Justin Jesty | University of Washington (original) (raw)
Book: Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan by Justin Jesty
Cornell University Press, 2018. Use the discount code on the attached flyer to get 30% off.
Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, 2019
Selected out of 90 submissions. Comments from the judging committee: "A virtuosic study of the in... more Selected out of 90 submissions.
Comments from the judging committee: "A virtuosic study of the intersection of art and politics, Justin Jesty’s Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan presents an original and important contribution to the fields of global contemporary art criticism and East Asian studies. But it is also a profound study of the art of one country that reaches outward toward other contexts and disciplines. Skewing the recent fascination with the so-called global conceptualism of the 1960s, Jesty shows how overlooked genres and amateur and collective artistic practices attempted to shape democratic culture from below amidst the radical uncertainty of the immediate postwar period in Japan. This was a transitional moment characterized by intense debate about how to move on from violent trauma and how not to reproduce the mistakes of the past. Jesty pushes back against the fashionable and aestheticized revolutionary demands typical of the neo-avant-garde by underscoring, instead, the problems of “organization, goal-directedness, and incremental change” that formed part of a postwar common sense overlooked by the emphasis, among recent art histories, on the effects of reconstruction and modernization during the following decades.
Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan reconstructs an intriguing corpus of works and phenomena: the woodblocks of artist-miners; the drawings and paintings of reportage artists visiting the sites of U.S. military occupation; the attempt, among a younger generation of artists, to practice forms of collective authorship and circulation of their works; and the mobilization of art in progressive pedagogy projects. In each case, Jesty underscores the imbrication of politics not only in the archive of art but also in the sociopolitical context that gave it meaning. In the author’s own words, Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan presents artists and movements “enacting delineable social change, not just simply marking the need for it.” One could make a similar case for the lucid and rich sociocultural and art historical reconstructions in Jesty’s book. Rather than merely engaging in meta-critical debates about art and politics, Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan reveals the movements and styles of the early postwar period as terrain for rethinking the definition and social function of art beyond modernist autonomy."
https://www.artsofthepresent.org/2019/10/31/winner-of-the-asap-2019-book-prize/
Journal of Asian Studies, 2021
The government's system of taxation and regulation had the effect of driving many small producers... more The government's system of taxation and regulation had the effect of driving many small producers out of business while helping large producers by creating barriers to entry into the market. In other industries, Matsukata's policies triggered a series of bankruptcies especially among smaller firms. On this point, it would have been interesting if Ericson had further explored the debate between Maeda Masana, the author of a major government 1880s development report, and Matsukata on the relative importance in Japan's development of traditional industries and small business versus imported capitalintensive industries. Did Matsukata's policies really create conditions favorable to the zaibatsu conglomerates and other large firms at the expense of small business as some scholars have argued? Given the importance of military-related industries in Meiji development goals, some preferential treatment for large-scale firms was probably inevitable, but one does wonder whether the role of Matsukata's policies in the rise of the zaibatsu in the prewar Japanese economy has been exaggerated. For historians of modern Japan, this book is essential reading and will serve as the definitive work on the Matsukata Deflation for many years to come. Clearly written, persuasively argued, and containing deep insights into the world of nineteenth-century economic policy, anyone interested in historical examples of market reforms will find it rewarding.
