大好きな居酒屋

Many of my recent photos lack humans - perhaps odd for an anthropologist. I wonder if I am too worried/concerned with the ethical issues of capturing people in the act. Privacy is a big concern in Japan these days. Can one still do visual anthropology without photographing people? Material culture is still culture... And people can still appear in photos without being identified (either through intentional framing or poor quality...). Question: Do these photos of my favorite watering hole DO anything for you? While I am partial to this particular shop, its master and workers, its customers and food, I believe the setting to be fairly typical. One can find such an izakaya in most (urban) places in Japan. Do you see what I see when you are at such a place? Do you want to see more customers (people)?

Multi-media website on RACE

RACE - Are We So Different? :: A Project of the American Anthropological Association

This is a very visually-interesting site dealing with important issues. A nice balance of form and content, art and science... Good visual anthropology...

From its "ABOUT THE PROJECT" section:

We expect people to look different. And why not? Like a fingerprint, each person is unique. Every person represents a one-of-a-kind, combination of their parents’, grandparents’ and family’s ancestry. And every person experiences life somewhat differently than others.

Differences… they’re a cause for joy and sorrow. We celebrate differences in personal identity, family background, country and language. At the same time, differences among people have been the basis for discrimination and oppression.

Yet, are we so different? Current science tells us we share a common ancestry and the differences among people we see are natural variations, results of migration, marriage and adaptation to different environments. How does this fit with the idea of race?

Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people.

Link to RACE
http://www.understandingrace.org/index.html

Some excellent photos of Japan...

"THE PURPOSE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT TO JUST REPRODUCE WHAT IS ALREADY VISIBLE BUT TO MAKE THINGS VISIBLE" - Julian Hebbrecht

I recently had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hebbrecht at a design group meeting in Osaka. He seems to be a real Renaissance man: pantomime artist, teacher, photographer. Check out his on-line photo gallery. There are lots of interesting images of Japan (portraits, lanscapes, still life, digital, recollections, etc.), sometimes with brief commentary.

Link to Julian Hebbrecht's Photo Galleries
http://pbase.com/julianht

FRAPPR! Freaks me out!

This really freaks me out (OK, call me paranoid) but how does this thing work? How can it know where I am? Who else knows where I am and what I am doing on the internet? Big Brother? George W. Bush? Why is this a visual anthropology issue (you are probably asking yourself...)?

According to its web site, "Frappr! Maps give Web site owners and visitors an easy and unique way to visualize and interact with each other. Visitors can add their name, photo and message directly on a Web page embedded with Frappr! Maps, and the Web site owner gets real-time stats on where visitors are coming from and how often they visit."

Visualize! Interact! Embedded!

I suppose we should be impressed with the technology, high quality visual imagery and the opportunity/potential for open-text and collaboration. And maps are cool. But am I wrong in assuming such collaboration should be voluntary? Am I naive in assuming that some higher power didn't already know where I was and what I was doing? Be careful with what you click on the map - apparently it can access your computer's camera and microphone. Doesn't this freak you out?

The Image of Beauty in Contemporary Japan: A Visual Anthropology Workshop

In a recent workshop, the "Body and Communication in Japan" class created posters to illustrate "beauty in Japan." The class had read and discussed excerpts from Laura Spielvogel's "Working Out in Japan: Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs" (Duke University Press, 2003) to prepare. Students brought in their own examples of Japanese beauty and borrowed other images from the Intructor's cache of fashion magazines.














Students broke down into groups and had 30 minutes to make their posters. Students pose in front of their visual creations.














Many seemed to agree with the four criteria of beauty in the feminine body in Spielvogel: youth, good proportions, shapely legs and skinniness.














Images from manga (and drawn by some students) and visual kei were also included.














The instructions for the workshop did not specify female beauty, but women were featured most of the time. Are there no beautiful men in Japan? (Or perhaps, as in one case, female students did not want to sacrifice their photos of Japanese male idols...)














Foreign influences were discussed and illustrated. But the most important characteristic of beauty (for women and men) is かわいい！(CUTE!)














