WPI @ Bison
Project Overview
We are a team of four students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a STEM university in Worcester, MA, United States of America. In late October, 2023, as a part of our school's Interdisciplinary Qualifying Project (IQP), we traveled to Japan. Our primary goal for our project was investigating and understanding a multitude of factors about the Bison village in Kobe, Hyogo Ward, Japan.
Each of the 4 members of our team has a unique specialization related to our fields of study, as well as our own individual backgrounds. Throughout our 8 weeks in Japan, we spent time immersing ourselves in every possible aspect of the Bison community. From their day-to-day work, to living at the village, and attending art exhibitions, which featured work from Haioku Group's artists-in-residency.
This scrapbook serves as a way to both catalogue our Experiences, and re-tell the diverse stories of the Bison community members.
The Best Village in Kobe: The Bison Village
Nestled into the South-East side of Kobe in the Hyogo Ward of Japan, a small village of carpenters, architects, and artists thrive. This village is made up of nine houses that were once abandoned. Seven of them have been transformed into homes, share-houses, and even an art gallery.
People work here both part- and full-time, with the part time-workers being compensated with housing. This allows people to have an avenue to pursue their passions, either through doing a trade full time or having guaranteed housing as they work on their artistic endeavors.
Meet the Team!
Angie Baird
Interactive Media and Game Design
I specialize in writing narrative for video games, but I also code, design, and create art as well. Using these skills, I decided to explore the creative aspects of living in Bison.
Fun Fact: I do Aerial Silks
Noah Bedard
Professional Writing and Biology
Most of my educational background is in rhetoric, and how people perceive language. At Bison, I wanted to take that concept, and extend it to how people perceive the world.
Fun Fact: I swam competitively in high school.
Ethan Gomes:
Mechanical Engineering
While my major focuses on machines I have a lot of interest in talking to people and learning from them so I focused on the social aspect of Bison.
Fun Fact: I participated in Portuguese Youth Parliament
Kolby Robertson:
Civil Engineering
I am interested in architectual desgin and construction. Very relavent to our project, I focused on these aspects of Nishimura-gumi/Haiou-group throughout our teams research.
Fun Fact: I love ice cream