NAO SUGAYA

Participation from the 20th of July till the 7th of August 2013

Nao Sugaya is a research artist whose works revolve around political and social subjects.

 Plan before participating
“My plan before participating was to research the public order of the Netherlands As Japanese people would often say this is bad, due to the image of drugs and De Wallen.”

Imaginary fear Map
Her intention was to research into what the citizens of Amsterdam thought what was a dangerous neighborhood in Amsterdam and then mapped out this ‘imaginary fear’. To create this map of fear in Amsterdam, Sugaya would go visit different areas in Amsterdam to perform some fieldwork. This fieldwork included interviewing locals. The question that was crucial to her research was: “What is the most dangerous place in Amsterdam?” This was however almost never the persons own neighborhood.

Sugaya also met with social workers and had deep discussions about the feelings of security in certain neighborhoods and what measures were being arranged or in place to lessen the feelings of insecurity.

My process during participation
“However, when I actually went to the Netherlands, I learned that there wasn’t really a negative opinion about the security in the Wallen and that there were instead numerous opinions about bad public order in immigrant residential areas. This was during the rise of the anti-foreign, the nationalist movement and I got greatly interested in the practice of the Dutch people living together with immigrants.”

After the project participation
“Regarding the influence on my current art activities; I became interested in the immigration problem.”

For the Deshima AIR team it was very interesting to see her results and helped us gain new insights into our beautiful city Amsterdam. One of the interesting insights that we gained for instance was how the influence of media, even within just one city can form an image over one’s own experiences.

Sugaya also made a video reportage of her exploration of the fear in Amsterdam. Feel free to watch it and enjoy! > https://youtu.be/4YgLlT2U4uw <

And please read her Report .

Sugaya’s website: > http://naosugaya.com/ <

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