Admission is free and all are welcome.
For catering purposes we kindly ask that your register.
More information and registration is here: asiascape.org/mangainasessay.html
Asiascape Vistas is a forum for discussion about the many and various dimensions of cyberculture found in or originating from East Asia. Its focus is on the interplay between these media and questions of politics & philosophy. Contributions are from the academic collective responsible for the core project, but other contributions will also be considered by that collective.
Friday, October 31, 2014
One-day Manga exhibition & seminar
Please join us on Saturday 6 December in The Hague for a few hours of manga, art, virtual ninjas, drinks and snacks!
Admission is free and all are welcome.
For catering purposes we kindly ask that your register.
More information and registration is here: asiascape.org/mangainasessay.html
Admission is free and all are welcome.
For catering purposes we kindly ask that your register.
More information and registration is here: asiascape.org/mangainasessay.html
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Martin Roth is awarded historic PhD degree: 'Games encourage us to explore alternatives'
The Asiascape hosted Beyond Utopia is a Leiden University project funded by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) concerned with identifying the potentials of artistic media such as manga, anime, and video games for expression, criticism, and intervention in political thinking.
On August 27 Martin Roth, one of the project's three PhD candidates, was the first to get the degree for his research on the political potential of video games. An historic PhD degree it seems; it is Leiden's Faculty of Humanities first one ever in this field.
Below a translation of an article by Bart Braun in Leiden University newspaper Mare about Martin and his PhD thesis. The original article in Dutch is available on Mare Online.
(translation by Asiascape.org)
The academic interest for games has finally
reached Leiden: last month the Faculty of Humanities bestowed its first PhD degree in this field.
‘Games encourage us to explore alternatives’.
In the 1950’s the University of Manchester assisted
in the development of the worlds first commercially available computer: the
Ferranti Mark 1. It consisted of a huge box containing over four thousand
vacuum tubes, built under the supervision of the legendary computer scientist
Alan Turing.
This computer outperformed the mechanical
calculators of the time and you could also use it to play chess. When you
entered your move with a punch card, the computer presented a countermove after
20 minutes. The human opponent then had to put this move on a wooden
chessboard; the Mark 1 was not equipped with a monitor to display the course of
the game. If you were smart enough to understand the punch card hassle, you
were likely to beat it at chess because the machine could not think more than
two moves ahead. But still, depending on the definition, this was the first
computer game of all time.
The computer game has come a long way
since. Monitors came and more and more beautiful things could be seen on it.
Apart from programmers, composers, authors, actors and artists all participate
in the creation of a game and the computer games business forms the largest
branch of the entertainment industry. Destiny,
the console game that was released this week, cost 500 million dollars to make,
almost twice as much as the most expensive movie ever.
Games have gained enormously in popularity
and sales, yet they command little respect. Music and film can be considered art;
the written word literature and interactive artworks in museums receive praise.
But the real culture vultures turn
their noses up at a mix of all these elements.
The academic interest in games is lagging
behind that of other art forms too. If scientists have been doing research into
games, it is to examine whether they make you smarter, faster, addicted or more
violent.
This is slowly beginning to change, also in
Leiden. Games did come into play, but only now they are made explicit. Recently
Leiden started to offer a minor in Game Studies, in which games will be
approached in a art historical and philosophical way rather than a neurological
one. The introductory course has already begun and all 35 spots for the minor
are taken. Professor Comparative Philosophy and Political Thought Chris
Goto-Jones [Asiascape : the original Dutch text wrongly states that Goto-Jones
is professor of Eastern Philosophy], has won a NWO scholarship to research the
‘intersections of visual culture and political philosophy in Japan’. Last month
Martin Roth was the first of the PhD students on this project who had to
publicly defend his thesis.
‘I believe that gaming culture and the game
industry can profit greatly from more academic research into games’, Roth says.
‘Theory-based critique and methodical inquiry offer new perspectives on the
medium. I also believe in the innovative force of a research-based scholarly
critique, which is not only interested in judging how „good“ or “harmful” a
game was but also looks at its content critically and against the background of
our lives, our history and ideologies. With my thesis -and with the book I plan
to publish sometime soon- I hope to stimulate a dialogue between the humanities
and gamers.’
Art, and especially
literature and film, enable us to get closer to the other. A man who grew up in the nineties can better
imagine what it must have been like to be a Jewish girl in World War II thanks
to the diary of Anne Frank. In a similar fashion, art and games should be able
to let us imagine something really
different. Roth: ‘The world won’t change when you enact a soldier even if you
haven’t been one yourself. The “Otherness” I’m interested in is the kind that hasn’t
existed before but seems plausible to imagine. Science Fiction authors have
tried to create Otherness in their works, with more or lesser success, and my
question is if games might have the potential to do something similar.
The search for new possibilities
of “Otherness” is central to my work, because these days we seem to live under
the impression that the status quo is the only possibility. It scares me that I
am not able to come up with an alternative to the current socioeconomic system.
Perhaps videogames are capable of stimulating our thinking of radical
alternatives because they put us in situations that don’t fit with our common
views, opinions and experiences. In other words, when we are disrupted. Games
manage not only let’s us experience new roles and situations remote from our
sofas and daily lives, but are also capable of profound disruption on very
basic levels of our experience and thought.’
If you mainly play Angry Birds or Candy Crush and don’t recognize these kind of gaming experiences:
don’t worry. For his thesis, Roth used a selection of Japanese games that
haven’t all gained much popularity in the Netherlands. ‘Japan has a long and
rich gaming culture, which has influenced gaming globally worldwide. There is
an enormous amount of Super Mario
games but there are also many notable exceptions. Plus, Japanese games are less
violence-focused. My personal favorite is the Metal Gear Solid series precisely
because it plays with violence in a very ambiguous way. The games in this
series feature instances in which violence is directly criticized or in which
the tragedies of war are displayed in a critical way. In some cases the
characters in the game even directly address the player and confront him/her
with the violent actions committed throughout the game, and the fact these were
done solely for entertainment’s sake.’
Another example: ‘The
time travel game Shadow of Memories
confronts the player with a world in which our concept of time does not make
sense anymore. This game invites us to question our own understanding of time
and its linearity. What does it mean to measure our entire lives in the same
time - I worked 8 hours, you worked 10. We spend time although we never seem to really
have it, in the sense that it is ours
to distribute freely. What kind of world would it be if we did have time? Would it work?
‘This is a rough
sketch of my though process while playing the game and reading Paul Virilio’s
political philosophy on time and the speed of our society. Games can speak to
this, express it in a palpable way. Some games, at least, and and maybe only if
you want to be disrupted.
Martin Roth, Disruptive Conflicts in Computopic Space – Japanese SF Videogames as
sources of Otherness and Radical Political Imagination.
