Where do we come from, and where can we find our own happiness?

For the past three years we have been tracing Route 17 with a group of university students, in an annual joint project with the Ama Lab of Showa Women’s University, the infie(l)ducation project.
In this recent series of projects we have been uncovering the various aspects of happiness that appear in different areas and localities, under the title “Quest for Happiness on Route 17.”

Our journey continues along Route 17, starting in downtown Tokyo and crossing the width of Honshu Island, using the experience design approach, this year with a big cart behind us!

After three years of observing and learning a lot from the reality of people’s lives in different places, we are starting to feel a desire to be part of the scene. This is an experiment to do so – by bringing things with us and interacting with people.

We want to take “participatory observation,” a classic method in cultral anthropology, and see what we can reveal when the “participation” is more intense and proactive. The hand-drawn cart works as our medium of fieldwork, by gathering people around us like peddlers’ merchandise.

The members of Ama Lab will become peddler-observers, drawing carts filled with things they have selected, things that we expect will draw out the happiness from people in each local vicinity. The “merchandise” will help us interact with the locals, but there’s no telling what we will actually discover, and we are thrilled to find out.

Anyone interested in sharing this thrill with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we can go peddling together.

For partnership please contact:

Ama Lab (Amagasa Laboratory, Showa Women’s University)
http://amagasa.info/lab