Stop! AIDS

I have written much about the HIV/AIDS situation here in Japan for deaf and hearing people. The other night I found myself walking through Ame-mura ("American Village") in Shinsaibashi, Osaka and was surprised to see a flashing neon sign with condoms and the message Stop! AIDS. One major problem in Japan is the lack of communication and information about HIV/AIDS. The sign seems to combat this problem. I immediately photographed and videotaped the sign. I have yet to learn who put it there. I was informed by a colleague that there used to be a health clinic in the area that did HIV tests (the clinic has since moved to Namba). Anyway, as I watched the flashing condoms, the condom ringtone song (part of the campaign by the BBC World Service Trust to prevent the transmission of AIDS in India) played in my mind. Thus this short video. Comments?

Anthropology News' Photostream

This post comes from an announcement in the September 2008 AAA News. Anthropology News has set up a photostream using Flickr. Right now there are only three sets of photos, but I assume the photostream will grow. Each photo is accompanied by a link to a photo essay comprised of text and pictures. This is a good source to see the work of other visual anthropologists.

Link to Anthropology News' Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthropologynews/

Conference on Global Film

An announcement from H-Asia... This announcement is not Japan specific, but it does serve to show what kind of topics and themes are being considered within the realm of contemporary visual anthropology.

Conference on Global Film

Location: Alabama, United States
Conference Date: 2009-03-05

The University of North Alabama Conference on Global Film invites proposals on any aspect of world cinema. Proposals should consider some area of the intersection among film, society, and culture, exploring films as social and historical artifacts of the culture and nation from which they arise, as well as the role played by film in constructing, shaping, and re-imagining issues of nationhood, nationality, and transnationalism.

Papers may take a single film focus or make comparative considerations, and can take a theoretical or historical approach. Examples or suggested topics might include papers that examine the following areas in a single film, several films, or national cinemas:

*Genre studies in world cinema (Horror, Comedy, etc.)
*Film movements (New Wave, directors, films)
*Exploring representations of race, ethnicity, and gender in fiction or non-fiction film
*Representations of wars, borders, national characters and ideologies
*Social or political commentary
*National cinemas (Africa, Japan, etc.)
*Documentaries
*Technological and economic considerations/developments
*Comparative analyses between world and Hollywood film
*Third World Cinema

These ideas are suggestions only so any topic would be welcomed.

Please send a 250-300 word abstract and brief bio (2-3 sentences, including rank and affiliation and contact information) to: Dr. William Verrone: weverrone@una.edu; Please put "Global Film" in subject line. Deadline for submission is October 1, 2008.

The University of North Alabama Conference on Global Film will be held March 5-8, 2009, in historic Florence, Alabama.

"World Without Sound" - 30th Anniversary of the Osaka Pantomime Group

The Osaka Pantomime Group celebrated its 30th anniversary on Saturday, August 30, 2008 with a performance in Higashi Osaka. The group has had a long and lively history, with both deaf and hearing members. The group has performed throughout Japan and the world. I have blogged in the past about their performance at a deaf school in Cambodia.


The group when originally formed in 1978 was billed as an exclusively deaf group. However many hearing people became interested and joined. Thus the themes of the performances and skits are not necessarily deaf related, they are more universal themes that both deaf and hearing people can understand.


This is not to say that deaf cultural aspects are missing from the group. The majority of the audience was deaf and were vigorously chatting away in JSL before the show and during the break. As for the performance itself, I learned there was a difference between classic pantomime and deaf pantomime. In the former, facial expression is usually absent - body movement is stressed. However with the latter facial expression is key, revealing mood and other subtleties. The excellent body movement of the Osaka Pantomime Group combined with facial expressions made simple themes such as flying kites, playing golf, riding on the train, manners and fashion shows come to life with an absence of props. Perhaps the most popular skits had to do with the interaction between a shower (played by one member) and two women, the first young and beautiful, the second old and not so attractive.


Only three people performed at this anniversary show. However many more people were involved with backstage activities. Here again deaf cultural influences are at work. Electronic devices are used to allow deaf performers and stage hands to cue communicate with each other. Pantomime takes a large time commitment that many people don't seem willing to give anymore. However, after 30 years the the curtain is not falling on the group. They promised to do their best and continue on into the future.

See a related blog about the relationship between sign language and pantomime:
http://deaf.cocolog-nifty.com/english/2005/07/is_sign_languag_c7bd.html

"I Think Japanese People Should Be More Open"

(Image borrowed from theconstantgallery.com)

Japanese photographer Keiichi Nitta is featured in the latest exhibition at the Constant Gallery in Los Angeles. "I Think Japanese People Should Be More Open" runs from September 6-30.

Having lived in New York for six years and now based in Japan, Nitta’s photography has international cultural influences that strives to capture those special moments in time. With Nitta’s experience, he has adopted themes of transcultural notions of beauty, fetishism of fashion and sexuality as well as create photography that is immune to any preconceived contexts or notions. (Hypebeast.com)

For more information, check out the show's website:
http://www.theconstantgallery.com/Keiichi_Nitta_Release.html

Apparently you have to be over 18 to see the show. Niita's photography is certainly interesting, but the title of his show plays into the stereotype of the humble, quiet, homogeneous Japanese. Simple observation certainly reveals that there are plenty of open individuals in Japan. Perhaps Niita is trying to challenge the stereotype as well.

For more information on Keiichi Nitta, and examples of his work, see his own website.
http://www.keiichi-nitta.com/

"Tokyo through the Eyes of Shibuya Shantytown Residents"

(Please excuse the advertisements attached to the film...)



