AsobiのConcept

必要ないけど、必要なこと。

「アソビ」という言葉を、私たちはいろんな意味で使っています。

まず、一般的な「遊ぶ」という意味があります。おもちゃを使ったり、走り回ったり、ねんど遊び、ボール遊び、ごっこあそび、泥遊び等、数え上げればキリがありません。子どもの頃は当然ながら、大人になっても遊びを求める場面は多くあります。
次に、生物学ではヒト以外の動物も「遊ぶ」ことが分かっています。
犬や猫などのペットの他にも、クジラやイルカなどが遊びを行うことは有名で、その他にもインコやカラスといった鳥類もよく遊びます。特に霊長類はよく遊ぶ動物の筆頭で、「遊び」は知能を持った生物にとって欠かせない行動であると言われています。
さらに、工学で「遊び」といえば操作が実際の動作に影響しない範囲のことや、接合部などに設けられた隙間や緩みという意味になります。この「遊び」は事故や破損を防ぐ重要な意味をもちます。
そして「アソビ」は他の言葉ともよくくっつきます。時には、火遊び、女遊び、夜遊び等、ネガティブな意味を持つこともあります。

さまざまな「アソビ」があり、「不要」と「必要」の両方のニュアンスがあります。必要を突き詰め、削ぎ落とされ洗練されたデザインは素晴らしいものですが、もっと力を抜いて「アソビ」を取り入れないとダメなモノになってしまうかもしれない－－－。

だから、私たちはアソビのあるでデザインをしていく。そして(こんなことを、デザイナーの先輩に話すと怒られるのですが)遊ぶようにデザインしていく。

遊ぶ必要はないかもしれないけど、必要だと信じている。
それが私たち「asobi」のコンセプトです。

Asobi(play) seems unnecessary but necessary

We occasionally use the word “Asobi(playing)” with several meanings.
Firstly, we use the word “Asobi” which express the meaning of “playing” in most cases.
It refers to countless types of actions such as play with toy, clay, ball, mud, or pretend play or running around outside.
Everyone likes to play with something during their childhood, however, we also like to play in a certain situation even after we grow up and become adults.
Furthermore, in biological study, certain types of animals (other than human) also like to play.
For example, some pet animals, such as dog or cat, or marine mammals, such as whale or dolphin are well-known for their habit of paying. Some birds, such as crow or parrot are also like to play.
Especially, primate species are most likely to play among animals. It can be said that “playing” is an important action for intelligent living creatures.
In the fields of engineering, the word “Asobi(vacancy)” refers to the vacant space at the connecting point or the boundary which does not affect the actual mechanical operation.
This type of “Asobi(vacancy)” is an important factor for preventing serious accident or avoid damaging the machineries.
The word “Asobi” can be combined with the other word and become several different words that have different types of meaning for each, and sometimes “Asobi” becomes the word with negative meaning such as “Hi-Asobi(playing with fire),” “Onna-Asobi(womanizing)” or “Yo-Asobi(stay out late at night).”
There are several types of “Asobi” in Japanese and they indicate the definition of “necessary” or “unnecessary.”
The sophisticated design which rejected the unnecessary factors by pursuing efficiency always looks nice. However, if you ease your tension and add the factor of “Asobi” in it, you may be able to produce more interesting thing.
Our basic concept, “Design-Asobi” is to create a design with the sense of playfulness.
(The senior designer I know might get furious if I talk big like this)
May be there is no necessity for playing, but we strongly believe it is necessary to play!
“Asobi” is the key concept for our design creation.