Kyushu University hosted the 6th Study of Design Fundamentals Seminar, entitled \u201cThe Role of Context in Innovation of Meaning\u201d. For this seminar, we invited Dr Seiichiro Honjo of the Shizuoka University College of Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seiichiro Honjo<\/strong> Hiroshi Tamura<\/strong> March 15th, 2019 (Friday): 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyushu University Ohashi Campus Design Commons 2F<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harassment can be understood as the \u201ccompulsion of context.\u201d For instance, depending on the circumstances in which the following words \u201cyou are an idiot\u201d have been uttered\u2014i.e. depending on the context of these words\u2014they can be construed either as words of insult, an expression of friendship, or words of praise for someone\u2019s courage. If the person dislikes being called an \u201cidiot,\u201d but you nevertheless insist that it was used in the context of friendship, or that you were merely messing around, or you had his interest in mind when uttering those words, then it would become an imposition of context. Harassment refers to depriving the other party of the right to determine the context and forcing him to operate within the context that you have set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerning this, Dr Honjo suggests that design has the potential to promote means of avoiding harassment because design is the act of actively creating new meaning in unexpected contexts. Design guarantees the right to determine context for both the speaker and others and advances that very right. Dr Honjo describes this by borrowing the word \u201ccriticism\u201d as used by Roberto Verganti of the Polytechnic University of Milan. Aligning this idea of \u201ccriticism\u201d with a text implies re-evaluating the text from fresh perspectives in a way that would create innovative meanings for it. Indeed, design is this process by which new meaning is continuously created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Honjo notes that in colonialism, the colonizing state imposes its cultural context onto the colonial subjects under its rule, whose messages are always interpreted through the colonizing state\u2019s cultural code. If this qualifies as act of imposing one\u2019s value onto another, Dr Honjo suggests that design can be construed as part of the process of decolonization. Through this process, the ruled subjects begin to desperately defend their right to determine the context based on their physical responses or \u201cemotions\u201d that have been elicited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Honjo uses Gandhi\u2019s word \u201ccowardice\u201d to describe how the fear of having one\u2019s work or statement freely interpreted by others results in one\u2019s enforcement of the context beforehand. Accordingly, the readiness to accept a new meaning and respond to it could be called \u201ccourage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The design thus bears a relationship to promoting this \u201ccourage\u201d and is the fertile ground upon which the various possibilities of contextualization can flourish. To create an idea that goes against the majority and share it with the few people who can be trusted, thereby consolidating one\u2019s context\u2014that is \u201ccourage.\u201d To then subsequently, expose that idea to the eyes of others, and accept whatever new meanings that may arise from that encounter to test and improve that idea\u2014that is also courage. Design culture is believed to be precisely the ground for these possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Honjo is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, and he holds a PhD from the Department of Multidisciplinary Sciences at the University of Tokyo\u2019s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on creativity and context from a bottom-up perspective. After having researched in the field of mathematical sciences studying the auditory system, Dr Honjo\u2019s research interest turned to decolonization and, more recently, business administration. His publications include his dissertation \u201cThe Diversity of Management: Crowdsourcing at Muji\u201d in Japan Marketing Journal (co-author, 2011), \u201cTheory of Harassment\u201d by Toyo Bunka (2009), etc. He has received awards from academic societies in both the fields of mathematical sciences and business administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joint representative of Re:public Inc. Co-founder and executive fellow of Tokyo University\u2019s i.school. Holds the additional posts of visiting professor at Kyushu University and the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Known as a pioneer of design thought, he currently designs and manages a variety of open innovation projects which connect industry, academics, the public, and the private sector domestically and overseas, and searches for new \u201cinnovation ecosystems.\u201d His main collaboration is \u201cTodai Shiki Sekai Wo Kaeru Inobeshon No Tsukurikata\u201d (Hayakawa Shoten).<\/p>\n\n\n\nDate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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