Date PhD
defence: 27 August
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
New edition 'Manga in/as Essay' available now
All winning entries to Asiascape's 2014 manga competition 'Interpreting Kurama Tengu' can now be enjoyed in our 3rd Manga in/as Essay publication.
The publication is available on the Asiascape Issuu page: issuu.com/asiascape.
The publication is available on the Asiascape Issuu page: issuu.com/asiascape.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Replaying Japan in Edmonton
In August, I had the opportunity to present a paper at the Replaying Japan conference in Edmonton, Canada. This was the second gathering of scholars from all over the world working on Japanese games organized between the University of Alberta in Canada and Ritsumeikan University in Japan. The kind support from the Goto-Jones VICI project (NWO) allowed me to join the event.
Although Edmonton is not exactly next door to Leiden, I am very glad I could do so. This was a rare opportunity to meet and discuss with an expert group of scholars working on Japanese videogames in a very nice atmosphere (as you can see on the photos provided on the conference website). Combining great keynotes, a variety of technological, cultural and other perspectives on games, including regional game creators' experiences, the conference stood out in that it opened a space for dialogue between researchers and practitioners from many countries and made a serious and successful attempt at reflecting on the richness, diversity, complexity and transnational character of games. What is more, the organizers and volunteers spared no pains in order to make the conference an inspiring, fun, and even relaxing event; an unhurried schedule and very skilled volunteer interpreters for Japanese were as much part of this as raw snack vegetables and lots of coffee - not to mention a very nice dinner.
What was it all about? As the title promises, we replayed Japan - for example in the first keynote delivered by THE Nishikado Tomohiro, creator of Space Invaders (1978). He reflected on the almost single-handed creation of the game, bringing with him all the way from Japan his Space Invader notebooks from the 1970s: a mixture of graphics sketches, circuit-layouts and hand-written assembler code. In case you didn't know this: the invaders were human in the first instance, but Nishikado ultimately decided that killing humans was not a good idea, and invented his space invaders. These, in turn,
Ar
eSea
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With some exceptions, like the UFO, the aliens, as many science fiction theorists have noted, are not so alien after all...
While Nishikado reflected on his own creative process and on one of the most influential moments in Japaneses videogame culture, Mia Consalvo took one step back, tracing the influences of Japanese games on "Western" game designers and urging us to pay more attention to the creative flows across countries, regions, and cultures. She proposed to distinguish games "from Japan", which could have come from anywhere, and games "of Japan", which reflect on their cultural production context directly. Martin Picard, in turn, traced common discourses scholars of Japanese games are confronted with, in the attempt to negotiate between universalism, cultural specificity, and exoticism. He developed "geemu" (Japanese ゲーム, for "game") as a term for games in Japan that reflects on the historical development they are embedded in.
A Canadian Industry Panel, an introduction to cutting-edge AI-research by Vadim Bulitko (whether you like it or not, it seems that we feel more agency in games that automatically adjust to our preference and give us exactly what we want), as well as a very interesting poster and game presentation session, added to the variety of perspectives present at the conference, which was equally reflected in a wide range of rich papers. I'll not go into much detail here, since each paper I heard deserves much more space and time than I can offer here. Rather, I'd like to refer the inclined reader to the conference proceedings on the website, which contain all abstracts, as well as the photos found on the same site.
My own presentation was part of a great panel on violence in Japanese games, in which Mimi Okabe, Ryan Scheiding, and myself tackled violence from very different perspectives. Mimi proposed to understand the extremely violent sex and rape scenes in the Japanese BL game Enzai as a playful way of turning the body into a spectacle, which is capable of interrogating power relations as well as existent stereotypes of manga and anime character types like the beautiful boy (美少年 bishōnen). She concluded that exaggerations of violence can function as a tool for political intervention and liberation from existing frameworks.
Ryan Scheiding, in turn, looked at the problematic and often racist depictions of Japanese soldiers in historical war games. By comparing specific cases in several popular games with earlier depictions of Japanese soldiers, or "treacherous moneymen" in media like Bugs Bunny etc., he shows how stereotypical representations have persisted and evolved in contemporary games, calling for more sensitivity to such representations among scholars and the gaming community.
In my own presentation, I focussed on the series Metal Gear Solid, arguing that the games confront their player with a complex and ambiguous and provocative experience of violence, between critique and glorification, ultimately forcing the player into a state of exception in which his or her actions demand for reevaluation beyond priorly applicable frameworks and norms. Thus, the games create a free space in which play, including playful violence, is possible.
Overall, the event was rich with new ideas and acquaintances, and definitely a great contribution to drawing together scholars scattered all over the world working on the still developing field of research one of my main interests lies in. I can't wait for the follow-up event next year!
Once again, my thanks to the organizers and all participants for a wonderful event and to the NWO and Chris Goto-Jones' VICI "Beyond Utopia" for supporting my participation!
Although Edmonton is not exactly next door to Leiden, I am very glad I could do so. This was a rare opportunity to meet and discuss with an expert group of scholars working on Japanese videogames in a very nice atmosphere (as you can see on the photos provided on the conference website). Combining great keynotes, a variety of technological, cultural and other perspectives on games, including regional game creators' experiences, the conference stood out in that it opened a space for dialogue between researchers and practitioners from many countries and made a serious and successful attempt at reflecting on the richness, diversity, complexity and transnational character of games. What is more, the organizers and volunteers spared no pains in order to make the conference an inspiring, fun, and even relaxing event; an unhurried schedule and very skilled volunteer interpreters for Japanese were as much part of this as raw snack vegetables and lots of coffee - not to mention a very nice dinner.
What was it all about? As the title promises, we replayed Japan - for example in the first keynote delivered by THE Nishikado Tomohiro, creator of Space Invaders (1978). He reflected on the almost single-handed creation of the game, bringing with him all the way from Japan his Space Invader notebooks from the 1970s: a mixture of graphics sketches, circuit-layouts and hand-written assembler code. In case you didn't know this: the invaders were human in the first instance, but Nishikado ultimately decided that killing humans was not a good idea, and invented his space invaders. These, in turn,
Ar
eSea
foodLi
ke Sq id
sCrabsAn
d J
e ll y
f i s h
With some exceptions, like the UFO, the aliens, as many science fiction theorists have noted, are not so alien after all...
While Nishikado reflected on his own creative process and on one of the most influential moments in Japaneses videogame culture, Mia Consalvo took one step back, tracing the influences of Japanese games on "Western" game designers and urging us to pay more attention to the creative flows across countries, regions, and cultures. She proposed to distinguish games "from Japan", which could have come from anywhere, and games "of Japan", which reflect on their cultural production context directly. Martin Picard, in turn, traced common discourses scholars of Japanese games are confronted with, in the attempt to negotiate between universalism, cultural specificity, and exoticism. He developed "geemu" (Japanese ゲーム, for "game") as a term for games in Japan that reflects on the historical development they are embedded in.
