IDEAS FOR GOODHow to make a better society with art—Interview with conceptual artist Masaaki Hasegawa who connects people with unreadable letters
Art is now drawing attention in regional revitalization and business scenes. In local cities, many art festivals such as Biennale and Triennale are held and revitalizing local districts and solving local issues with art is now a trend.
Lately, “art” is becoming more important in the business scene too. The number of collaborative projects and art workshops organized by businesses and artists are increasing. However, we may not have a concrete image on how we can use art and bring value out from it.
Therefore we interviewed Masaaki Hasegawa, advisor of “Erretres”, a Strategic Design Company based in Madrid, Spain. He is also an internationally active calligraphy artist. The theme of the interview is “Art for Good”, and he talks about his experience and latest activities to give us hints on how to think about this issue. Anyone who is interested in solving social matters with art and design will find this interview helpful.
Interviewee profile: Masaaki Hasegawa (Artist/Writer)
Design evangelist of Erretres Strategic Design Company in Spain and also an ambassador of Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Russia. Working actively as an artist mainly in Europe, he has created the biggest calligraphy artwork (approximately 2,000 square meters in size) in Madrid on September 2018. He writes and makes speeches on creativity in both English and Spanish. He is the only Asian chosen as “Top 100 Speakers Spain” by Thinking Heads.
Spain is culturally open to accept creative passion
Q: Tell us about your experience.
Hasegawa: When I was an undergraduate, I was also a professional mixed martial arts fighter, but gradually my interest began to shift from physical challenge to academic learning. That was when I had a chance to meet Teizou Taya, a former BOJ committee, at my university. That subsequently led me to work in finance.
I first worked at Daiwa Securities Capital markets Co., Ltd as an investment strategist, formulating strategic plans for future. At that time, Facebook, Google and startups from Israel were hot and I became interested in creating new systems instead of running an existing system. So, I left for Spain to study at IE Business School in Spain.
Unexpectedly, IE began a new master’s program called “Visual Media Communication” the very same year I decide to study there. I was interested because it focused on combining creativity and business.
Q: What brought you to Israel?
Hasegawa: When I was studying at IE, I was working on a project called “Art Bible”, which is art expression using the Bible. A Jewish classmate then shared with me that it would be more interesting to do it in Israel. So I did! The Israeli culture had great impact on me, so much so I moved to Israel after graduation to work there. I found employment with a software company as a technology evangelist, which is like a marketing job explaining what and why to use each technology.
I worked for about one year, but gradually began to wonder why I’m working for someone else’s company when there are so many entrepreneurs in Israel. I returned to Spain because I wanted to start something creative.
Q: Why did you return to Spain?
Hasegawa: The biggest reason I returned and continue to live in Spain at present is because Spain has a culture to accept passion. Of course, Israel has culture to accept entrepreneurs. But Spain is not only has culturally to accept entrepreneurs but much more, such as chefs, sports, design and art. Many creative people work here with passion. I wanted to do something related to creativity, so I thought Spain was a good match for me.
Q: What is your relationship with Strategic Design Company “Erretres”?
Hasegawa: I started working with Erretres towards the end of 2014. Pablo, the founder of Erretres loves Japan, so when I was elaborating a plan to do something with him, I came up with an idea to mix Japanese technology and Spanish design.
What led to this was the fact that Japan and Spain has different strong points. Japan excelled in creating physical products things that have inherent values, like Nissan, Toyota and Matsushita. On the other hand, Japan is not so skilled at creating immaterial values such as branding, communication and marketing.
On the contrary, Spain is strong in creating immaterial values such as sports, education, gastronomy, tourism, art, design, and nowadays things related to conference. If so, I thought we will be able to create synergy by uniting Spanish creativity and Japanese technology.
Spain and Japan have different approaches and decision processes when they work on “design”. The demands are often different too. So whenever Erretres works in Japan, my role would be to give advice and hold a conference regarding long-term plans based on such differences.
Recently, my activity outside of Japan is increasing. I often visit Ukraine and Paris too. By talking in such places as a design evangelist, I help spread Erretres’s activities.
Overcoming the language barrier by writing unreadable letters
Q: What kind of activity do you do as an artist?
Hasegawa: I began creating my own artwork only quite recently, about two years ago. When I returned to Spain, the first thing I did was to publish a book about creativity privately. It was in originally in English but a publisher advised me to translate in into Spanish. My books was sold in a few bookstores, and that was when I received an opportunity to talk at a book store in Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid — well known for Picasso’s Guernica. There I was questioned by the audience “How come you write about creativity but don’t create art yourself?” So I answered, “I shall put my words into action”.
After giving some thought, I decided to use letters. I have lived in Australia, Japan, Israel and Spain, but anywhere I go, “language” becomes a barrier.
No matter how fluent I was in Spanish, I will always be considered Japanese. Yet if I spoke Japanese, people won’t be able to understand me. Language always creates a barrier. Language has self-contradiction — it’s a tool for communication, but it creates a barrier between people at the same time.
To overcome that barrier, the “unreadable letters” were born. I deliberately broke the concept of letters, and created artwork using “unreadable” letters. I then left people to “feel” the letters instead of “reading” them.
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I wanted to create a common experience between people of different age or nationality. So, I started a project named “Connect people through art beyond borders”. Its aim was to connect people through art. Up to this day, I have given lectures and exhibited artwork in six countries – Russia, Ukraine, Israel, France, Spain and Japan.
