Creative Reconstruction: Catastrophe & Art – Oct. 25, Friday, Ryuichi Kaneko, a researcher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography has been invited to give a lecture on “Disasters & Photography”.
Ryuichi Kaneko is a photo historian, a collector of photography books, and a special researcher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography since 1990. He has not only worked on projects at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, but has served as a curator for many exhibitions at other art museums as well. He has co-edited and co-authored, “日本近代写真の成立 (The Founding of Modern Japanese Photography)”, “定本 木村伊兵衛 (Original Text: Ihei Kimura)”, “植田正治私の写真作法 (Shoji Ueda: My Codes of Photography)”, “Independent Photographers In Japan 1976-83”, “The History of Japanese Photography”, and many others. He also supervised the series of reprints of the rare photography books from the pre-war period “日本写真史の至宝 (The Greatest Treasures in the History of Japanese Photography)”.
Venue: Tsukuba University, Room 5C416
Date & Time: Oct. 25, Friday, 16:45～18:00
Everyone is invited to attend.
(Hashimoto)
Category Archives: Lessons
Nawatobi (Jump Rope) Project in Onahama!
The other project carried out by the Taikan Taiken (Feel & Experience) Lab Team during the Onahama Hon-cho Street Art Festival (Oct. 13 & 14, 2013), the Nawatobi (Jump Rope) Project’s final video, was uploaded to You Tube. The students asked people in Onahama to jump rope. They filmed each person jumping once and connected the jumps of all the people that they had met to create a movie. Please watch the energetic rope-jumping of a total of 200 people. (Iida)
Hop Stop Animation! Go Forth, Onahama Explorers!
As part of the program for the Onahama Hon-cho Street Art Festival 2013, the workshop “Hop Stop Animation! Go forth, Onahama Explorers!” was carried out by the Taikan Taiken (Feel & Experience) Lab Team. Using the stop motion technique of animation where images shot one by one of each movement are put together to create an animation, the participants and student staff members explored the town of Onahama. Many people came to the showing and let out a cheer when they saw the curious movements of the stop motion images, but also seemed to be watching intently at the scenes of Onahama and the smiles of children that could be seen in the background.
In the “Nawatobi (Jump Rope) Project”, held at the same time, the students asked people in Onahama to jump rope. They filmed each person jumping once and connected the jumps of all the people that they had met to create a movie. The video will be uploaded to You Tube later. (Iida)
”Our Own Laputa Strategy” is on!
The workshop, “Our Own Laputa Strategy” was carried out at Tsuchiyu Elementary School in Fukushima-city. Based on their future dreams, children created a town on miniature islands and attached balloons to make them float in the air. The students gave their helping hand and support to create the children’s dream town. The children cheered when the islands floated in mid air. The finished work will be on display at Shakunage-sou during the Tsuchiyu Arafudo Art Annual. While the students felt a sense of accomplishment, they also felt the necessity to continue the activity. (Iida)
Information of the Exhibit
Date & Time: Oct. 7 (Monday) ~ Oct. 14 (Monday), 9:00ー17:00.
Venue: Shakunage-sou (Fukushima-shi, Tsuchiyu Onsen, Suginoshita)
“Wall Art Festival” Exhibition
“Wall Art Festival” Exhibition”, led by Misayo Tanaka, a 2nd year student at the University of Tsukuba Graduate School, has started.
“India x Art x School, Wall Art Festival”
Date & Time: Oct. 7, Monday ~ Oct. 15, Tuesday, 9:00~18:00
Venue: 6A Entrance Gallery
Date & Time: Oct. 15, Tuesday, 18:30~20:30
Venue: Tsukuba University, 6A208
Contents: A panel discussion will be held inviting as guests the organizers and participating artists of the Wall Art Project. After the event, a social gathering will be held at another venue.
Wall Art Festival is an art festival featuring the slogan, “Art x School x Support! Smiles connected by Art. Kizuna (Bonds of friendship) created by Art”. It has been held 4 times in schools in Indian villages where the educational system and infrastructures are still developing. The first one was held in Feb. 2010, and from then on, the art festival has been held once a year. The first 3 were held in the village of Sujata, Bihar, India, the 4th in the village of Ganjad, Thana, Maharashtra, India, and next year, in 2014, we will be holding it in the village of Ganjad again.
The story of this art festival began when 50 Japanese students donated a school building to a small village in India. It was some time after that they came to realize that the most important thing was not to construct a school building but to give support after the construction. “We must do something!” It was this thought that led to the art festival, where the walls of the school buildings are used as canvases. A festival that can be held anywhere where there is a white wall. With the theme, “Art x School x Support!”, our ambition is to spread, throughout the world, art that cannot be converted into money. (From “Wall Art Festival Book: the Miracle of the White Walls of India”.)