A Canadian Industry Panel, an introduction to cutting-edge AI-research by Vadim Bulitko (whether you like it or not, it seems that we feel more agency in games that automatically adjust to our preference and give us exactly what we want), as well as a very interesting poster and game presentation session, added to the variety of perspectives present at the conference, which was equally reflected in a wide range of rich papers. I'll not go into much detail here, since each paper I heard deserves much more space and time than I can offer here. Rather, I'd like to refer the inclined reader to the conference proceedings on the website, which contain all abstracts, as well as the photos found on the same site.
My own presentation was part of a great panel on violence in Japanese games, in which Mimi Okabe, Ryan Scheiding, and myself tackled violence from very different perspectives. Mimi proposed to understand the extremely violent sex and rape scenes in the Japanese BL game Enzai as a playful way of turning the body into a spectacle, which is capable of interrogating power relations as well as existent stereotypes of manga and anime character types like the beautiful boy (美少年 bishōnen). She concluded that exaggerations of violence can function as a tool for political intervention and liberation from existing frameworks.
Ryan Scheiding, in turn, looked at the problematic and often racist depictions of Japanese soldiers in historical war games. By comparing specific cases in several popular games with earlier depictions of Japanese soldiers, or "treacherous moneymen" in media like Bugs Bunny etc., he shows how stereotypical representations have persisted and evolved in contemporary games, calling for more sensitivity to such representations among scholars and the gaming community.
In my own presentation, I focussed on the series Metal Gear Solid, arguing that the games confront their player with a complex and ambiguous and provocative experience of violence, between critique and glorification, ultimately forcing the player into a state of exception in which his or her actions demand for reevaluation beyond priorly applicable frameworks and norms. Thus, the games create a free space in which play, including playful violence, is possible.
Overall, the event was rich with new ideas and acquaintances, and definitely a great contribution to drawing together scholars scattered all over the world working on the still developing field of research one of my main interests lies in. I can't wait for the follow-up event next year!
Once again, my thanks to the organizers and all participants for a wonderful event and to the NWO and Chris Goto-Jones' VICI "Beyond Utopia" for supporting my participation!
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
25 September - opening 'Artist in Residence' manga exhibition East Asian Library
In the summer of 2014, Asiascape and PAI Artist-in-Residence Dr. Lien Fan Shen taught a series of masterclasses exploring Taiwanese female masculinity through gender & queer theory and manga creation.
The artistic results of these masterclasses of the Political Artist Residency 2014 are on display in the East Asian Library of Leiden University from 1 September until the end of 2014.
Please join us for a festive opening and reception at the East Asian Library on Thursday 25 September from 17:00 - 19:00, with a short introduction to the exhibition at 17:30.
Location: Leiden University East Asian Library, Arsenaalstraat 1, Leiden
For catering purposes, please register your attendance here: spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com
The artistic results of these masterclasses of the Political Artist Residency 2014 are on display in the East Asian Library of Leiden University from 1 September until the end of 2014.
Please join us for a festive opening and reception at the East Asian Library on Thursday 25 September from 17:00 - 19:00, with a short introduction to the exhibition at 17:30.
Location: Leiden University East Asian Library, Arsenaalstraat 1, Leiden
For catering purposes, please register your attendance here: spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com
Monday, August 11, 2014
Want to help realise a sci-fi anime?
A group of anime industry veterans, among which director Masahiro Ando ('Neon Genesis Evangelion', 'Ghost in the Shell', 'Full Metal Alchemist'), have launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund production of 24 minute original sci-fi action anime 'Under the Dog'.
The anime is presented as "...a science fiction action thriller that will explore what it means to live and die well, testing the limits of all we hold dear".
Rewards for backers of the 'Under the Dog' project range from having their name on the project's website, to creating a anime character, attending the Japanese premiere and meeting the anime's creative team in Tokyo.
With almost a month to go, over 1300 fans have already pledged more than USD 87,000 towards its USD 580,000 goal.
Interested? Visit the Kickstarter site.
The anime is presented as "...a science fiction action thriller that will explore what it means to live and die well, testing the limits of all we hold dear".
Rewards for backers of the 'Under the Dog' project range from having their name on the project's website, to creating a anime character, attending the Japanese premiere and meeting the anime's creative team in Tokyo.
With almost a month to go, over 1300 fans have already pledged more than USD 87,000 towards its USD 580,000 goal.
Interested? Visit the Kickstarter site.
Monday, July 28, 2014
'Kurama Tengu' manga competition winners announced
Asiascape is happy to announce the winners of its 3rd manga competition 'Interpreting Kurama Tengu'.
Each of the winners offered a unique and compelling graphic interpretation of the classic Japanese Noh play Kurama Tengu.
The first prize (Euro 500) goes to Elena Vitagliano from Italy for her impressive 'Tariki: Divine Intervention'.
A joint second prize (Euro 200 each) is awarded to Brittany Partin and Carl Li, both from the USA.
Deanna Taylor Nardy from the USA wins third prize (Euro 100).
All winning manga and bio's of the artists will be available in our online publication 'Manga in/as Essay' soon.
We thank all those who participated for their hard work and creativity, resulting in wonderful manga!
Each of the winners offered a unique and compelling graphic interpretation of the classic Japanese Noh play Kurama Tengu.
The first prize (Euro 500) goes to Elena Vitagliano from Italy for her impressive 'Tariki: Divine Intervention'.
A joint second prize (Euro 200 each) is awarded to Brittany Partin and Carl Li, both from the USA.
Deanna Taylor Nardy from the USA wins third prize (Euro 100).
All winning manga and bio's of the artists will be available in our online publication 'Manga in/as Essay' soon.
 |
| Excerpt from Elena Vitagliano's winning entry |
We thank all those who participated for their hard work and creativity, resulting in wonderful manga!
Friday, June 20, 2014
Computopia I. Frontier Spirit
This is the first of a series of posts I've been planning to write on my current task: create a game that expresses your findings in the language of the medium you analysed. I've been working on "computopia: the game" for quite a while now and I can tell you, its tough.
In the following posts, I'm hoping to explain my approach (in a nutshell: FPS-based game created with Unity, programming in C#, trying to avoid investing in graphics and design and instead focusing on the idea and the mechanics) and my game idea in more detail as it develops (being secretive about it hopefully makes you more curious). For now, I'll leave you with some impressions of my first contact with contemporary state-of-the-art game design software.