Not everybody understands the work fully, but by creating artwork and space, I am providing an experience to see letters from different perspective or draw people’s attention to stop and think. I call myself a calligraphy artist, but I don’t write any readable letters. I abstract the concept of words and letters and express them using shapes of lines and colors.
The role of art is to connect people and to create new meaning
Q: What role can art play to make a better society?
Hasegawa: There are several important aspects, but I think one of it is that the role of a 21st century artist is to “connect people”. Technologies such as the Internet and social media connects people. But when you look over the world, you see independence movements in Europe and conflicts such as Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Arabs. Therefore, what artists can do in a situation with so many barriers is communication beyond words, culture and nationality. Therefore I think an artists has an important role to contribute to world peace.
Another important practical aspect is “to create a new meaning for the society”. Simply put, when you compare design and art, design has purpose. When you have purpose – like solving issues, desire to create or a necessity in creating – you can show creativity. When you have no purpose, it’s hard to design. On the other hand, it is important for artists “to create a new meaning”. People nowadays don’t work just for money, but they find significance in it.
In this era, “meaning” of many aspects – such as work and travel – is very important. In other words, we are living in a world of self-fulfillment. There was a time when purchasing goods, building a house and buying cars were self-approval and -fulfillment. However, nowadays not many people consider them as self-fulfillment.
The importance of “meaning” leads to the growing importance of artists. Artists are always questioning themselves. They question common sense, why things must be the way they are. Eventually they find meaning or answers in their own way and express them to the society. That is what artists do, and thus it is their social significance.
In practice, by approaching from a more abstract perspective like considering the significance to the society or the whole world, you will be able to get a better perspective. Consequently, we’ll find connections between things that once seemed irrelevant. To create a new meaning, it is crucial to “connect” things that seemed unrelated till now.
Q: How do you connect these dots personally?
Hasegawa: Observation is important for connecting the dots. New ideas for neither art nor design come up from work. In my case, I value observing nature. For example, design constructions by Gaudi are inspired by the great nature. You get inspirations from nature like a whale skeleton and observing it will give you ideas on how to mimic its solid structure in design. I am constantly thinking about how to connect the dots by observing profoundly things around me.
Q: What can design and art do for social issues?
Hasegawa: Maybe it is not adequate to clearly separate artists and designers, but art doesn’t always require practicability. That is because art plays the role of questioning what significance is. Its importance is in questioning and bringing new perspectives to the society, not in becoming useful.
During the process of designing, you shift your perspective on one matter, and this simplifies complexity. Like looking at something closely or from a distance, this shift of perspective is the strength that design possesses. Subsequently, solutions present themselves. You can clarify problems and come up with new approaches through various perspectives.
If anything, art does not solve problems on its own, but it is more like raising people’s awareness. I often feel that expressing social issues in abstract terms or saying it in words is not always appealing. However, art can throw questions at people your message was unable to reach before. Even to those who you cannot communicate with by words, I think art has power to give new perspectives and approaches to these people.
If you try to do this by design, you must be aware of who you are targeting and create each work depending on the target. Conversely, art can appeal to the whole world, which is the strong point.
Europe emphasizes the power of design and art
Q: What are the current trends in design and art in Europe?
Hasegawa: In Europe, design is considered one of the principal axes in “Horizon 2020” program promoted by the European Commission. Design does not only make good use in business to make profits, but it is also utilized in public projects and reflected in policies of local governments. In Japan, the utilization of design is often limited in each business. We should learn from Europe to broaden our outlook.
Recruiting creative talent is also very active in Europe. The importance of creative talent within enterprises is increasing. Large enterprises such as Adobe, Google, Facebook and Autodesk have a program called “Artist in Residence” and hire in-house artists. These enterprises don’t just upgrade existing things, but understand the importance of creating new meaning and connecting the dots. That is why they have come together with artists to create new products and services.
Q: What is your advice tips for working with designers or artists in enterprises?
Hasegawa: When you work on a project with creative talents, including designers and artists, it works out better if you give feedback as soon as possible. This is especially important when a businessman works with designers and artists. Because the language differs in each field, common business jargon do not always make sense to designers and artists. Therefore, in order to bring out the best of creative talent, you need a mechanism to speed up the feedback, and to respect this feedback process.
Editor’s notes
Mr. Hasegawa is based in Spain, but his success is spreading to Ukraine, France and all over the world. He emphasizes the importance of “the power to connect the dots” in order to throw questions and to create new meaning, which is the role of art in society.
By writing unreadable letters, his artwork challenges conventional wisdom that letters are readable. Its aim is to break the barriers words create and to connect people instead. His work embodies the role of an artist precisely.
Moreover, just like his artwork, Mr. Hasegawa is traveling all over the world like Japan, Israel and Spain and connecting the dots. From the interview, it becomes clear that this experience is the source of his creativity.
More and more “divisions” are occurring in so many fields than before, and now we are constantly seeking for “meaning”. During such time, the necessity of “art” is increasing since it has strength to communicate beyond language, nationality and many other barriers.
Even if you’re not a designer or an artist, there may be many things to learn from his approach to social issues.
[Reference] Masaaki Hasegawa[Reference] Erretres
This article was originally published on IDEAS FOR GOOD.
Translated by Chisato Shizume.
