Nostalgia in Tokyo 2 - Urban Spectacles

Nostalgia is emerging in Asian cities as a response to dizzying rates of modernisation. This story, comprising 5 parts featuring short videos, seeks to uncover what nostalgia does and how nostalgia is mobilised in Tokyo.


Part 2 of the story explores Urban Spectacles.

Festivals, mega-events, towering state-of-the-art buildings. Built upon the visions and passion of their creators, these extravagant urban spectacles mesmerise on-lookers and etch themselves in collective memory. Urban spectacles often mark a new stage in the development of the city, symbolic of the time and space where they came into existence.

What happens then when these urban displays outlive their 'spectacular' lifespan? Will their symbolic existence evolve to become reminders of the past and objects of nostalgia?

The next video investigates two symbolic urban spectacles in Tokyo, Nakagin Capsule Tower and Tokyo Tower, and examines them as objects of nostalgia years after their completion.