There are several ways to approach such a project and several dimensions to take care of. In an ideal scenario, I would 1. learn a lot about how to set up such project, 2. plan it carefully, 3. have a good grasp of what I want to do, 4. acquire the necessary programming skills, 5. be part of a team rather than in individual. Since none of the above is really the case, this is a project that develops "en route", meaning that I'm trying to adapt to the obstacles as they appear. Surprisingly, this method is relatively successful (I can say this now, since I don't know the outcome yet) if you are resilient to temporary frustrations. Just to be clear: successful here is meant to say that I am making fair progress so far, considering that I wasn't equipped with the necessary programming and conceptual skills in the beginning. This observation, together with a recent review of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command (2013) I wrote for the soon to be published Asiascape: Digital Asia 1(3), got me thinking more about the environment and conditions contemporary digital media offer for creative engagements. Based on my current experiences, I'd say that with enough "frontier spirit", many things are possible, because (1) roadmaps are ubiquitous (2) it is likely that somebody was there before you and left directions. Unfortunately, accidents and road blocks are never far...
(1) roadmaps
I remember my first programming experiments in Pascal and Assembler (I'm still frightened) as a high school student. Back then, there was some documentation of the languages, but since the Internet was not as fast and ubiquitous as it is now, I mostly relied on books about programming and specific languages. Programming in Unity now feels decisively different, since most solutions to taks I want to accomplish or problems I encounter can be found online. This doesn't mean that programming becomes copy-paste really, since most of the time the solution to a problem needs to be adapted to specific need. It does, however, mean that all necessary information is never much more than a click away if you know what you're looking for. What is more, Unity (and other development environments) offer tutorials for their most basic functions, including some scripting. At times, I almost had the feeling that youtube is the new bible for game design (aware that this comparison is somewhat lopsided). So recently, I find myself "learnwatching" C#.
(2) traces
Most problems have been experienced before. Others have had the same ideas, made the same mistakes, or have as little knowledge as I of the things I'm doing. It is not only comforting to find somebody asking the same (simple) questions, it also often leads to the solution, because that somebody or maybe somebody else has put some effort into finding and explaining a solution. I admire and salute the many volunteers who share their knowledge and experience online patiently and often without making fun of the amateur. Humanity is still not completely lost, or at least in forums and do-it-yourself videos it seems that way.
That all said, it probably testifies to my ignorance that I still get stuck from time to time. Risking to sound old-fashioned, I think this is because the short explanatory snippets and specific examples cannot really offer a cure to the lack of systematic knowledge of the matter at hand. I'm very willing to admit that I should probably refresh my programming skills and knowledge on a more fundamental level, starting with a more detailed understanding of object orientation etc.
But then again, I'm not a programmer. The real challenge for me and many other academics who work on digital media, it seems, is whether and how much one can really intervene actively the creative digital sphere without switching professions. This means accepting a patchwork of solutions and rudimentary graphics as sufficient, knowing that this is not ideal. But maybe even these adaptations are not enough? In a way, my current project may thus be an exploration of the boundaries not only of my own capabilities (which are quite limited), but of the academic context out of which I started it, in which practical engagements are rarely a first priority even when we deal with something as practical as digital media.
There are several ways to approach such a project and several dimensions to take care of. In an ideal scenario, I would 1. learn a lot about how to set up such project, 2. plan it carefully, 3. have a good grasp of what I want to do, 4. acquire the necessary programming skills, 5. be part of a team rather than in individual. Since none of the above is really the case, this is a project that develops "en route", meaning that I'm trying to adapt to the obstacles as they appear. Surprisingly, this method is relatively successful (I can say this now, since I don't know the outcome yet) if you are resilient to temporary frustrations. Just to be clear: successful here is meant to say that I am making fair progress so far, considering that I wasn't equipped with the necessary programming and conceptual skills in the beginning. This observation, together with a recent review of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command (2013) I wrote for the soon to be published Asiascape: Digital Asia 1(3), got me thinking more about the environment and conditions contemporary digital media offer for creative engagements. Based on my current experiences, I'd say that with enough "frontier spirit", many things are possible, because (1) roadmaps are ubiquitous (2) it is likely that somebody was there before you and left directions. Unfortunately, accidents and road blocks are never far...
(1) roadmaps
I remember my first programming experiments in Pascal and Assembler (I'm still frightened) as a high school student. Back then, there was some documentation of the languages, but since the Internet was not as fast and ubiquitous as it is now, I mostly relied on books about programming and specific languages. Programming in Unity now feels decisively different, since most solutions to taks I want to accomplish or problems I encounter can be found online. This doesn't mean that programming becomes copy-paste really, since most of the time the solution to a problem needs to be adapted to specific need. It does, however, mean that all necessary information is never much more than a click away if you know what you're looking for. What is more, Unity (and other development environments) offer tutorials for their most basic functions, including some scripting. At times, I almost had the feeling that youtube is the new bible for game design (aware that this comparison is somewhat lopsided). So recently, I find myself "learnwatching" C#.
(2) traces
Most problems have been experienced before. Others have had the same ideas, made the same mistakes, or have as little knowledge as I of the things I'm doing. It is not only comforting to find somebody asking the same (simple) questions, it also often leads to the solution, because that somebody or maybe somebody else has put some effort into finding and explaining a solution. I admire and salute the many volunteers who share their knowledge and experience online patiently and often without making fun of the amateur. Humanity is still not completely lost, or at least in forums and do-it-yourself videos it seems that way.
That all said, it probably testifies to my ignorance that I still get stuck from time to time. Risking to sound old-fashioned, I think this is because the short explanatory snippets and specific examples cannot really offer a cure to the lack of systematic knowledge of the matter at hand. I'm very willing to admit that I should probably refresh my programming skills and knowledge on a more fundamental level, starting with a more detailed understanding of object orientation etc.
But then again, I'm not a programmer. The real challenge for me and many other academics who work on digital media, it seems, is whether and how much one can really intervene actively the creative digital sphere without switching professions. This means accepting a patchwork of solutions and rudimentary graphics as sufficient, knowing that this is not ideal. But maybe even these adaptations are not enough? In a way, my current project may thus be an exploration of the boundaries not only of my own capabilities (which are quite limited), but of the academic context out of which I started it, in which practical engagements are rarely a first priority even when we deal with something as practical as digital media.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Public lecture & manga exhibition opening
Our Spotlight Taiwan Artist-in-Residence, Dr. Lien Fan Shen, has settled into The Netherlands and started her masterclass series on gender representations in popular culture at Leiden University's Honours Academy on June 4.
In addition to the technical and theoretical aspects of visualising sexuality in various media, Dr. Shen introduced her residency project--storyboarding for her upcoming animated documentary on female masculinity in Taiwan--to a diverse group of masterclass students hailing from anthropology, film studies, gender studies, graphic design, law, liberal arts and sciences, literature, philosophy, and psychology. We look forward to hearing more as these intimate and intensive masterclasses continue, and to seeing the fruits of everyone's creativity at the final exhibition opening at the very end of this month, preceded by a public lecture programme featuring Dr. Shen's keynote on "(Re)visualizing femininity/masculinity".
