Tanja Severikangas
Projects
TakiTonttu
When I was working in Izumo, I lived in a rural seaside town called Taki. It merged with Izumo some years back.
I really liked the atmosphere of the town and got to know many wonderful people. In my final year of JET, I participated in a local development committee in which we were thinking of ways to enliven the Taki town for both locals and tourists.
Taki town started a collaboration with Finnish town of Kalajoki over 20 years ago, and they have a log cottage holiday village overlooking the sea.
Since the holiday village is built with Finnish timber, I started spinning an idea about the Finnish house elves, kotitonttu, which are believed to enter your dwelling with the wood you built it from.
It lead to a community art project, in which the tonttu of Finland are living in Taki with the Japanese mythological creatures and spirits.
We had local collaboration course in which we split into teams of five. Each team had a different approach, and I was in the product design team. We used local materials from Tokuji and made different products with inspiration from the area. Collaboration with Youko Asada, Kensho Kitaguchi and Yoshina Takenaga
We had a presentation to people from Tokuji and the Uni. about our ideas.
A local entrepreneur who owns several gas stations. This used to be his garage/local gas station, but he had to change his business in order to provide for his family. He wants finnish fairytale creatures to inhabit the mountains around Tokuji.
We had local collaboration course in which we split into teams of five. Each team had a different approach, and I was in the product design team. We used local materials from Tokuji and made different products with inspiration from the area. Collaboration with Youko Asada, Kensho Kitaguchi and Yoshina Takenaga
Tokuji Town Making
There is a small town near Yamaguchi called Tokuji. In this town, they are doing a thing called machitsukuri which means literally town making. As many towns near bigger city areas, the town is losing services and businesses. The Tokuji town folk have joined forces with the Yamaguchi Prefectural University to protect the local resources. I've had many chances to collaborate with cultural events in Tokuji. I did murals for an un-used gas-station area. I taught local people himmeli-making. We arranged a summer festival painting workshop for kids(and adults, too) and I designed calling cards and image for their town arts and cratfs centre.
It is a piece of clothing especially designed to be used with this sledge.
The BiSki is a sledge which can be used for downhill skiing by people with little or no movement in their lower body.
It is a piece of clothing especially designed to be used with this sledge.
Keeping Warm Going Downhill
This project was done in collaboration with many local groups. The vocational school(LAO) students made the first usable prototype. The local community of wheelchair users volunteered to test the product. The University of Applied Sciences(RAMK) students did the measurements for the warming effect and effects on well being of the product. There were two of us from University of Lapland designing the thing. The whole project sits under a bigger project about new ways of using local wool. This project's name is Winno. This sleeping-bag-like thing is a version of skiing pants for BiSki users. The inlay is needle felted wool. There are three testing prototypes in use since January 2013. Collaboration in design with Marianna Suhonen.