Modern Language Quarterly, 2021
Justin Jesty's book traces the activities of artists, activists, and educators from 1945 to 1960 ... more Justin Jesty's book traces the activities of artists, activists, and educators from 1945 to 1960 (a period from the end of the Asia-Pacific War to mass protests against the Japan-United States alliance) who intervened in high culture and the culture of everyday life to promote political and social change and prevent the return of fascism. Jesty positions three groups active in the period, each trying to widen the scope of who qualified as an artist and to expand the place of artistic creation in daily life, in the efflorescence of "democratic culture" after the war and a spirit of engagement that supported their commitment to change. Contrasting the work of artist-activists in this period to the political art of the 1960s, Jesty calls attention to conflict, hybridity, and "the reality of roads not taken" (6) after changes in state policy, media technology, and art-world institutions made these groups' activities unsustainable. Jesty's argument for a "metamorphic" as opposed to a "volcanic" view of the avant-garde-the one calling attention to commitment and organization, the other privileging disruption and momentary liberation-should demand the attention of those studying modernist and avant-garde practice in any medium. Art and Engagement examines the activities of reportage painters, members of the Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, and artists of Kyūshū-ha (or the Kyūshū Group), so named for the southernmost of the four large Japanese islands, where it was based. While there is significant scholarship on Kyūshūha, little is available in English on reportage artists and the Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, making these sections of the book especially valuable. Members of all the groups both "made their art political" and "made their politics artful" (14-15). Reportage art, by painters mainly affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, flourished after the party adopted a catholic view of aesthetic form in the early 1950s. Painters visited sites of political struggleagainst rural landlords and American military bases, to give two examplesand created large canvases that highlighted the forces behind the conflicts and that were transported and exhibited through party networks. In contrast to the artists whose naturalistic style the party favored up to this point, the artists Jesty follows practiced an "avant-garde realism" strongly informed by surrealism. The Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, inspired by the educational philosophy of Franz Cižek, Homer Lane, and other alternative educators in Europe and the United States, promoted a noncoercive, child-centered pedagogy. Supported by the decentralization of education during the American occupation, it encouraged creativity as a way for children to educate themselves but also in the belief that unfettered creativity made personal and social liberation possible. The Kyūshū-ha began as a radically egalitarian revolt
Published in Journal of Asian Humanities Kyushu, vol. 4 (2019)
Follow the link at the bottom of the page: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/publications/japan-forum/ I... more Follow the link at the bottom of the page: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/publications/japan-forum/
I sat down with Laurence Green, managing editor at the Japan Forum to discuss the recent book.
New Public Art/Socially Engaged Art/Art Projects by Justin Jesty
The Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm, 2020
Sōsharii engeijido āto no keifu, riron, jissen: geijutsu no shakaiteki tenkai o megutte (Genealogy, theory, and practice of socially engaged art: considering art’s social turn) , 2018
This chapter is included in an essay collection edited by the Art and Society Research Center. ht... more This chapter is included in an essay collection edited by the Art and Society Research Center. https://www.art-society.com/publication
This is the first part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Enga... more This is the first part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism. http://field-journal.com/
These essays developed from papers presented at the UW-JSPS Symposium “Socially Engaged Art in Japan” held at the University of Washington in 2015. The remainder of the papers will be appearing in the Fall 2017 issue.
“Japan’s Social Turn: An Introductory Companion”
Justin JESTY
“Isolation and Neighboring Relation in Osaka's Kamagasaki, the Gaps and What Breaks Through Them. To Express is to Live.”
UEDA Kanayo
“Don’t Follow the Wind: Chim↑Pom and the Creation of a Collective Imaginary”
Miwako TEZUKA
“After the Exhibition Artists and the Disaster: Documentation in Progress”
TAKEHISA Yuu
“Localizing Socially Engaged Art: Some Observations on Collective Operations in Prewar and Postwar Japan”
Reiko TOMII
“Japanese Art Projects in History”
KAJIYA Kenji
“Socially Engaged Art in Japan: Mapping the Pioneers”
Adrian FAVELL
This is my introduction to a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Eng... more This is my introduction to a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism titled "Japan's Social Turn." http://field-journal.com/
The TOC for the Spring issue is below. Another group of papers will be appearing in the Fall 2017 issue.
“Japan’s Social Turn: An Introductory Companion”
Justin JESTY
“Isolation and Neighboring Relation in Osaka's Kamagasaki, the Gaps and What Breaks Through Them. To Express is to Live.”
UEDA Kanayo
“Don’t Follow the Wind: Chim↑Pom and the Creation of a Collective Imaginary”
Miwako TEZUKA
“After the Exhibition Artists and the Disaster: Documentation in Progress”
TAKEHISA Yuu
“Localizing Socially Engaged Art: Some Observations on Collective Operations in Prewar and Postwar Japan”
Reiko TOMII
“Japanese Art Projects in History”
KAJIYA Kenji
“Socially Engaged Art in Japan: Mapping the Pioneers”
Adrian FAVELL
This is my introduction to the second part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Jour... more This is my introduction to the second part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism titled "Japan's Social Turn." http://field-journal.com/
This paper focuses on a single, mid-sized initiative whose main feature is a contemporary art fes... more This paper focuses on a single, mid-sized initiative whose main feature is a contemporary art festival that takes place every autumn in a neighborhood of Yokohama called Koganechō. Koganechō was long a center for illegal and gray-area activity, most (in)famously the sex trade, which by the early 2000s thoroughly dominated it. That changed in 2005 when police shut down the sex shops there, as part of a nationwide trend towards clamping down on sex work in urban entertainment districts (kanrakugai). The Koganechō Bazaar, as the festival is called, was conceived as a way to regenerate public life and change the image of the neighborhood in the aftermath. Although only one project, the Bazaar provides an opportunity to consider questions that perennially surface in comparing new public art and socially engaged art (as common terms in the North American context) with art projects (as the more common term in Japan).