You are most warmly invited to join Dr. Shen and her masterclass students on the early evening of Monday 30 June 2014 at the Leiden Honours Academy for the final lecture and festive opening of the residency exhibition.
17:00 - 18:00 Lecture programme
Do join us for a chat, drink, snack, and stroll through the residency exhibition, which highlights the artistic output of Dr. Shen's residency project as well as the manga creations by her masterclass students.
This event is free and open to the public. Please find further details and register here. We greatly look forward to welcoming you on the 30th!
In addition to the technical and theoretical aspects of visualising sexuality in various media, Dr. Shen introduced her residency project--storyboarding for her upcoming animated documentary on female masculinity in Taiwan--to a diverse group of masterclass students hailing from anthropology, film studies, gender studies, graphic design, law, liberal arts and sciences, literature, philosophy, and psychology. We look forward to hearing more as these intimate and intensive masterclasses continue, and to seeing the fruits of everyone's creativity at the final exhibition opening at the very end of this month, preceded by a public lecture programme featuring Dr. Shen's keynote on "(Re)visualizing femininity/masculinity".
17:00 - 18:00 Lecture programme
- Welcome by Prof. Willemien den Ouden (Dean, Leiden Honours Academy)
- Remarks by Mr. James Lee (Taiwan's Representative in The Netherlands)
- Introduction by Dr. Cissie Fu (Co-Founder, Political Arts Initiative)
- Keynote lecture by Dr. Lien Fan Shen (Artist-in-Residence)
- Closing words and exhibition opening by Prof. Chris Goto-Jones (Director, Asiascape.org; Co-Founder, Political Arts Initiative)
Do join us for a chat, drink, snack, and stroll through the residency exhibition, which highlights the artistic output of Dr. Shen's residency project as well as the manga creations by her masterclass students.
This event is free and open to the public. Please find further details and register here. We greatly look forward to welcoming you on the 30th!
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Event announcement: New States and Societies in the Past and in the Future
The
LIAS State & Society Network invites you to an exciting event on Thursday 12 June 2014,
entitled New States and Societies
in the Past and in the Future, with 6 PhD student presenters and 2 distinguished keynote speakers on topics ranging from garbage to church hierarchy and from Babylon to future imagination.
What can we learn from past and
future states and societies today? Why should we care about their struggles,
wars and transitions? What do they tell us about ours? The network’s spring
event aims to address these questions by bringing together two distinguished
scholars who work on the past and on the future with students from the network
“State and Society” within the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.
PROGRAM
My State and Society (12:45 – 15: 00,
Lipsius 307)
PhD
students of the network give brief presentations of the states and societies
they work on.
Renate
Dekker
-- The Social Integration of a New Church Hierarchy in Late Antique Western
Thebes
Valantino
Pamolango
-- The Old and New Celebes (Sulawesi) - Indonesia
Martin
Roth --
The State of Play
Aditi
Mukherjee
-- Negotiating Space: Refuge Colonies and the Indian State
Yun-An
Olivia Dung -- Garbage Matters: Recycling and Wasting in Taiwanese Society
Sarthak
Bagchi
-- State and Society in India: a Journey from sammaan (Respect) to saamaan
(Material Aspect)
Keynotes (15:30 – 18:00, Klein Auditorium, Academiegebouw)
We
relocate to the Klein Auditorium of the Academiegebouw for the keynote lectures
by our guest speakers. The session will be introduced and chaired by Erik-Jan Zürcher (LIAS).
Seth
Richardson (Chicago) -- The Many Falls of Babylon: Anticipation, Reception and
Mesopotamian State Collapse
Babylon in its day, like Rome, held a symbolic position as both the site
of state collapse and as an “eternal” city. This apparent paradox created
an historical echo chamber which was productive of Mesopotamian notions of
civic fragility and resilience for more than a millennium. I will try to
grapple with not only the retrospective claims of reception histories of
Babylon’s collapse(s), but their particular relationship to prospective
evocations of state collapse in Mesopotamian thought: when is anticipation
precipitation, and how?
Adam Roberts (Royal Holloway) -- Clerisies, Science Fiction and the Future of Society
In this lecture, Adam Roberts will talk about the way the two halves of his intellectual
and creative life came together: science fictional thought-experiments about
how society might be structured and 19th-century conceptions of 'the
state' and political thinking.
Drinks (18:30 – 19:30, Grote Beer)
Please
join us for drinks and further discussions in De Grote Beer, Rembrandtstraat
27.
We hope to see many of you on the
12th, for the network’s first spring event!
Martin
Roth, Tero Alstola, Renate Dekker, Eftychia
Milona, Daniel Soliman, Bastian Still, Caroline Waerzeggers and Erik-Jan
Zürcher
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Call for papers - Post-Screen: International Festival of Art, New Media and Cybercultures
The Post Screen Festival is calling for research papers about art, technology and culture mediated by screens, to be presented at the Post Screen Festival Conferences, November 28-29 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The theme for this year is "Device, Medium and Concept'". The intention is to discuss the use of screen-based "devices" (traditional, analog or digital) as a tool used in artistic practices and social behaviours; the screen as "medium", entails the production and archiving of works of art, cultural and social activities, exclusively generated through technological screens making use of intrinsic technological attributes that a given medium provides; the screen as a "concept", refers mainly to the aesthetic, phenomenological and social aspects that involve the use of the concept of screen in visual arts and in our society.
The proposal for paper must have 3-4 pages (according to the template provided on the festival's website), including references, introduction and abstract. Authors should present two abstracts in different languages (one must be in English).
Fields of work: Visual Arts, Art History, Aesthetics, Film Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, New Technologies, Curatorial Practices, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, New Media, Cinema
Deadline: 15 June 2014
For further information please go to: http://postscreenfestival.com
The theme for this year is "Device, Medium and Concept'". The intention is to discuss the use of screen-based "devices" (traditional, analog or digital) as a tool used in artistic practices and social behaviours; the screen as "medium", entails the production and archiving of works of art, cultural and social activities, exclusively generated through technological screens making use of intrinsic technological attributes that a given medium provides; the screen as a "concept", refers mainly to the aesthetic, phenomenological and social aspects that involve the use of the concept of screen in visual arts and in our society.
The proposal for paper must have 3-4 pages (according to the template provided on the festival's website), including references, introduction and abstract. Authors should present two abstracts in different languages (one must be in English).
Fields of work: Visual Arts, Art History, Aesthetics, Film Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, New Technologies, Curatorial Practices, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, New Media, Cinema
Deadline: 15 June 2014
For further information please go to: http://postscreenfestival.com
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Screening 'Otaku no Video' in The Hague
On Wednesday 4 June, The Nutshuis in The Hague will screen 'Otaku no Video', a 1991 comedy anime spoofing the life and culture of otaku (individuals with obsessive interests in media, particularly anime and manga) as well as the history of Gainax, its creators. The anime is noted for its mix of conventional documentary film styles, with a more traditional anime storytelling fashion.
