The Japanese word “muda” is made up of two parts. The first character “mu” refers to the lack of something; the second character “da” refers to the luggage you load onto a horse. Whereas “muda” now refers to anything that is pointless or useless, it used to refer specifically to not having any luggage to load onto your horse. The logic here was that if you went on a journey to make a delivery, offloaded your luggage, and then didn’t have anything to carry back, then the return trip was a pointless act. Of course, this is from the perspective of a person. To the horse, doing the same journey without any heavy things to carry is so much more enjoyable—they can do the return journey with light footsteps, take in the sights they missed on the way out, take the scenic route, and even find time to take a breather. I remembered this little etymological story, told to me by aesthetics researcher Hiroshi Yoshioka, after I saw TALK NONSENSE.

For example, their ongoing “U-A-R-K Project” involves unravelling an old sweater, returning the fabric to a ball of yarn, and using that to knit a new sweater. It goes without saying that both unravelling the sweater and putting it into a ball of yarn are to big jobs of their own. Yet TALK NONSENSE value these “pointless” steps that create many more times labor than simply knitting a sweater from scratch. The work is done with care—for example, a special attachment is affixed to the spout of a boiling kettle and the steam is used to remove any kinks. Some may call it unnecessary, yet it is still undertaken.
TALK NONSENSE are tired of the attitude of forcing people to do things because they have a meaning or purpose, and instead enjoy the simple fun that comes from creating something via the long way round. My chest feels lighter just by watching them in action.