Katsuhiro Nishinari

Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

CONGESTION AND DISTANCE. A ROUTE TO IG NOBEL PRIZE

Pedestrians are clever enough to avoid collision between individuals by keeping their "distance". However, sometimes this fails due to the use of a smartphone when walking. We focus on the counterflow, and have done experiments in order to elucidate the condition of forming smooth flow without collisions or deadlock. This result was used in Tokyo Olympic 2021, and what is more, we have won the Ig Novel prize this year although the study is serious! We will discuss the importance of mutual anticipation in crowd for avoiding collision.

Francesca Gasparini

University of Milano-Bicocca, ITALY

proxemic distances AT THE LIGHT OF PANDEMICS: measuring emotional states through multidimensional experimentS

Human behaviors regarding proxemic distances can be influenced by a series of factors: for example, people tend to approach one another differently depending on their personal attitude, the relationship between them and the others, their cultural characteristics, and their gender. Given the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, people all around the world were forced to change habits and routines, especially regarding the interaction with others. In particular, restrictive health measures and fear of contagion were two of the factors that played a main role in changing interpersonal distances. The perception of safety is strongly conditioned by the emotional state of the person, influenced by the surrounding situation, and therefore linked to the fear of infection induced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. To study the effect of this pandemic on proxemic distances, we performed an online experiment to understand what kind of personal, psychological, and situational factors influenced people's behavior while distancing from others. We have also developed a protocol for real experiments to support our virtual findings, focusing in particular on emotional reactions, measured acquiring physiological signals (heartbeat, perspiration, muscle activities, etc…) through wearable devices.

Ryohei Kanzaki

Research Center of Advanced Science and, Technology, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

ADVANCED ART AND DESIGN LAB @ RCAST

Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo (the “RCAST”) established the Advanced Art Design Laboratory (Social Cooperation Research Departments) on January 1, 2021 in cooperation with its cooperation companies. Science and technology bring wonderful benefits. As our social framework shifts to a direction different from the past, it is crucial to stand face to face with and reflect on natural environments and sensibility nurtured there, take a renewed look at science and technology from the perspective of intrinsic humanity, and communicate the science and technology unique to Japan that will help create a sustainable, inclusive society. I am pleased that we can work with our cooperation companies toward achieving the goal through research activities at our Laboratory.

Roberta Albiero

IUAV University, Venice, ITALY

THE CRITICAL DISTANCE AS A RELATIONAL MEASURE

Distance is a matter of measure and it is expressed through two different ideas of dimension: an absolute one and a relative one. The first one is a physical dimension univocally identified through a measurement system, which defines distance as a quantity, while the second one incorporates a relational and qualitative idea of dimension that is close to what Ernesto Nathan Rogers called greatness (grandezza). In Architecture, the critical distance is measured through the vacuum as a physical material, a volume of air, which determines the degree of tension between two buildings. In the same way we can find a range of measures that generates tensions and vibrations between two bodies or two objects. This interval of interaction, defined as critical distance, according to Edward T. Hall’s studies on the proxemics, is the subject of this intervention.

Tomoo Matsuda

Platinum Society Center, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo, JAPAN

NEW NORMAL LIFESTYLE OF THE ELDERLY IN THE COVID-19 ERA

With the elderly population making up 28 percent of the population in Japan and 23 percent in Italy, both countries are facing a super-aging society. Many people worldwide have experienced huge changes in their lifestyles due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation will focus on the changing lifestyles of elderly Japanese. Covid-19 era has had a huge impact on the elderly lifestyle as they have lost direct communication with their families and friends. On the other hand, limited communications with social distances and online communications are rapidly increasing, which might be a new normal lifestyle. New survey data on the elderly in Japan about their lifestyle, behavior, communication and the comparative analysis between men and women will be shown in this presentation. Also some best practices of multidisciplinary views and multi-generations will be introduced which will be able to realize a "longevicity" and "platinum society".

Florian Coulmas

Institute for East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, GERMANY

ALGORITHM AT A DISTANCE

Covid-19 has given the algorithmization of our everyday life a boost that goes beyond what has been going on these past decades. Algorithms are all around us. In many ways we have come to depend on them. Algorithms help us to span distances. Without them we would not be conducting this workshop. But where do they come from? In this little aperçu I will take a brief look at “algorithm” in time and space deliberating the question how many decades, years, months, days and minutes it takes to cover a distance of some 4.000 km.

Yukio Ohsawa

Department of Systems Innovation, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

RETHINKING COMMUNITY LIFE WITH THE DYNAMIC CHANGES IN DISTANCES

Last year, the author proposed the living strategy "stay with your community" for ordinary people, based on the simulation using a constrained scale-free network. This strategy has been broadcasted by TV channels and recommended by the cabinet of Japan and nowadays introduced in local regions. Not only the daily living by the people but also the strategies for traveling and vaccination have been derived from the SWYC principle. However, it has been also found that seasonal weather changes affect the infection spread, and the results are interpreted as a mixture of the direct influence on viral flow and human activity, both relevant to the distances among people in and across communities. This shows the necessity to introduce a cocktail of strategies for the safety and prosperity of our society.

Giovanni Occhipinti

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (FRANCE)

Ionospheric Seismology: everything you wish to know about Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanic Explosions taking distance from the Earth

Thanks to technological advances in the last decade, ionosphere has become a sensitive medium to various geophysical phenomena as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic explosions, revealing new possibilities to estimate the magnitude of the earthquakes, the explosivity of volcanos, as well as the oceanic uplift and the offshore oceanic displacement related to tsunamis. Those informations are useful to improve the estimation of the tsunami risk, and the confirmation of the tsunami amplitude off-shore. Ionosphere is the ionized part of our atmosphere, located at 300 km from the Earth surface, and sounded by satellites orbiting at 20 000 km form the Earth surface. Taking the distance from the problem we solved the problem, looking to it with different eyes. In this talk we present all those new ionospheric observations and we discuss, under the light of modelling, the potential role of Ionospheric Seismology in the future warning systems, in order to support and improve classic techniques to reduce disasters.

Laura Liverani

Documentary Photographer, Prospekt Photo, Milan, ITALY

LONGEVICITY PHOTO STUDIO

The photographic portrait, as an encounter between who looks and who is looked at, is inscribed within a relationship of power that is often nonsymmetrical, and can reaffirm stereotypical representations of the Other. Is it possible to reduce or efface the virtual distance between observer

and observed, to achieve a collaborative/participatory mode of representation that is able to break stereotypes? Within this framework, Longevicity Photo Studio - an ongoing photographic project portraying the senior community of the metropolitan city of Milan - will be presented. The project is part of the dissemination of “Longevicity: Social Inclusion for the Elderly through Walkability”, a multidisciplinary research by the University of Milano Bicocca, in partnership with the Politecnico di Milano, RCAST-The University of Tokyo, and Auser Lombardia.

Francesco Zurlo

Politecnico di Milano (ITALY)

Designing services that take care

Distance is the opposite of proximity. The future of cities will be related to proximity, enabled by the decentralization of services. Indeed proximity asks for local and collaborative services, helping local communities, and a taking care attitude. The presentation will show this trend and its related best practices.