The screening will be followed by a discussion led by manga artist and scholar Lien Fan Shen.
(please scroll down for a more detailed description of the event)
Tickets, time & location
The screening will be followed by a discussion led by manga artist and scholar Lien Fan Shen.
(please scroll down for a more detailed description of the event)
Tickets, time & location
Plot summary
Ken Kubo is a Japanese male, living quite happily with his girlfriend Yoshiko and being a member of his college's tennis team, until he meets one of his former friends from high school, Tanaka. After Tanaka brings him into his circle of friends (all of them being otaku, too: a female illustrator, an information geek, a martial artist, a weapons collector...), Kubo soon makes the wish to become the Otaking, the King of all the otaku.
He manages to create his own model kits, open shops, and even build a factory in China. Later, he loses it all when one of his rivals (who's also married to Yoshiko, who never forgave Kubo for abandoning her) takes control of his enterprise, but after Kubo and Tanaka make peace, teaming up with hard-working artist Misuzu, Kubo successfully take over the anime industry with a magical girl show, "Misty May". Ken and Tanaka create Otakuland, the equivalent of Disneyland for otaku. The story suggests Otakuland to be located in the same city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, as the original Tokyo Disneyland[2]. Ken and Tanaka return to Otakuland in a post-apocalyptic submerged Japan and find a robot piloted by their old otaku friends. Then they fly off to space in search of the planet of Otaku.
Extra
After the screening, Lien Fan Shen, a graphic novelist and Assistant Professor in the Division of Film Studies at the University of Utah, will discuss this docu-anime and fan culture.
Lien Fan Shen earned a Ph. D. in Art Education at The Ohio State University and an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her creative work includes graphic novels, animation, and digital arts, and her research interest focuses on Japanese animation and Critical theory. Shen published five graphic novels, and her graphic novels were selected in the Golden Caldron Awards by the Government Information Office and awarded The Best Romantic Comic in Taiwan. Her animation and digital arts have been screened and exhibited in Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and United States. Shen recently collaborated with choreographer and computer scientist to create real-time interactive digital art that combines dance performance and animated images. Their collaboration has received Center for Interdisciplinary arts and technology Research Fellowship Award.
Lien Fan Shen is currently Artist-in-Residence at Leiden University.
Details
Date Wednesday 4 June
Time 20.00 hrs
Tickets Euro 5 (available online or at the door)
Location Nutshuis, Riviervismarkt 5, Den Haag
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Explore female masculinity and create manga this June
Leiden University’s Political Arts Initiative (PAI) and the Honours Academy are happy to host a series of masterclasses by PAI’s artist-in-residence Dr. Lien Fan Shen in June 2014.
Lien Fan Shen, a manga artist and Assistant Professor in the
division of Film Studies at the University of Utah, will share the
political contexts, analytical frameworks, and artistic practices which
shape her award-winning comic books and academic inquiry into gender
identity, digital culture, and creative expression over three
masterclasses.
The series is free of charge, with all texts and art supplies provided, and welcomes students from all disciplines. While each session can be taken separately (N.B. pre-requisites for Masterclass III), active participation in all three masterclasses and the final residency exhibition (on Monday 30 June 2014) will be recognised with 1 EC granted by the Leiden University Honours Academy.
Please register your interest before 1 May 2014 at the very latest, after which you will receive a full syllabus.
More information on the masterclasses is here: http://spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com/masterclasses.html
 |
| A triptych of Dr. Shen's work |
The series is free of charge, with all texts and art supplies provided, and welcomes students from all disciplines. While each session can be taken separately (N.B. pre-requisites for Masterclass III), active participation in all three masterclasses and the final residency exhibition (on Monday 30 June 2014) will be recognised with 1 EC granted by the Leiden University Honours Academy.
Please register your interest before 1 May 2014 at the very latest, after which you will receive a full syllabus.
More information on the masterclasses is here: http://spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com/masterclasses.html
Monday, April 7, 2014
The 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge 2014
Sci-Fi London (The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film) and UrbanFantasist.com are setting you an exciting challenge: a 48 hour flash fiction competition on a sci-fi or fantasy theme.
How it will work:
- Entry is free and open to anyone who writes or would like to dip a toe in the literary water.
- The story must be between 1000 and 1500 words (excluding title and author’s name and contact details).
- Entrants can take part by registering below and receiving the elements to base their story on by SMS message and email.
On Saturday 12 April (sometime between 10am -1pm) Sci-Fi London will send you:
1/ The TITLE for your story
2/ A piece of DIALOGUE that must be incorporated somewhere into the story
3/ An optional SCIENCE THEME for the story.
You then have 48 hours to write your story. The deadline for submission is Monday 14th April at 1:00pm
More information is here: sci-fi-london.com/flashfiction
GOOD LUCK!
How it will work:
- Entry is free and open to anyone who writes or would like to dip a toe in the literary water.
- The story must be between 1000 and 1500 words (excluding title and author’s name and contact details).
- Entrants can take part by registering below and receiving the elements to base their story on by SMS message and email.
On Saturday 12 April (sometime between 10am -1pm) Sci-Fi London will send you:
1/ The TITLE for your story
2/ A piece of DIALOGUE that must be incorporated somewhere into the story
3/ An optional SCIENCE THEME for the story.
You then have 48 hours to write your story. The deadline for submission is Monday 14th April at 1:00pm
More information is here: sci-fi-london.com/flashfiction
GOOD LUCK!
Friday, April 4, 2014
Asiascape's Spotlight Taiwan Film Festival 11&12 April
Asiascape is delighted to host the 'Spotlight Taiwan Film Festival' on 11 and 12 April at Leiden University College The Hague.
Over the past 30 years, Taiwan film has had an outstanding record of achievement at major film festivals, particularly those in Europe. Our Taiwan film festival under the title ‘Performing Taiwanese Identity’, to be held on 11th and 12th April 2014, follows up on this success. It has two objectives. The first objective is to introduce the Leiden University Students and the general public in the Netherlands to Taiwanese cinema. The second objective is to have these film screenings as a key platform for understanding modern Taiwan, especially the issues of Taiwanese identity.
Over the course of 2 days (actually one evening and a day) we will introduce you to 4 blockbuster films that directly and indirectly relate to the performance of identity from different standpoints. The films touch upon the triangular relationship between Taiwan, China, and Japan. Each screening will feature a follow-up Q&A session with invited scholars and film critics.
All films are free of charge.