Accessories, brand name bags, customized fingernails, diet aids and body manipulation techniques were also included in posters.














One student noted that all of the posters looked the same. Does that mean that the there is a set criteria for beauty in Japan?

Does everyone want to look like Ayumi Hamasaki?

What images would you include to represent beauty in Japan?

EASIANTH, Fort Minor and Japanese Internment in California

EASIANTH is a listserv dedicated (but not necessarily limited) to the discussion of East Asian Anthropology. Click on the link below to subscribe and have access to the archives of previous posts. EASIANTH is a good example of collaboration and open-text. Posts include various information on East Asia (sometimes visually related materials), new book announcements, questions and requests for information, etc. It's free and open to all who subscribe. Also a good way to network with those who work with East Asian cultures.

Link to EASIANTH
www.lsoft.com/scripts/wl.exe?SL1=EASIANTH&H=LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU

There has been some discussion on EASIANTH lately about the song "Kenji" by Fort Minor and its powerful lyrics describing the internment of Japanese-Americans in California during WWII. Hear the song and see some attempts of its visual representation at YouTube.

Link to Kenji on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OB_oqm-Z9o&mode=related&search=

If you are interested in this issue and want more information, especially from a visual perspective, click on the link below to Japan Focus and see the essay "Internment Without Charges: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment" by Linda Gordon.

Link to Internment Without Charges
http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2260

Umeda on a Sunday Evening, Playfully 1, 2, 3

What is this? What aspect(s) of Japanese culture might this thing represent? Consider these questions in terms of 1) multivocality of images and 2) the problem of the audience.

"The 'meaning' of the ethnographic film [or visual image] is not inherent within the film itself or in the intentions of the author, but is a negotiable property that lies within a conceptual triangle formed by the (film) subject, the filmmaker and the audience" (MacDougall in Banks 2001:140, brackets mine).

Who is your visual project intended for? Who is going to see it? Academics? The general public? What do they know about your subject? What don’t they know about your subject? How much do you want to explain? How much do you want to leave to your audience’s interpretation? What about multiple audiences? What about a “native” audience?

Even with taking all of these questions into consideration, it is impossible to control or mandate how any individual will "see" and react to your image. Do you want such control? What is a visual anthropologist to do? How much (con)text should one include with a visual image? Is a study guide appropriate? Do you want your audience to be limited by your own intentions/explanation? How much do you want to leave to the individuals' own interpretation? Do you want to hear other interpretations?

Inspired by Marcus Banks, Visual Methods in Social Research (London: Sage Publications, Ltd., 2001).



Umeda on a Sunday Evening, Playfully 1

I showed this photo to a friend and told her beforehand that I was in Umeda the previous evening and took some pictures. "This is Umeda?" she asked. "This is not the IMAGE I have of Umeda..."







Umeda on a Sunday Evening, Playfully 2

"Ahh, this is Umeda... This is more of the IMAGE I have in mind... I KNOW that building..."












Umeda on a Sunday Evening, Playfully 3










A local band by the name of MIRACLE was playing on the walkway between the Osaka train station. Th female lead singer danced about, especially at the chorus of the song: "3-2-1-Peace!" with a high verticle jump throwing the peace sign into the air, along with a few in the crowd who were watching/listening. In the front of the band were a small boy and girl, dancing playfully as well. To their right (unfortunately outside the picture) was a little (as in small and short) old (as in his 60s or 70s) man who was dancing even more wildly and having the best of times. A pleasant Sunday evening for sure. The band finished and began packing up. A few minutes later 2 uniformed police officers ran up to them to tell them to get out - no performing allowed on such a pleasant Sunday evening. I slowly followed these officers back to their small police box. Right outside the box, literally, was a young man with a small red velvet table and a deck of cards, blatantly engaged in games of chance with passer-bys. And unbothered by any law enforcement.

Anyway, any guesses about the image at the top? Hint: It's not in Umeda... (I recently figured out how to allow everyone to leave COMMENTS without having to sign in or sign up for anything. I remain, yours, in the spirit of open-text and collaboration...)

