The publication is available on the Asiascape Issuu page: issuu.com/asiascape.
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.
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
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!
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!
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