Earth Manual Project – This Could Save Your Life showcases some of the best practices for dealing with disasters at different stages—from preparedness education to response and relief efforts—with a particular focus on practices that use creative design ideas. Originating in Japan, the exhibition includes examples of work from countries where natural disasters are frequent, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Projects introduced in the exhibition utilize distinctly creative and innovative approaches to disaster issues.

The exhibition is curated by Hirokazu Nagata, President of Plus Arts and Vice Director of Design and Creative Center Kobe (KIITO) in Japan.

The exhibited projects include engaging educational programming and game-like activities, videos that show how to quickly create items that may be needed after a disaster, an annual youth exchange initiative to learn and produce innovative disaster prevention programs  involving young professionals and students from 9 countries in Asia, temporary privacy structures designed by architect Shigeru Ban for use in evacuation facilities, and an architectural model showing a town before it was destroyed by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in a tsunami to which, as part of a healing process, survivors contributed.

The inaugural EMP exhibition was held in 2013 at the Design and Creative Center Kobe (KIITO) in Kobe-city, Hyogo, Japan. It has since traveled to several venues in the Philippines and Thailand; this New York exhibition marks its North American debut.

Embedded within Earth Manual Project is a smaller exhibition, Home is Where the Heart Is, which explores local artists’ reactions to Hurricane Sandy. Curated by two Parsons faculty members, the exhibition features the work of an interdisciplinary group of artists have come together to respond to the hurricane by transforming the rooms of a recovered a dollhouse from one curator’s family’s home in a community devastated by Hurricane Sandy

Adjacent to the Earth Manual Project exhibition, in the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, a smaller show titled Disaster Preparedness in Constructed Environments will feature projects focusing on natural disasters created by students in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons/The New School.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a panel discussion bringing together three experts on disaster preparedness and their innovative contributions will take place at the Japan Society, New York, on November 14, 2018.

Earth Manual Project – This Could Save Your Life is an exhibition collaboration between The Japan Foundation Asia Center and Parsons School of Design/The New School, in cooperation with Design and Creative Center Kobe(KIITO) / Plus Arts.

International transportation for this exhibition is generously supported by ANA (All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd). This exhibition is made possible with the cooperation of the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). Special support is provided by the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations. Special thanks to Japan Society, Inc.; AIG Japan; MUJI (Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd.); and Procter & Gamble Japan.

A PDF of the official Exhibition Report is available here Earth Manual Project exhibition report (Adobe Acrobat).