Video Experiment

This is my first attempt at creating a short video, uploading it to You Tube and putting it in this blog.

Visual Anthro Links...

Here are some links related to visual anthro, some of which will be discussed in class.




Beautiful Japan related article with suggestions by Wm. Penn on how to make Japanese TV more beautiful...

Link to Beautiful TV for beautiful country
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20070217TDY21003.htm

"Tokyo Love Hello" by Chris Steel-Perkins. A multimedia photo exhibition on the photographer's impressions of Tokyo. A little reminiscent of the February 13, 2006 Newsweek article "Where's the Real Japan?" (p. 32-35) that claims "To someone who has lived for long periods of time in the West, there is nothing particularly challenging about Japan, not anymore" (p. 33). Steel-Perkins admits there is more going on under the surface of his photos, but still his exhibition also reminds me of some of the "crazy Japan" scenes in "Lost in Translation." What do you think?

Link to Tokyo Love Hello
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/tokyolovehello.aspx



Another interactive essay on the Slate webpage: "World of Changes" by photographer Thomas Hoepker. Click on the photo of the "Japan head" (under the photo of London youths smoking pot). Not Japan specific, but some interesting commentary by a well travelled and experienced photographer.

Link to World of Changes
http://todayspictures.slate.com/20060329/

Do Steel-Perkins and Hoepker have ethnographic authority? What do you think of their representations of Japan?









Asagao-no-kai (a supporting group for Megumi Yokata's family). I don't want to get into the politics of the issue here (unless someone insists...); this link is included for its interesting presentation style. It is an exhibition of photos and information about one of the Japanese abducted by North Korea.

Link to Asagao-no-kai
http://asagaonokai.jp/

Two Deaf friends of mine recently went on a trip to Cambodia to perform pantomime for Cambodian Deaf people. This link is from the Deaf Development Programme (Cambodia) homepage. See photos of their arrival, perfomance at the Deaf Community Center and a Deaf school in Phnom Penh.

Link to Deaf Pantomimes in Cambodia
http://ddp-cambodia.org/activities/2007/mimes/mimes-1.htm

Spring 2007 Theme: "Beautiful Japan"

Spring semester has begun and I am looking forward to new visual projects from my new students.








This semester we have a theme for our visual projects: "Beautiful Japan." The idea for this theme comes from a recent article in the Daily Yomiuri entitled "Govt to seek public idea on 'beautiful country'" (January 1, 2007, p. 4).














The article begins: "As part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to achieve his policy vision of 'a beautiful country,' the government will launch projects to solicit public opinions on the concept..."














"Some observers suggest that the concept... has not evoked concrete images even though three months have passed since Abe took office."

A public poll will decide "100 quintessential elements of Japan" with hopes of such tradtional things like kimono, geta, hatsumode, osechi, Hina Matsuri and shichigosan being included along with more recent high technology items. Examples of Japanese virtue and modesty are also hoped to be solicited.




"Meetings on 'a beautiful country' are planned to be held across the nation. The government is also considering a plan to publicly seek young people, housewives and foreign residents as 'supporters' for these activities."






So this semester the Visual Anthropology of Japan class will offer our support and assistiance to Prime Minister Abe and his plan to evoke concrete images of the beauty of Japanese culture and the Japanese nation.







Some students have already expressed concern that their particular ideas for project topics might not fit into such a framework.










"Beauty" is, of course, a relative term. And so is "reality." Adopting Prime Minister Abe's theme for this semester's project in no way endorses his or any national political ideology or agenda.














However, representation can be viewed as a control mechanism inherently fraught with politics. Who has the authority to translate and/or dictate the reality of others?





Visual methods add to the complexity of such ethical concerns within ethnographic research. How do visual representations translate and/or dictate the reality of others?







Stay tuned as we continue to grapple with these issues this spring semester. Links to new projects will be added shortly. As always, feedback is encouraged and appreciated.







Notes on methods for this posting: All photos were taken with my mobile phone, mostly on a recent walk in and around Moriguchi-shi. My new keitai has a much higher quality camera (3.2 mega pixels) than my previous one.