An essay that was part of the booklet, "Overview of Art Projects in Japan A Society That Co-Creat... more An essay that was part of the booklet, "Overview of Art Projects in Japan A Society That Co-Creates with Art" by Kumakura Sumiko and the Art Project Research Group.
Socially Engaged Art in Japan A UW-JSPS Joint Symposium November 12-14, 2015 University of Washin... more Socially Engaged Art in Japan
A UW-JSPS Joint Symposium
November 12-14, 2015
University of Washington, Seattle
The past two decades have seen a surge in practices that cross the boundaries between art and social activism. Nowhere has the social turn been more deeply felt than in Japan, where the art world has seen a massive shift towards socially engaged art and artists increasingly find a role in rebuilding struggling communities, helping disadvantaged populations, and connecting people with local history and culture. As many have noted, socially engaged art has emerged at a time when social services wither, civic space disappears, and visions of a shared future falter, all trends which register with particular intensity in contemporary Japan. This symposium will explore how to understand the field of socially engaged practice in a global context and how Japan’s experience can inform that understanding.
-- Keynote addresses by Kitagawa Fram and Sharon Daniel
-- Artist talk by Tanaka Koki
-- Confirmed panelists Kawashima Nobuko, Kuresawa Takemi, Yoshimoto Mitsuhiro, Adrian Favell, Kumakura Sumiko, Fukuzumi Ren, Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Ueda Kanayo, Sumitomo Fumihiko, Makiko Hara, Xiaojin Wu, Reiko Tomii, William Marotti, Mori Yoshitaka, Tad Hirsch, Igarashi Taro, Takehisa Yu, Miwako Tezuka, and Marilyn Ivy
All events are free and open to the public. Registration is recommended. For full details please visit the website: https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/seajapan/home
This symposium is organized by Justin Jesty.
Generous support has been provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Japan Faculty in Humanities and Arts, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, the UW Japan Program, and the UW Department of Asian Languages and Literature.
Art & Politics Postwar by Justin Jesty
Tenkeiki no mediolojii: 1950 nendai Nihon no geijutsu to media no saihensei (Mediology of an age of transformation: the reorganization of art and media in 1950s Japan), 2019
Published in the essay collection edited by Toba Koji and Yamamoto Naoki: Tenkeiki no mediolojii:... more Published in the essay collection edited by Toba Koji and Yamamoto Naoki: Tenkeiki no mediolojii: 1950 nendai Nihon no geijutsu to media no saihensei (Mediology of an age of transformation: the reorganization of art and media in 1950s Japan) (Tokyo: Shinwasha, 2019).
http://www.shinwasha.com/141-5.html
in Bunka shigen toshite no tankō-ten (The coal mine as cultural resource exhibition), Meguro Museum of Art, 2009
in Bunka shigen toshite no tankō-ten (The coal mine as cultural resource exhibition), Meguro Museum of Art, 2009
in Gendai Shiso (Contemporary Thought), 2007.
Cornell University Press, 2018. Use the discount code on the attached flyer to get 30% off.
Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, 2019
Selected out of 90 submissions. Comments from the judging committee: "A virtuosic study of the in... more Selected out of 90 submissions.
Comments from the judging committee: "A virtuosic study of the intersection of art and politics, Justin Jesty’s Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan presents an original and important contribution to the fields of global contemporary art criticism and East Asian studies. But it is also a profound study of the art of one country that reaches outward toward other contexts and disciplines. Skewing the recent fascination with the so-called global conceptualism of the 1960s, Jesty shows how overlooked genres and amateur and collective artistic practices attempted to shape democratic culture from below amidst the radical uncertainty of the immediate postwar period in Japan. This was a transitional moment characterized by intense debate about how to move on from violent trauma and how not to reproduce the mistakes of the past. Jesty pushes back against the fashionable and aestheticized revolutionary demands typical of the neo-avant-garde by underscoring, instead, the problems of “organization, goal-directedness, and incremental change” that formed part of a postwar common sense overlooked by the emphasis, among recent art histories, on the effects of reconstruction and modernization during the following decades.
Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan reconstructs an intriguing corpus of works and phenomena: the woodblocks of artist-miners; the drawings and paintings of reportage artists visiting the sites of U.S. military occupation; the attempt, among a younger generation of artists, to practice forms of collective authorship and circulation of their works; and the mobilization of art in progressive pedagogy projects. In each case, Jesty underscores the imbrication of politics not only in the archive of art but also in the sociopolitical context that gave it meaning. In the author’s own words, Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan presents artists and movements “enacting delineable social change, not just simply marking the need for it.” One could make a similar case for the lucid and rich sociocultural and art historical reconstructions in Jesty’s book. Rather than merely engaging in meta-critical debates about art and politics, Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan reveals the movements and styles of the early postwar period as terrain for rethinking the definition and social function of art beyond modernist autonomy."
https://www.artsofthepresent.org/2019/10/31/winner-of-the-asap-2019-book-prize/
Journal of Asian Studies, 2021
The government's system of taxation and regulation had the effect of driving many small producers... more The government's system of taxation and regulation had the effect of driving many small producers out of business while helping large producers by creating barriers to entry into the market. In other industries, Matsukata's policies triggered a series of bankruptcies especially among smaller firms. On this point, it would have been interesting if Ericson had further explored the debate between Maeda Masana, the author of a major government 1880s development report, and Matsukata on the relative importance in Japan's development of traditional industries and small business versus imported capitalintensive industries. Did Matsukata's policies really create conditions favorable to the zaibatsu conglomerates and other large firms at the expense of small business as some scholars have argued? Given the importance of military-related industries in Meiji development goals, some preferential treatment for large-scale firms was probably inevitable, but one does wonder whether the role of Matsukata's policies in the rise of the zaibatsu in the prewar Japanese economy has been exaggerated. For historians of modern Japan, this book is essential reading and will serve as the definitive work on the Matsukata Deflation for many years to come. Clearly written, persuasively argued, and containing deep insights into the world of nineteenth-century economic policy, anyone interested in historical examples of market reforms will find it rewarding.
Modern Language Quarterly, 2021
Justin Jesty's book traces the activities of artists, activists, and educators from 1945 to 1960 ... more Justin Jesty's book traces the activities of artists, activists, and educators from 1945 to 1960 (a period from the end of the Asia-Pacific War to mass protests against the Japan-United States alliance) who intervened in high culture and the culture of everyday life to promote political and social change and prevent the return of fascism. Jesty positions three groups active in the period, each trying to widen the scope of who qualified as an artist and to expand the place of artistic creation in daily life, in the efflorescence of "democratic culture" after the war and a spirit of engagement that supported their commitment to change. Contrasting the work of artist-activists in this period to the political art of the 1960s, Jesty calls attention to conflict, hybridity, and "the reality of roads not taken" (6) after changes in state policy, media technology, and art-world institutions made these groups' activities unsustainable. Jesty's argument for a "metamorphic" as opposed to a "volcanic" view of the avant-garde-the one calling attention to commitment and organization, the other privileging disruption and momentary liberation-should demand the attention of those studying modernist and avant-garde practice in any medium. Art and Engagement examines the activities of reportage painters, members of the Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, and artists of Kyūshū-ha (or the Kyūshū Group), so named for the southernmost of the four large Japanese islands, where it was based. While there is significant scholarship on Kyūshūha, little is available in English on reportage artists and the Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, making these sections of the book especially valuable. Members of all the groups both "made their art political" and "made their politics artful" (14-15). Reportage art, by painters mainly affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, flourished after the party adopted a catholic view of aesthetic form in the early 1950s. Painters visited sites of political struggleagainst rural landlords and American military bases, to give two examplesand created large canvases that highlighted the forces behind the conflicts and that were transported and exhibited through party networks. In contrast to the artists whose naturalistic style the party favored up to this point, the artists Jesty follows practiced an "avant-garde realism" strongly informed by surrealism. The Society for Creative Aesthetic Education, inspired by the educational philosophy of Franz Cižek, Homer Lane, and other alternative educators in Europe and the United States, promoted a noncoercive, child-centered pedagogy. Supported by the decentralization of education during the American occupation, it encouraged creativity as a way for children to educate themselves but also in the belief that unfettered creativity made personal and social liberation possible. The Kyūshū-ha began as a radically egalitarian revolt
Published in Journal of Asian Humanities Kyushu, vol. 4 (2019)
Follow the link at the bottom of the page: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/publications/japan-forum/ I... more Follow the link at the bottom of the page: https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/publications/japan-forum/
I sat down with Laurence Green, managing editor at the Japan Forum to discuss the recent book.
