Design is an alien concept to traditional East Asian culture, and modern design has been discussed along with the importation of Western civilization. However, for the professional designers who emerged in East Asia in the 20th century, the acceptance of design was not only one-way transplantation of Western civilization, but also an attempt at cultural fusion that aspired to create their own culture, creativity, and social change based on the long history of Eastern culture. We will consider the birth of professional designers through CHEN Zhifo, who studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and established the first design office in China. Lecturer Dr. ZHANG Jing, Lecturer at China …

It would seem that design cannot escape from the structure of pre-defined purposes and conditions. In other words, it only by being within this structure that the true value and order of design can be shown. This is not the case. Then, what is the intelligence of us who is natural born in such a way that we deviate from all structures, or rather, design of deviation? Lecturer Dr. Yukio-Pegio Gunji Professor, Department of Intermedia, Art and Science, School of Fundamental Engineering, Waseda University.http://www.ypg.ias.sci.waseda.ac.jp/index.html Date Oct 29th, 2021: Opens at 17:20 p.m, performance starts at 17:30 p.m. in Japan Time. Venue Online Review What is Natural-Born Intelligence (NBI)? According to …

Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) play a critical role in helping us understand the past, present and are helping us contribute towards a sustainable future. IKS is also critical to helping us better understand and reframe sustainability issues as related to sustaining human existence, which is a human need. Traditional discourse on IKS and sustainability tends not to focus on human needs. Human needs are often identified as infinite, ever-changing, dependent on circumstance, culture, or time. However, Max-Neef (1992) suggested that this is not so — on the contrary, needs are finite and universal. He defined nine basic human needs subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom. When …

The idea is anyone can get a free meal ticket if he/she provides help to the owner for 50 minutes. The free meal tickets are attached to the wall of the canteen available for anyone to get their meal. The wish for users may be “I want to be of help for someone” or “I want you to have a warm meal, even when you are in trouble”. Yet, such an idea of goodwill sounds vulnerable. How can design change vulnerable relations to that of strength? We will discuss the many challenges MIRAI SHOKUDO is facing daily as a place that strives to serve meals everyday. Lecturer Sekai Kobayashi, CEO …

An Individual’s worldview depends on one’s position and living situation. Apparently, our society faces many exclusions caused by, for instance, poverty, labor environment, and disrespect for women. Yet, how seriously do we come to terms with these problems in reality? In this lecture, we would like to hear about the artist Ichimura, who literally lives in a “blue tent village” and sleeps in cardboard boxes, develops her keen insights towards these actual social issues, and will have an opportunity to look at society and reconsider art and design itself from her viewpoint. Lecturer Misako Ichimura, artist and activist Misako Ichimura is an artist and activist who has lived in a …

Whether because of its easy reproducibility or because of the fluidity of its medium, “literature” has been considered as an immaterial art form essentially different from other forms of art at least since the modern period. Recent trends in literary studies, including Japanese literature, however, point towards new and fruitful approaches to literary compositions as physical objects. Taking my cue from these approaches, in this lecture I will examine the shifting aesthetic appreciations, ancient and modern, of one such category of “objects,” the literary compositions of Heian courtier Sugawara no Michizane (845-903). Lecturer Niels van der Salm (Japanese language instructor at Leiden University) Niels van der Salm, from the Netherlands, …

Departing from the assumption that looking is a multi-directional process, the univocal concept of the gaze, as created by a dominant western worldview, needs to be challenged. For this purpose ‘research through images’ can be employed as a method to investigate different cultures of the gaze, from intercultural, transhistorical and non-anthropocentric perspectives. With the aim of conceiving the act of looking as transformative and messy we will further introduce the sensitizing concept of the ‘gaze multiple’. We will consider how particular contemporary photographic art practices offer alternative and more complex approaches to what seeing can mean for our relationship with environments. Lecturer Elodie Hiryczuk, Visual Artist Elodie Hiryczuk (b. 1977, …

The first decades of the 21st century saw biotechnological break-throughs like iPS cells, low-cost DNA sequencing, CRISPR and the fundamental shift of the biological sciences from an analytic science to a synthetic. The change from ‘Read-Only’ to ‘Read/Write’ also suggests the emergence of a new media. It is the role and responsibility of artists and designers to imagine and create desirable and not-so-desirable futures that can function as a cultural vaccination. Georg will talk about ongoing and upcoming projects, including the Common Flowers Trilogy, BLP-2000, the Copyright Series and The Point Mutators – Legally Green. Lecturer Georg Tremmel (Bio Artist) Georg Tremmel lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. He studied …

An online lecture was broadcasted regarding organizing 2019 Aichi Trienale arts festival, especially about the closure and resumption of one of its exhibits titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” by Mr. Tsuda Daisuke, Journalist/media activist. Lecturer Daisuke Tsuda (Journalist/Media Activist) Born in Tokyo in 1973. Graduated from School of Social Science of Waseda University. Journalist/media activist. Chief editor of database, Politus. Adjunct professor at Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Osaka University of Economics. Host of TV Asahi Chanel 2 program “Tsuda Daisuke, Nihon ni Purasu”. News supervisor of J-WAVE “JAM THE WORLD”. Date Tuesday, September 29th, 2020: opens at 15:30 p.m, and starts at 16:00 p.m. Venue Online Review Hearing …

To gain knowledge through design practice is to Research through Design (RtD). As the practical domain of design is expanding from products to services and sustainability, the knowledge that can be gained by actually moving the mind and body is becoming an issue. How has RtD been accepted in Japan, and what should it be? Lecturer Daijiro Mizuno, Specially Appointed Professor of Kyoto Design Lab at Kyoto Institute of Technology. After earning a master’s and doctoral degree at RCA, he returned to Japan and was involved in various design projects. He authored, co-authored, and translated major publications including “What is Critical Design” and “Can Fashion be Updated?”. He also won …