Roving Pictures used state-of-the-art robotics, digital imagery creation, video technology, ambient sound installations, and architectural rendering software to “recreate” the transformation of the Tanaka Kikai factory—the equivalent of Buffalo’s Bethlehem Steel in Osaka, Japan—from its original state to a business and retail force. In this installation, viewers climbed a few steps onto a structure that resembled a catwalk, about four feet off the ground, 20 feet long, and four feet wide, to experience a reproduction of this creative building reuse. A robot was used to scan the steel mill to capture its internal elements on sophisticated software on videotape and in the installation, a rolling video projector, mounted on the side of the catwalk, projected images of the factory on a three-dimensional topographical map of the site. Images could also be seen on a small video screen facing the viewer and factory sounds were projected in this kinetic experience.
Through compromise, commitment to change, and creative problem-solving, Osaka’s political and industrial leadership and labor unions took significant steps to change Tanaka Kikai. It now includes on on-site hot spring source, a brewery, a fish farm, a restaurant, a spa, and a facility where special mushrooms are raised for use in cancer research. This dynamic, inclusive approach has resulted in the successful reuse of the steel mill and contributed to the economic renaissance of the community. The installation was meant to act as a catalyst for change concerning the development of our own region.