The Routledge Companion to Art in the Public Realm, 2020
Sōsharii engeijido āto no keifu, riron, jissen: geijutsu no shakaiteki tenkai o megutte (Genealogy, theory, and practice of socially engaged art: considering art’s social turn) , 2018
This chapter is included in an essay collection edited by the Art and Society Research Center. ht... more This chapter is included in an essay collection edited by the Art and Society Research Center. https://www.art-society.com/publication
This is the first part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Enga... more This is the first part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism. http://field-journal.com/
These essays developed from papers presented at the UW-JSPS Symposium “Socially Engaged Art in Japan” held at the University of Washington in 2015. The remainder of the papers will be appearing in the Fall 2017 issue.
“Japan’s Social Turn: An Introductory Companion”
Justin JESTY
“Isolation and Neighboring Relation in Osaka's Kamagasaki, the Gaps and What Breaks Through Them. To Express is to Live.”
UEDA Kanayo
“Don’t Follow the Wind: Chim↑Pom and the Creation of a Collective Imaginary”
Miwako TEZUKA
“After the Exhibition Artists and the Disaster: Documentation in Progress”
TAKEHISA Yuu
“Localizing Socially Engaged Art: Some Observations on Collective Operations in Prewar and Postwar Japan”
Reiko TOMII
“Japanese Art Projects in History”
KAJIYA Kenji
“Socially Engaged Art in Japan: Mapping the Pioneers”
Adrian FAVELL
This is my introduction to a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Eng... more This is my introduction to a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism titled "Japan's Social Turn." http://field-journal.com/
The TOC for the Spring issue is below. Another group of papers will be appearing in the Fall 2017 issue.
“Japan’s Social Turn: An Introductory Companion”
Justin JESTY
“Isolation and Neighboring Relation in Osaka's Kamagasaki, the Gaps and What Breaks Through Them. To Express is to Live.”
UEDA Kanayo
“Don’t Follow the Wind: Chim↑Pom and the Creation of a Collective Imaginary”
Miwako TEZUKA
“After the Exhibition Artists and the Disaster: Documentation in Progress”
TAKEHISA Yuu
“Localizing Socially Engaged Art: Some Observations on Collective Operations in Prewar and Postwar Japan”
Reiko TOMII
“Japanese Art Projects in History”
KAJIYA Kenji
“Socially Engaged Art in Japan: Mapping the Pioneers”
Adrian FAVELL
This is my introduction to the second part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Jour... more This is my introduction to the second part of a double special issue of the journal FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism titled "Japan's Social Turn." http://field-journal.com/
This paper focuses on a single, mid-sized initiative whose main feature is a contemporary art fes... more This paper focuses on a single, mid-sized initiative whose main feature is a contemporary art festival that takes place every autumn in a neighborhood of Yokohama called Koganechō. Koganechō was long a center for illegal and gray-area activity, most (in)famously the sex trade, which by the early 2000s thoroughly dominated it. That changed in 2005 when police shut down the sex shops there, as part of a nationwide trend towards clamping down on sex work in urban entertainment districts (kanrakugai). The Koganechō Bazaar, as the festival is called, was conceived as a way to regenerate public life and change the image of the neighborhood in the aftermath. Although only one project, the Bazaar provides an opportunity to consider questions that perennially surface in comparing new public art and socially engaged art (as common terms in the North American context) with art projects (as the more common term in Japan).
An essay that was part of the booklet, "Overview of Art Projects in Japan A Society That Co-Creat... more An essay that was part of the booklet, "Overview of Art Projects in Japan A Society That Co-Creates with Art" by Kumakura Sumiko and the Art Project Research Group.
