“What is politics?” is a computer-based art project designed to encourage people to think about the purpose, the meaning of and the potential good for politics; moreover, it hopes that people will look at political activities more intently. Working as a political news reporter in Japan, I have covered “what is happening today” and “what will happen tomorrow” – very short-cycle, concrete issues. My job caused me to lose sight of the big picture of what politics is. I also realized, not only that the same thing probably happens to the audience who consume the news, but also that we reporters were largely responsible for that. I would like to put consumers in my position to share the things I have felt and questioned: What is politics? What is it for? What does it do to us? Obviously, these issues don’t apply only to Japan – that was simply the origin of the idea. This project starts in departure lobbies of airports in New York City where views will see simple questions on a computer screen: “What do you think is the most important issue facing your country today? Can politics solve it?”, “How do you define politics?”, “What is good about politics?”. Viewers can think about or answer the questions, and also can see other people’s responses projected on a wall.
Another aspect of this project is to propose a way to make views active instead of passive participants. Put simply, I hope to fill an opposite function of modern media, from which people passively receive information, both by avoiding and employing established media techniques. The goal is for people to stop and think, not just to receive information.