We start the festival with a festive opening -with drinks and snacks- to which you are all invited (registration is advised)
More info and registration for the opening event is here: www.spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com/film.html
 |
| announcement for the Spotlight Taiwan Film Festival |
Over the past 30 years, Taiwan film has had an outstanding record of achievement at major film festivals, particularly those in Europe. Our Taiwan film festival under the title ‘Performing Taiwanese Identity’, to be held on 11th and 12th April 2014, follows up on this success. It has two objectives. The first objective is to introduce the Leiden University Students and the general public in the Netherlands to Taiwanese cinema. The second objective is to have these film screenings as a key platform for understanding modern Taiwan, especially the issues of Taiwanese identity.
Over the course of 2 days (actually one evening and a day) we will introduce you to 4 blockbuster films that directly and indirectly relate to the performance of identity from different standpoints. The films touch upon the triangular relationship between Taiwan, China, and Japan. Each screening will feature a follow-up Q&A session with invited scholars and film critics.
All films are free of charge.
We start the festival with a festive opening -with drinks and snacks- to which you are all invited (registration is advised)
More info and registration for the opening event is here: www.spotlighttaiwanleiden.weebly.com/film.html
Friday, March 21, 2014
New Manga Competition - Interpreting Kurama Tengu
Following on the success of Asiascape’s first manga two competitions Asiascape.org is proud to announce its third competition 'Interpreting Kurama Tengu'.
We invite manga artists, cartoonists, students and scholars to offer graphic interpretations of the classic Japanese Noh play Kurama tengu.
Contributors may interpret this task as creatively, expansively, or parsimoniously as they like: style, genre, and length may all be freely chosen. Contributors are encouraged to give the Kurama tengu a Science Fiction twist but this is not a requirement.
The text (or part of the text) of the original Noh play may be used if desired but is not necessary. The purpose of this manga competition is to explore the expressive potential of manga.
Euro 1000 in prizes, plus the best artist will be considered for commission for a follow-up project
Deadline: 1 June 2014
The text of the Kurama tengu play as well as details on how to submit, can be found on the Asiascape site: http://asiascape.org/competition.html
We invite manga artists, cartoonists, students and scholars to offer graphic interpretations of the classic Japanese Noh play Kurama tengu.
Contributors may interpret this task as creatively, expansively, or parsimoniously as they like: style, genre, and length may all be freely chosen. Contributors are encouraged to give the Kurama tengu a Science Fiction twist but this is not a requirement.
The text (or part of the text) of the original Noh play may be used if desired but is not necessary. The purpose of this manga competition is to explore the expressive potential of manga.
Euro 1000 in prizes, plus the best artist will be considered for commission for a follow-up project
Deadline: 1 June 2014
The text of the Kurama tengu play as well as details on how to submit, can be found on the Asiascape site: http://asiascape.org/competition.html
Symposium 'Gaming the City'
The quality and character of urban space has long been the concern of
city-planners and architects, striving to make versatile, functional, or
even beautiful environments for people to work, shop, and live.
Increasingly, urbanites have sought to re-appropriate these spaces for
themselves, re-imagining and re-tasking structures, buildings, and
layouts in creative or radical ways, transforming the city into a site
of play.
The Political & Philosophical Arts Initiative (PAI) based at Leiden University, is delighted to welcome Iain Borden (Professor of Architecture & Urban Culture at University College London) and Dan Edwardes (Director of Parkour Generations) to offer keynote talks at the official opening of PAI's geo-caching photo-exhibition at The Nutshuis in The Hague on Wednesday 16 April 2014. Iain and Dan were recently part of the team that designed the Southbank Centre re-development in London to better facilitate skaters, freerunners, graffiti artists and other urban players.
The full programme and info on how to register is here: http://cachingthehague.weebly.com/symposium.html
The Political & Philosophical Arts Initiative (PAI) based at Leiden University, is delighted to welcome Iain Borden (Professor of Architecture & Urban Culture at University College London) and Dan Edwardes (Director of Parkour Generations) to offer keynote talks at the official opening of PAI's geo-caching photo-exhibition at The Nutshuis in The Hague on Wednesday 16 April 2014. Iain and Dan were recently part of the team that designed the Southbank Centre re-development in London to better facilitate skaters, freerunners, graffiti artists and other urban players.
The full programme and info on how to register is here: http://cachingthehague.weebly.com/symposium.html
Asiascape:Digital Asia inaugural issue out - limited open access
On 24 & 25 January, Dr. Florian Schneider, editor of the Asiascape:Digital Asia, invited leading scholars to join us at Leiden
University to revisit the emancipatory potential of digital media in
Asia and discuss the digital turn in Asian studies.
Read more about the discussions and ideas that accompanied this Asiascape:Digital Asia conference on Florian's 'Politics East Asia' blog. In case you are also interested in pictures of the event, they are here.
Some of the papers presented at that conference also appear in the inaugural issue of Asiascape:Digital Asia which is out now.
Brill is offering open access to individual users until the end of 2015.
All the information is available here: http://www.brill.com/products/journal/asiascape.
Read more about the discussions and ideas that accompanied this Asiascape:Digital Asia conference on Florian's 'Politics East Asia' blog. In case you are also interested in pictures of the event, they are here.
Some of the papers presented at that conference also appear in the inaugural issue of Asiascape:Digital Asia which is out now.
Brill is offering open access to individual users until the end of 2015.
All the information is available here: http://www.brill.com/products/journal/asiascape.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
International Conference: Revisiting the Emancipatory Potential of Digital Media in Asia
Join us on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 January at Leiden University (the Netherlands) to discuss the transformative role of digital media in Asia in all its complexity.
Over the past decade, new forms of information and communication technologies have shaped the way people relate to each other, engage in social activities, conduct commerce, and participate in political processes. The inception of so-called Web 2.0 services such as Facebook in 2004, Youtube in 2005, and Twitter in 2006, has introduced a degree of interactivity to communication processes that surpasses that of previous technologies. Numerous companies from around the world have since imitated the success of these large networking, video-sharing, and micro-blogging sites. The popularity of such interactive digital media has meanwhile generated much debate regarding the emancipatory potential of these tools – a debate that has largely focuses on American and European experiences, and that in its extreme revolves on the one hand around the arguments of liberal scholars like Clay Shirky or Yochai Benkler, who emphasize the potential of such technologies to empower citizens, and on the other hand around the concerns of cultural critics like Evgeny Morozov or Sherry Turkle, who see these innovations as exploitative, domineering, and potentially damaging.
This international conference moves such debates to Asia, and confronts them with the realities of digital media usage in this vibrant region.
There'll be contributions on e.g. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India and a special panel dedicated to digital media in Taiwan.
With a keynote speech by Professor Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam, Director of the Govcom.org Foundation and the Digital Methods Initiative, and author of book such as 'Information Politics on the Web' and 'Digital Methods'
The academic journal Asiascape:Digital Asia (DIAS), in collaboration with the Goto-Jones VICI project Beyond Utopia funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Spotlight Taiwan project, welcomes all those interested to this international conference on digital media in Asia.