Socially Engaged Art in Japan A UW-JSPS Joint Symposium November 12-14, 2015 University of Washin... more Socially Engaged Art in Japan
A UW-JSPS Joint Symposium
November 12-14, 2015
University of Washington, Seattle
The past two decades have seen a surge in practices that cross the boundaries between art and social activism. Nowhere has the social turn been more deeply felt than in Japan, where the art world has seen a massive shift towards socially engaged art and artists increasingly find a role in rebuilding struggling communities, helping disadvantaged populations, and connecting people with local history and culture. As many have noted, socially engaged art has emerged at a time when social services wither, civic space disappears, and visions of a shared future falter, all trends which register with particular intensity in contemporary Japan. This symposium will explore how to understand the field of socially engaged practice in a global context and how Japan’s experience can inform that understanding.
-- Keynote addresses by Kitagawa Fram and Sharon Daniel
-- Artist talk by Tanaka Koki
-- Confirmed panelists Kawashima Nobuko, Kuresawa Takemi, Yoshimoto Mitsuhiro, Adrian Favell, Kumakura Sumiko, Fukuzumi Ren, Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Ueda Kanayo, Sumitomo Fumihiko, Makiko Hara, Xiaojin Wu, Reiko Tomii, William Marotti, Mori Yoshitaka, Tad Hirsch, Igarashi Taro, Takehisa Yu, Miwako Tezuka, and Marilyn Ivy
All events are free and open to the public. Registration is recommended. For full details please visit the website: https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/seajapan/home
This symposium is organized by Justin Jesty.
Generous support has been provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Japan Faculty in Humanities and Arts, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, the UW Japan Program, and the UW Department of Asian Languages and Literature.
Tenkeiki no mediolojii: 1950 nendai Nihon no geijutsu to media no saihensei (Mediology of an age of transformation: the reorganization of art and media in 1950s Japan), 2019
Published in the essay collection edited by Toba Koji and Yamamoto Naoki: Tenkeiki no mediolojii:... more Published in the essay collection edited by Toba Koji and Yamamoto Naoki: Tenkeiki no mediolojii: 1950 nendai Nihon no geijutsu to media no saihensei (Mediology of an age of transformation: the reorganization of art and media in 1950s Japan) (Tokyo: Shinwasha, 2019).
http://www.shinwasha.com/141-5.html
in Bunka shigen toshite no tankō-ten (The coal mine as cultural resource exhibition), Meguro Museum of Art, 2009
in Bunka shigen toshite no tankō-ten (The coal mine as cultural resource exhibition), Meguro Museum of Art, 2009
in Gendai Shiso (Contemporary Thought), 2007.
Arts, 2019
Part of a special issue "Developments in Japanese Documentary Film" edited by Marcos Centeno and ... more Part of a special issue "Developments in Japanese Documentary Film" edited by Marcos Centeno and Michael Raine.
This paper focuses on two discrete bodies of work, Hani Susumu's films of the late 1950s and Tsuchimoto Noriaki's Minamata documentaries of the early 1970s, to trace the emergence of the cinéma vérité mode of participant-observer, small-crew documentary in Japan and to suggest how it shapes the work of later social documentarists. It argues that Hani Susumu's emphasis on duration and receptivity in the practice of filmmaking, along with his pragmatic understanding of the power of the cinematic image, establish a fundamentally different theoretical basis and set of questions for social documentary than the emphasis on mobility and access, and the attendant question of truth that tend to afflict the discourse of cinéma vérité in the U.S. and France. Tsuchimoto Noriaki critically adopts and develops Hani's theoretical and methodological framework in his emphasis on long-running involvement with the subjects of his films and his practical conviction that the image is not single-authored, self-sufficient, or meaningful in and of itself, but emerges from collaboration and must be embedded in a responsive social practice in order to meaningfully reach an audience. Hani and Tsuchimoto both believe that it is possible for filmmakers and the film itself to be fundamentally processual and intersubjective: grounded in actual collaboration, but also underwritten by a belief that intersubjective processes are more basic to human being than "the individual," let alone "the author." This paper explores the implications for representation and ethics of this basic difference in vérité theory and practice in Japan.
Unit for Visualizing Cultures website at MIT, edited by John Dower, 2012
in "Mercury Pollution: A Transdisciplinary Treatment," edited by Michael C. Newman and Sharon Zuber, 2011
Streetnotes: Ethnography, Poetry and the Documentary Experience, 2007
The article reviews the book "Money, Trains, and Guillotines: Art and Revolution in 1960s Ja... more The article reviews the book "Money, Trains, and Guillotines: Art and Revolution in 1960s Japan," by William Marotti.