This project was not set up in response to the earthquake and its goal is not particularly about the earthquake disaster reconstruction. However, in terms of it being an attempt to study how people can be connected through art, the Creative Reconstruction and Wall Art Festival share a common goal. After the earthquake occurred in 2011, “Wall Art Festival in FUKUSHIMA” was held at “Big Palette FUKUSHIMA” in Koriyama-city, Fukushima, on May 28, 29 of that year. Messages from India to the refugees were delivered, and exhibitions, live shows and workshops by artists who took part in WAF 2011 were also held. The success of this event is based on the connections fostered by the “Communication through Art” carried out in India. Connections that developed through communication should naturally lead to the next connection and so on. It is this sort of sincerity and the cycle driven by the passion of the people involved that dynamically advance the art festival. Having been given the opportunity to introduce the activities of the Wall Art Festival at this gallery, it would be a blessing if every person who came by were inspired or touched in some way. Please take your time to look around.
Master’s Program in Art & Design, Plastic Art and Mixed Media, 2nd Year.
Wall Art Festival 2014 Report Program in Tsukuba University, Japan
Misayo Tanaka
Preview: Creative Reconstruction: Catastrophe & Art – Oct. 11, Friday.
”Creative Reconstruction: Catastrophe & Art”, which started this fall, will invite extramural instructors from various disciplines to give lectures. Since anyone can attend these lectures, please come and participate.
Summary of the course (From the Syllabus): “When people experience a major catastrophe, they sometimes overcome their wounds through art. By referring to modern examples, a study into what sorts of expressions were effective will be discussed.”
For the class on Oct. 11 (Friday), Mayumi Sugawara, an art historian and Associate Professor at the Kyoto University of Arts and Design, will come to give a lecture on the theme, “Catastrophe in the Edo Period and Ukiyo-e”.
Venue: Tsukuba University Bldg. 5C Rm. 416
Date & Time: Oct. 11, Friday, 16:45~18:00.
Yui Team: Unloading of Kiln & Lunch Party
Sept. 28 (Saturday), the vessels were finally done! Everyone was a bit nervous about unloading their works from the kiln, but everyone was glad to see that every single one of them had turned out great.
At the lunch party, using the dishes that had just been finished, everyone had kenchin-jiru (Japanese tofu and vegetable soup) and onigiri rice balls made of Hojo rice. In the lively atmosphere, the students were able to talk directly with the participants about the conditions right after the earthquake, their current life in Tsukuba, their anxieties and outlook of the future and other concerns that they had.
Many wonderful comments and about what they would like to make next were heard. Our next agenda then would probably be passing on this project so that it may be held again. (Akagi)
Scientific Visualization Assignments 2013
The classes were carried out on Aug. 22 (Thursday), 23rd (Friday) and Sept. 25 (Wednesday) as a 3-day intensive course. The instructors were the following seven: Koji Nomura Sensei, Yuji Yagi Sensei and Hiroshi Wada Sensei from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Makoto Kobayashi Sensei and Yoshihiro Miwa Sensei from the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Masataka Watanabe Sensei from the Office of Public Relations Science Communicator, Sayoko Tanaka Sensei from the School of Art and Design. About 20 students from the School of Art and Design, as well as from the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, the College of Geosciences and College of Physics took part.
Both the art and science students formed groups under each science instructor, and undertook the themes, “Expository Illustration” and “Art-Oriented Illustration”. This year, we briefly took on the topic of science writing as well. After group discussions based on each student’s draft of ideas, illustrations using Adobe Illustrator were created. At the end, each group gave a presentation. The objective of this class was to effectively visualize science, by having the art students collaborate with students from other fields.
The idea of the exercise was for the art students to acquire practical communication skills to comprehend the subject of the visual design and to apply the themes and views of science to their artworks, and for the students who are studying science to expand their knowledge and experience in visual expression techniques and acquire the communication skills required to collaborate with illustrators and designers in the future. (Tanaka)
Exercise Theme: From the onset of the earthquake to actually feeling the tremor. (Illustration with emphasis on explanation.)
Exercise Creator: Yuji Yagi. Illustration Creator: Emi Kobori (4th Year at School of Life and Environmental Sciences, College of Geosciences)
Exercise Theme: The biology of ‘the smaller the ice the faster it will melt’. (Illustration with emphasis on explanation.)
Exercise Creator: Hiroshi Wada. Illustration Creator: Junko Takanaka (3rd Year at School of Art and Design)
Yui Team: Applying the Glaze
On Sept. 22, the vessels still warm from the bisque-firing were taken out of the kiln, and we applied the glaze with the participants.
The students showed them how to apply the glaze and, although in the beginning they were rather cautious with the glaze, as they got used to it, they became more creative, and used a different color for the rim or drew designs. It is the students that need to be inspired by their creativity!
There were 3 colors of glazes this time. At this point, they all looked the same color, but beautiful colors will appear after the glost firing. Everyone is very much looking forward to the unloading of the kiln on the 28th. (Akagi)
Yui Team: Bisque-Firing
Sept. 19, the well-dried vessels have been carefully placed in the kiln and the bisque-firing has begun.
Next, looking forward to applying the glaze on the 22nd! (Akagi)
