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Consumption of Aesthetic Space
What is in this Section
Introduction
Youth have transformed regular spaces in Miyashita Park into youth-specific spaces by attaching cultural, aesthetic meaning to them for the ultimate purpose of expressing their identities on social media. Identity can be defined as “something we uniquely possess; it is what distinguishes us from other people” and can imply “a relationship with a broader collective or social group of some kind” (Buckingham, 2007). Youth in Miyashita express their identity through appearance, body language, and the actions that they choose to do. Identity is expressed in person and in a more individual, virtual way through social media. The fences around the roof, the stairs and escalators, and the various walls used for backgrounds around Miyashita Park are the main aesthetic areas that youth use for expressing themselves on social media. Social media is known to “elevate the ease in which individuals may form and create online groups and communities” (Allen et al., 2014), and youth have transformed spaces into aesthetic backdrops to show themselves off on social media to ultimately increase connectedness with others. These transformed, aesthetic spaces, how they are dominated by youth, and how youth express themselves through these spaces online will be further discussed.
Roof Fences
The most prevalent youth demographic that dominates the fences around the border of the roof are pairs of young girls who engage in Tik Tok dances which can prevent people from existing in that area. Most people on the roof care less about facing outward, toward the buildings, and more about the activities and people on the roof. This creates an opportunity for the border of the roof to be dominated by youth who would like to use the actual people on the roof, and the park itself, as the backdrop for Tik Tok videos. Pairs of girls line phones up against the fence, stand or sit in front of the camera, and dance or just use hand movements to create Tik Toks. Mostly older people observe this from afar and avoid the area because they do not want to be in the background of the video or sit near girls doing Tik Toks since it may be awkward to breach the intimate performance space created by the video. The portrayal of these girls is the quality of being ‘kawai’ or trendy to denote one’s status as a Tik Toker. The conversion of this space from a fenced border to the perfect place to create videos for social media goes to show that the influence youth have on Miyashita can provide cultural meaning to a meaningless space.
(Pairs of girls spread out and perform Tik Toks along the fence)
Stairs and Escalators
Youth provide cultural meaning to spaces that are solely intended for transportation, such as stairs and escalators, into spaces of aesthetic significance to portray an artistic, unique image on social media. You will never find an adult asking a friend or someone random to take their picture on stairs or escalators because they want to reap the beauties of the Shibuya skyline, or the Doraemon statue. The photos that youth desire do not include such beautiful things. Youth dominate these escalators and stairs because they are the only people that find them photo worthy. More so than escalators, since there is limited time one can be on an escalator, youth sit on stairs to assert dominance of the space. Many adults would find sitting on the middle of stairs to be transgressive or an attraction of unwanted attention. However, since youth want to be seen by others more than adults, they position themselves in a place that maximizes the interception of attention. Youth have transformed the stairs and escalators in Miyashita into a space that has the cultural connotation of making certain youth appear trendy or aesthetic due to the unique simplicity and choice of taking pictures on stairs and escalators.
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The images that youth portray of themselves can be considered unique because most representations of youth on stairs and escalators at Miyashita online are extremely candid and attention grabbing. Most social media posts of youth on stairs and escalators rarely show the subject of the photo looking directly at the camera. The candidness of the photos further enhances the space as an attraction for youth. Since most adults would not choose to have their picture taken on an escalator, it would make sense that a picture taken of someone on the escalator would not be aware of the picture being taken, and therefore candid. Many youth have mentioned that stairs and escalators draw the attention of the viewer to themselves rather than the background. This explains why youth afford greater worth to more simple, less used, niche spaces compared to adults. Adults may want to express more obvious acknowledgement to Miyashita by using a picture of it, however youth want people to pay more attention to their appearance by posting photos on these spaces. Youth still tag Miyashita Park as the location of the photo, even if the escalator or stairs that they are on do not reveal that the picture was taken in Miyashita.
(Resulting Instagram posts of photo shoots on escalators)
The subjects are very candid and their appearance pops more than the background.
Walls Used for Backgrounds
Finally, both simplistic and designed walls used for backgrounds at Miyashita Park are dominated by youth through their use as an aesthetic space. These include simple concrete walls lining the main stairs that lead to the roof from the ground floor and beautifully painted walls next to stores like the new Curious George Kitchen, pop-up shops, or the Starbucks logo. When youth take photos in front of these walls, people walking in the path of the picture are nervous to intrude on the scene. For designed walls, youth are more adamant about taking photos in front of designed walls due to the visible excitement they have. Adults on the other hand may take photos in front of these designed walls but are less excited about it. Similarly to the stairs and escalators, youth dominate simplistic, blank, concrete walls because they find them to be uniquely trendy in their own way. The lack of aesthetic worth that others afford to simplistic walls shows how much youth see Miyashita as a space for their identity expression. Many of youths’ posts with these walls achieve exactly what they want: for their identity to pop against the wall. Even if someone is wearing white or black against a grey wall, the centered placement of their body in the vastness of the grey behind them makes their appearance and expression standout. Most of the expressions on simplistic walls are quite candid with the subject looking away from the camera, as if to be laughing or gazing at something in the distance. For more curated, artistic walls, subjects are usually posing with the wall, drawing attention to the wall and the devotion to the subject matter of the wall to denote trendiness.
Conclusion
Youth express their likeness for and domination of Miyashita Park by transforming meaningless, unused spaces into ones with aesthetic meaning to express their identity and ultimately perform sociality by choosing to share themselves in that space on social media. Miyashita is trendy for both the consumption of goods and of space, and social media is another outlet for this consumption. Just like how youth use spaces of sociality at Miyashita to interact face to face, they also use aesthetic spaces to interact virtually. Youth’s use of spaces unintended for real, social use listed above is an example of their “conceptualization of identity,” or a “bricolage... used to refer to a construction or creation... that is improvised, using whatever materials are at hand. Like ‘identity,’ the word bricolage... refers to a process as well as a product” (Buckingham, 2007). Youth improvise new ways to express their identity such as using simplistic walls or fences not meant to be cool or trendy. Youth use Miyashita as a chosen source of aesthetics to show themselves in the digital landscape where “young people are bending and blending genres, incorporating old ideas, activities, and images into new bricolages, changing the face, if not the substance, of social interaction and altering how they see themselves and each other” (Buckingham, 2007).