An art piece titled "Inclusive Quiet Room" that utilizes an instant house, which was created by a group consisting of Dr. KIMURA Shoko (Architecture, Civil Engineering and Industrial Management Engineering of NITech at the time of the research), Professor KITAGAWA Keisuke, researcher KITAGAWA Tamami, and Associate Professor NATSUME Yoshinori of the Department of Engineering (Architecture, Civil Engineering and Industrial Management Engineering) of NITech, was invited to be exhibited at the Microwave New Media Arts Fest 2024, an international media art exhibition in Hong Kong. Inclusive Quiet Room is an artwork that provides a calming space for people with mental health challenges. The art piece was exhibited, by invitation, as an art work that heals the soul and speaks to the heart  in line with the theme of Microwave New Media Arts Fest 2024: "How You Doin?" The work became such a popular piece that at one point there was a long queue to view it. Finally, over 1,000 people experienced it during the exhibition period.
This work created by Dr. KIMURA and her team was the only one nominated from Japan, and on November 2, Dr. KIMURA was invited to give a talk about the Inclusive Quiet Room. This work was exhibited in 2023 at Laval Virtual in France and SIGGRAPH 2023 in the United States, making this Hong Kong exhibition its third appearance at international exhibitions.

Microwave New Media Arts Fest 2024
Period: Friday, October 25 to Sunday, November 3, 2024
Presenters: KIMURA Shoko, FUJII Ayaka, ITO Kenichi, TSUBOI Rihito, KOJIMA Hibiki, KITAGAWA Tamami, KITAGAWA Keisuke, and NATSUME Yoshinori

[Comment from Dr. KIMURA]
It is my sincere hope that this work will provide some comfort to people struggling with mental health issues and that it will help create socially meaningful spaces and increase understanding of mental health issues.
I felt that it was very meaningful to be able to have extensive discussions with the people of Hong Kong and China through this work about the social positions of people with mental health challenges and mental disorders.
In the future, I sincerely hope that efforts to create a comfortable environment for people with mental disorders and mental health challenges will spread throughout society. Furthermore, I wish that we will also be able to ensure that everybody can play active roles in schools, the workplace, or anywhere in society, regardless of whether they have mental disorders or not.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Joel Kwong for inviting us to this exhibition; Florence, Joy, Jackson, Jason and other staff of the microwave team; the Hong Kong student volunteers; the support team from Japan; Nagoya Institute of Technology, Aoyama Gakuin University, Diver-X, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK); all the other people who supported our team; all the people who experienced the work; and all the people who love this work. Thank you very much.

Related links

Ms. Shoko Kimura receives SIGGRAPH AWARD/REVOLUTION #RESEARCH at Laval Virtual 2023.｜Nagoya Institute of Technology