What would be possible methods of communication in situations where a seeing person watches a sports game together with a visually impaired person? One way would be live narration through which the seeing person conveys the actions as he or she watches a competition. However, vocal communication of athletes’ actions is extremely difficult unless you are a professional commentator. Another method would be to imitate the athletes’ physical movements, but that would be a different form of appreciating sports altogether. In this project, the aim is not the “accurate communication” of athletes’ movements and how their game proceeds, by way of verbal commentary or physical action. The idea behind “Sports Social View” is a form of sports watching in which the arena of the actual competition is reconstructed as an “event in its own right” between the seeing and the visually impaired person. For example, the seeing person may share the sensations of athletes, the rhythms of their movements, or the overall situation/atmosphere in the arena and among the spectators with the visually impaired person by translating such information into physical actions such as knocking on or pulling at things. This exhibition showcases the process leading up to the conception of such kind of “watching sports based on a shared physical experience.”

Research: ITO Asa (Tokyo Institute of Technology) / HAYASHI Akiko (NTT Service Evolution Laboratories) / WATANABE Junji (NTT Communication Science Laboratories)
Cooperation in research: NAMBA Sota (practitioner in acupuncture and moxibustion)
Production cooperation: FUJIWARA Shinya, WATASHIMA Kenta, TAKATANI Yuichi, FUKUCHI Makoto (dot by dot inc.)
Graphic recording: SAITO Kumiko, SAGATA Yoshie (NTT Communications)
Cooperation in haptic technology for Exhibit 3: MINAMIZAWA Kouta, SHIMBO Aria (The Embodied Media Project in Keio University Graduate School of Media Design)