More information and free registration
 |
| Image (c) F. Schneider / Tagxedo.com 2013 |
Over the past decade, new forms of information and communication technologies have shaped the way people relate to each other, engage in social activities, conduct commerce, and participate in political processes. The inception of so-called Web 2.0 services such as Facebook in 2004, Youtube in 2005, and Twitter in 2006, has introduced a degree of interactivity to communication processes that surpasses that of previous technologies. Numerous companies from around the world have since imitated the success of these large networking, video-sharing, and micro-blogging sites. The popularity of such interactive digital media has meanwhile generated much debate regarding the emancipatory potential of these tools – a debate that has largely focuses on American and European experiences, and that in its extreme revolves on the one hand around the arguments of liberal scholars like Clay Shirky or Yochai Benkler, who emphasize the potential of such technologies to empower citizens, and on the other hand around the concerns of cultural critics like Evgeny Morozov or Sherry Turkle, who see these innovations as exploitative, domineering, and potentially damaging.
This international conference moves such debates to Asia, and confronts them with the realities of digital media usage in this vibrant region.
There'll be contributions on e.g. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India and a special panel dedicated to digital media in Taiwan.
With a keynote speech by Professor Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam, Director of the Govcom.org Foundation and the Digital Methods Initiative, and author of book such as 'Information Politics on the Web' and 'Digital Methods'
The academic journal Asiascape:Digital Asia (DIAS), in collaboration with the Goto-Jones VICI project Beyond Utopia funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Spotlight Taiwan project, welcomes all those interested to this international conference on digital media in Asia.
More information and free registration
Can Cowboy Bebop's Creator Make More People Take Anime Seriously?
A new series from Shinichiro Watanabe could help bring Japan's animated
TV shows, often dismissed as low-brow or kiddie entertainment, some
well-deserved critical consideration.
from The Atlantic, 3 January 2014
When Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films last September, countless media outlets and fans around the world mourned the loss of a beloved filmmaker—Japan’s most famous since Akira Kurosawa—whose movies had brought gravitas to the country’s animation industry, long a niche interest in the West. Thanks to thought-provoking films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Miyazaki’s work, American interest in Japanese animation had exploded over the last three decades and made a huge cultural impact.
Critical focus, however, has stayed largely on feature films, while anime—referring specifically to Japanese animated television series—has not earned the same kind of respect. An animator like Daisuke Nishio, for example, who directed the hit Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series, is not considered an artist like Miyazaki, whose drawings have been displayed in museums in Paris.
But while anime has always struggled to be taken seriously as an art form, one director might be able to make critics reconsider: Shinichiro Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop, whose new series Space Dandy is debuting on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on January 4.
Japanese filmmakers first began experimenting with animation in the early 1900s, not long after animators in the West like Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland), but it was not until the 1960s that the industry began to take shape under Osamu Tezuka, the artist whose large-eyed aesthetic is most associated with anime to this day. In 1963, Tezuka's Astro Boy was the country’s first popular televised animated series and was such a hit that it was the first anime broadcast overseas. Demand grew over the years and spread around the world, but despite its by-the-numbers popularity, anime remained a largely subcultural taste, not helped by the social outcast otaku image that persists, even in Japan. In general, animation is still widely considered children's entertainment, which has been difficult to overcome, and anime has added cultural boundaries to conquer.
Read more
from The Atlantic, 3 January 2014
When Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films last September, countless media outlets and fans around the world mourned the loss of a beloved filmmaker—Japan’s most famous since Akira Kurosawa—whose movies had brought gravitas to the country’s animation industry, long a niche interest in the West. Thanks to thought-provoking films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Miyazaki’s work, American interest in Japanese animation had exploded over the last three decades and made a huge cultural impact.
Critical focus, however, has stayed largely on feature films, while anime—referring specifically to Japanese animated television series—has not earned the same kind of respect. An animator like Daisuke Nishio, for example, who directed the hit Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series, is not considered an artist like Miyazaki, whose drawings have been displayed in museums in Paris.
 |
| image: Cartoon Network |
But while anime has always struggled to be taken seriously as an art form, one director might be able to make critics reconsider: Shinichiro Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop, whose new series Space Dandy is debuting on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on January 4.
Japanese filmmakers first began experimenting with animation in the early 1900s, not long after animators in the West like Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland), but it was not until the 1960s that the industry began to take shape under Osamu Tezuka, the artist whose large-eyed aesthetic is most associated with anime to this day. In 1963, Tezuka's Astro Boy was the country’s first popular televised animated series and was such a hit that it was the first anime broadcast overseas. Demand grew over the years and spread around the world, but despite its by-the-numbers popularity, anime remained a largely subcultural taste, not helped by the social outcast otaku image that persists, even in Japan. In general, animation is still widely considered children's entertainment, which has been difficult to overcome, and anime has added cultural boundaries to conquer.
Read more
The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies - as chosen by scientists
Published on www.popularmechanics.com on 4 January 2014
What better way to start of the new year than with a 'Best of' list.
Real scientists can be the harshest critics of science fiction. But that doesn't mean they can't enjoy a movie just because it bends the laws of nature. Popular Mechanics polled dozen of scientists and engineers to discover the sci-fi movie they love.
No 10. The War of the Worlds (1953)
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This cinematic update of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel about a violent Martian invasion was particularly jarring because of the timing of its debut—namely, when World War II weaponeering prowess and the threat of nuclear attack were very much part of the national consciousness. The idea that humans could be vastly overmatched in battle by aliens terrified viewers and set their imaginations spinning. "I was sick all night long," Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, says of his first viewing of the film. "That's the mark of a film that makes a difference."
No 9. Star Wars (1977)
No 8. Blade Runner (1982)
No 7. Jurassic Park (1993)
No 6. WALL-E (2008)
Read more
What better way to start of the new year than with a 'Best of' list.
Real scientists can be the harshest critics of science fiction. But that doesn't mean they can't enjoy a movie just because it bends the laws of nature. Popular Mechanics polled dozen of scientists and engineers to discover the sci-fi movie they love.
No 10. The War of the Worlds (1953)
This cinematic update of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel about a violent Martian invasion was particularly jarring because of the timing of its debut—namely, when World War II weaponeering prowess and the threat of nuclear attack were very much part of the national consciousness. The idea that humans could be vastly overmatched in battle by aliens terrified viewers and set their imaginations spinning. "I was sick all night long," Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, says of his first viewing of the film. "That's the mark of a film that makes a difference."
No 9. Star Wars (1977)
No 8. Blade Runner (1982)
No 7. Jurassic Park (1993)
No 6. WALL-E (2008)
Read more
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