University of Tsukuba Faculty of Art and Design Creative Reconstruction Project | Creative Reconstruction

”Our Own Laputa Strategy” is on!

By CR in team, off-campus Challenge assignments, Taikan Taiken Lab, Lessons 08/Oct, 2013 0 Comment

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

By CR in Notifications, off-campus Challenge assignments 08/Oct, 2013 0 Comment

“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
: “Art inspired by communication and its possibilities”
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.

By CR in Catastrophe & Art, Lessons 07/Oct, 2013 0 Comment

”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

By CR in team, off-campus Challenge assignments, Lessons, Yui 04/Oct, 2013 0 Comment

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

By CR in Scientific Visualization assignments, Lessons 27/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

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　

By CR in team, off-campus Challenge assignments, Lessons, Yui 26/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

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

By CR in team, off-campus Challenge assignments, Lessons, Yui 26/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

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)

Showing of Video by Hybrid Art Assignments 2012

By CR in Hybrid Art assignments, Lessons 17/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

Hybrid Art Assignments, a course that opened in 2012, has filmed the first oyster harvest since the earthquake at Oshika Peninsular, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, and created a documentary video and CF. We invite you to watch them.
Producers: Sayaka Ishikawa (3rd Year at School of Art & Design), Shion Ohoka (3rd Year at School of Art & Design), Tatsuya Ishikawa (3rd Year at School of Informatics), Kazuhiro Kumada (2nd Year at School of Informatics)

FUKUSHIMA VOICE Filming Practice

By CR in FUKUSHIMA VOICE, Notifications 17/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

Members of the documentary film project “FUKUSHIMA VOICE” carried out a film-shooting camp from Sept. 1 to 8. On the first day, “Mirai Kaigi (Future Meeting) in Iwaki x FUKUSHIMA VOICE” was held and the Mirai Kaigi was filmed. The Mirai Kaigi will be the pillar of this film.
[Mirai Kaigi (Future Meeting) in Iwaki x FUKUSHIMA VOICE]
https://www.facebook.com/events/1396182743935344/

The students experienced first hand the unique atmosphere of each shooting and learned a lot of things including camera-work and how to connect with their subjects. As the days went by, their will to create a good film became stronger. Through our reporting, we not only learned about the earthquake and its effects, but also about the life of the subjects, and felt the enormous responsibility of recording on film as well as the profound depth involved in film-making.
At the film-shooting camp, we were blessed with support from a wide range of people. We would like to thank the people in Iwaki who agreed to talk to us and to those who gave us support. We will work on consolidating all your voices into one. The film is due to be completed and ready for show at the end of November. To deliver the voices of Fukushima throughout the world, we intend to continue working together very hard. (Hashimoto)

Yui Team’s “Pottery of Yui Project”. ②

By CR in team, off-campus Challenge assignments, Lessons, Yui 12/Sep, 2013 0 Comment

On Sept. 8, the 2nd meeting of the Yui Project was held at Tsukuba University. Cups and bowls were created by pressing the clay into the molds created at the previous session.
The task was a bit difficult, such as cutting the clay into equal-size sheets, carefully removing the clay from the mold and adjusting the shapes, but everyone worked hard and seriously.
People cheered when the clay was removed from the molds, discussed with their partners when deciding on the shape of the cups and bowls, and finally when the bases were attached to them, the work was done. Each tableware is unique, but each one turned out to be a wonderful piece of work as the opening of the vessel matched perfectly with one’ partner’s.
When the clay is thoroughly dry, the process will continue with the bisque-firing, glazing and glost firing.
On the 28th, the final product will come out of the kiln. We are looking forward to the meal where everyone will be eating off the dishes that they have created. (Akagi)