events would not be possible without our collaborators. We are working with the organizers of attractive local events that are already in a rut, and we are trying to propose ways to update them with our elements.
No Matter How Good the Plan Is, It Needs to Be Designed First.
- It looks like quite a large event, but how long did it take to prepare?
It was held on October 5-7, 2018, and the actual preparation time was probably about three months. Of course, some of the projects had been in the works for several years. There were a lot of things that I wanted to do but couldn't, and I was able to do them this time by connecting with people who had been working on them. This event turned out to be a good one. We built the website within a month and half. Since we didn't know the full scope and details of the event until about that time, we started distributing flyers and other steady activities to get the word out and gain access to the website at the same time. I don't think I could have completed it without TCD's template. Thank you very much!
- Please let us know if there is anything you pay attention to in your activities.
We are a small team, and each of us has our own main job. The first thing we keep in mind is not to try to do what we can't do. We immediately replace what we can't do with "finding someone who can do it" and make it a task. Also, "move quickly" and do what you can from planning to action. I think it's best to let the people who participate and experience our services decide. Of course, I will take time to evaluate and reflect on that. And last but not least, "design". I believe that no matter how good a project or service is, the surface that comes into contact with the user needs to be visually optimized. The way we present events, flyers, websites, etc... It goes without saying that the design elements of TCD's templates were outstanding. The fact that we were able to build such a website within a limited budget and time frame was the talk of the town.
- Why are you working in the Rakusai area?
The biggest reason is that Kyoto is becoming more and more active in terms of promoting the attractiveness of its suburbs. We are conscious of the fact that we can approach regional issues as well. Rakusai New Town, which was the main venue for this event, is a place where the turnover of people and changes in the population are recognized as issues, but this is also important. It is also important to note that the community is aware of the issues and is moving to solve them, which is very encouraging for us.
The name "Rakusai" may not be a common name for the region. Our "Rakusai" refers to a large area in the west of Kyoto, including Ukyo, Nishikyo and Otokuni wards. Since the concept of "Rakusai" is different from that of an administrative division, it is sometimes a problem when explaining it (difference in perception of the area as "Rakusai"). All three members live in Kyoto City's Nishikyo Ward, which makes it easy for us to work, but we are also motivated by the desire to improve the place where we live from the perspective of actual residents. I hope we can connect interesting local resources to the future "Rakusai".
Using TCD Theme Has Made It Easier to Disseminate Information.
- How did you know the TCD theme?
It was the fact that some members were using the TCD theme. For me personally, I explored other options. However, while there are many WordPress themes that advertise SEO, display speed, clean code, and other things that are not obvious on the surface, the TCD theme was the only one that gave me an image of practical use. I think it's the same for restaurants, but I feel that it's hard to attract customers on the day of the event if people who can't actually (physically) come to the event can see it. Therefore, we did not seek to prioritize search engine optimization as a top priority. We just wanted to be seen by the people who would come to us. We printed QR codes on flyers, put up posters on local bulletin boards, and started building the website with the aim of attracting access through word of mouth among acquaintances and participating artists, and through SNS. I kept updating the site, trying to get people to look at it so that they would go around and look at it again, and within a month of its release, the site had gained access to 12,279 PV, the bounce rate (30.81%) and abandonment rate (23.90%) had been reduced, and the average I believe that the fact that the average PV was over 6 pages is a result of the TCD theme. Oh, I'm not worried at all about SEO, which I didn't seek to prioritize during the review phase, because the numbers seem to be good, but if there are any problems, I trust that the theme itself will improve with free updates (lol) and leave it to me to figure out what I don't know!
- What are the things you liked about using it? Also, what are your objective impressions of the TCD theme?
I was particularly impressed with the content builder feature, which allows me to change the structure of the top page without touching php files, which was very helpful for me as I am not used to web development (this was my first time creating a website from scratch). WordPress has a wide variety of plug-ins, so if I set up the functions I wanna add, I won't have to worry about using a template. Thanks to the basic design of the template, even if you add functions, the general design is often reflected, so I felt that there was very little sense of it being an afterthought. 100 pages were published in a month, and it was surprisingly doable.
- Finally, what do you hope to achieve with SENSE?
Returning to the first topic, I would like to continue my activities in order to make a solid change in the daily life of the future. To avoid imposing sympathy, I try not to put too much "you should definitely do this! We don't have any experience or accomplishments, but we do have a feeling that our current life is not good enough. It would be great if we could work together with the local people to make things sustainable while carefully examining the experiences gained through such activities. In addition, I think it would be great if we could work on this project with fun and smiles.
編集後記
I felt that "AVANT" was being used to its fullest in order to efficiently allocate limited resources to activities. While each member has a regular job, they have limited resources to plan and advertise the event. In the case of events that require a large location or funds, they even conduct sales activities for sponsors. I hope that TCD will continue to support SENSE's activities for a long time to come.
SENSE
ご活用のTCDテーマ