Filmmaker Bob Jaroc recently made this short film dealing with homeless people in Japan. Part of his rationale for the film:

My intentions for the piece were to stay clear of making a patronizing "cry/be angry for the homeless people" thing or a romanticized view of that life. I wanted to distill the experiences of the people who took the time to talk to me and question myself why I ended up going there in search of something to film.

Read more at Boing Boing.net.

Link to "Tokyo through the eyes of Shibuya shantytown residents" on Boing Boing TV
http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/30/tokyo-through-the-ey.html

How do you feel about the film? Does it really tell us anything about homeless people in Japan? Is this film visual anthropology? Is it art? If it is art, is it appropriate to use the homeless people in this way? Are food, cigarettes and alcohol adequate compensation? How would you go about making a film on this subject?

Picture Paradise: Asia–Pacific Photography 1840s–1940s

My apologies, dear VAOJ readers, for the few and far between postings over the summer months. This will slowly change as we get closer to the beginning of the new semester and the end of the author's natsubate ("summer fatigue"). Anyway...

Here is an excellent resource for visual anthropologists. The web site is for a photo exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia that is currently running until November. If you find yourself in Canberra, do check it out. For those of us stuck to the air conditioning and computer keyboard, the web site offers much interesting information. In "Themes" there are sections on Japanese photography and ethnographic photography. Here is the description of the exhibition from the web site itself:

This is the first exhibition to survey the history of photography of our region – from India and Sri Lanka, Southeast and East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands to the west coast of North America. It features pioneer local photographers as well as Europeans working in the region. The exhibition reveals the rich heritage and the many outstanding achievements of the first century of photography in the Asia–Pacific region.

This significant gathering of over four hundred original photographs and albums includes gem-like daguerreotype portraits, mass-produced views and portraits on paper made possible by the revolutionary wet-plate and dry-plate glass negative-positive process, and prints from the modern era of small format film cameras and photojournalism.

Picture Paradise presents works from seventeen public and private collections in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America, many never previously loaned or exhibited. The majority of these works are from the National Gallery of Australia’s extensive photography collection and include the rarely seen nearly ten-metre-long Holtermann panorama of Sydney Harbour from 1875.

Link to Picture Paradise:
http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/PICTUREPARADISE/Default.cfm?MnuID=1

There is also a publication by Gael Newton that goes along with the exhibition (from which I am borrowing the image at the top of this post).

Is this gesture offensive?

(AP Photo found on NBCOlympics.com. Caption reads: A woman poses with a newspaper showing a photo of Spain's Olympic basketball team making slant-eyed gestures while posing for an Olympics publicity photo, in Madrid Wednesday Aug. 13, 2008 . The photo was originally part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used solely in Spain. The headline translates as 'return to racism'.

Another story that illustrates the visual power of gesture. Yes, gestures differ cross-culturally, but this particular use strikes me as being culturally insensitive at the very least. What do you think?

Spanish player defends controversial photo

Players on Spain's Olympic basketball team defended a photo in an ad showing the players using their fingers to apparently make their eyes look more Chinese.

The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur and is being used only in Spain.

"It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way," Spain's Pau Gasol, center for the Los Angeles Lakers, said. "I'm sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive."

Point guard Jose Calderon said the team was responding to a request from the photographer.

"We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture," Calderon, who plays for NBA's Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. "Without a doubt, some ... press didn't see it that way."

International media criticized the photo. London's Daily Telegraph said Spain's "poor reputation for insensitivity toward racial issues has been further harmed" by the photo.

Read the whole AP story at NBCOlympics.com.

Views of Earth from the Space Shuttle

While not necessarily Japan-specific, the flash video at the url below is quite interesting and beautiful. Among other things it shows night views of the earth and we can see which countries light themselves up more than others (doesn't Japan seem the be the brightest country?), not unlike the picture from a post from May, 2007. You might want to check out other art works from GreatDanePro.com. You will of course see blatant biases in the web page. Still, there is a lot of visually interesting stuff to see. (This posting comes from a message on the EASIANTH listserv.)

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty

MIT Instructional Video: "Doing Anthropology"

What is anthropology? What do anthropologists do? The usual answer of course is that anthropology is the study of humans and anything that is connected with humans is fair game for anthropological research. Anthropology is intentionally broad and holistic. But perhaps it is too broad and holistic to the point where people really don't understand what the discipline is. Friends I have known for 10 years here in Japan still don't really seem to understand exactly what it is I am doing. Anthropology is obscure and the methods seem strange and odd. They understand that I am doing research, but how can my participation in a deaf group's drinking party be considered research?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Video production has developed a new short video called "Doing Anthropology" that endeavors to explain to the general public what cultural anthropology is and what cultural anthropologists do. You can view the video below.



Link to MIT Tech TV web page:
http://techtv.mit.edu/file/663/

The video does a good job of explaining fieldwork and participant observation. But the odd thing about the video is that all of the anthropologists are working on projects within the United States and two out of the three are conducting research entirely in English. I am not criticizing their projects at all - all three are interesting and important. But anthropology has traditionally entailed cross cultural research. An anthropologist goes to a different country and has to deal with a new culture, learn a new language(s) and figure out how to make their research goals and methods work in a different cultural setting. These are the most challenging aspects, and perhaps the most confusing to the general public, about the nature of anthropological research. These aspects are unfortunately missing from the video. The anthropological method can and should be done in the anthropologist's own country/culture/community. I think the video can serve as a good starting point, but the cross-cultural experiences inherent to anthropology need to be addressed if people really want to understand exactly what it is we anthropologists do.

I plan on using this video in my classes this semester to see if it helps students new to anthropology understand what it is. What do you think of the video?