SHOJIKI (KOBAYASHI Muku + TOKISATO Mitsuru)

A quirky scene is taking place in a space previously used as an office: instead of office workers, desks, chairs, and equipments, there are cheap-looking three-dimensional objects (pedestals) with a machine attached to each, and many display monitors. The machine on the pedestal moves a stick, and each display shows a thing falls on the chair, and background music intermittently stops depending on the environmental data. "They" continue to work and (un)produce something. 　 
The 20th century was the century of the office. Inside the office, people and spaces were efficiently arranged, occasionally with background music. In a sense, the office was a modern device for managing people. Although the office as a space began to decentralize and diversify with the progress of digitalization, it was still the mainstream. In this post-pandemic era, however, the number of vacant offices has increased dramatically with the prevalence of remote work. 　 
In “Office Music”, Shojiki (KOBAYASHI Muku + TOKISATO Mitsuru) subtly pay homage to the office of the past, and express their feeling towards the transformed "office” now: an office from the daily face-to-face constraint, to an "off-office" situation where information monitoring and managements becoming more and more thorough. 　 
In "Office Music," there is a glimmer of hope in the way things are enjoying their autonomy away from anthropocentrism, if only we could activate our playfulness and imagination together with "them."

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​SHIKATA Yukiko/ Curator of "Office Music"