corr: asking your inputs about the Bunkacho project, the National Center for Media Arts

Fri Jun 12 09:37:02 EDT 2009

Dear all,

This message is only superficially related to this fascinating discussion,
but since you are talking about early Japanese animation, I can't help but
signal the forthcoming retrospective on 60 years of animes at the next
Locarno International Film Festival
(http://www.pardo.ch/jahia/Jahia/home/lang/en) in Switzerland. Here is the
Website with the description of this part of the festival and an upcoming
detailed program: http://www.mangaimpact.ch/.  These events are being
organized in cooperation with the National Museum of Cinema of Torino,
Italy. If I'm not wrong, the museum will also be holding a special exhibit
on Japanese animation until the end of this year. 

Since I live in Switzerland (though not in Ticino, the Italian-speaking area
where the Festival takes place) and plan to attend it at least for a few
days, if anyone is interested and would like some information about travel
and accomodation arrangement, I'll gladly try my best to help you. 

I apologize that one of my only contributions to this mailing list is not
directly linked to the topic and hope you will not mind too much. However,
reading your discussion reminded me of an article about this coming
retrospective, which said that most of the animes that will be presented
come from Western collections. Apparently, it is only recently that Japanese
institutions have decided to keep archives of these productions. 

Again, I'm sorry for intervening here with this announcement only slightly
related to the topic of your discussion. 

Best,

Ariane Beldi

Ph.D. Candidate
Doctoral School in Media & Communication Studies
University of Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.unige.ch/ses/socio/communication/bienvenue.html
_______________________________________________________
beldi9 at etu.unige.ch
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=591868073
http://www.linkedin.com/in/arianebeldi
http://arianebeldi.wordpress.com 

-----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] De la part de Eija
Niskanen
Envoyé : vendredi, 12. juin 2009 02:17
À : KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Objet : Re: corr: asking your inputs about the Bunkacho project, the
National Center for Media Arts

I would add to Aaron's great list:

The center should have a preservation and restoration program for Japanese
early animation, and should actively collect any historical documents
related to early animation.

It would really be a waste of money to build another manga museum, as Kyoto
already has a great one, so part of the funds should rather go to supporting
Kyoto Manga Musuem and arranging mutual cooperation between the Center and
Kyoto Manga Museum. Same goes to NFC.

Eija

2009/6/12 Sarah Teasley <sarah.teasley at rca.ac.uk>:
> In response to Aaron's reply, hear hear!
>
> Following on Aaron's points 6) and 8), I would adapt the phrasing of 
> his 8) and add that the point, in the end, is how cool Japan is 
> towards its own media history, and how confident Japan is that 
> animators, game designers, media artists, other 'geijutsuka' and 
> 'kurieta-' and the companies that they run and/or that employ them 
> will continue to produce work with skill, originality and verve, 
> whether or not the Bunkacho builds a generator for them.
>
> ________________________________
>
> Sarah Teasley / sarah.teasley at rca.ac.uk
>
>
>
>
> On 11 Jun 2009, at 22:19, Aaron Gerow wrote:
>
>
>         I've been watching the news on this and have had my worries too.
> There's a lot of politics going on, but building one more box with no 
> plan is not going to help much. I also fear the usual rush for "new 
> media" which forgets the entire history of cinema behind it.
>
>         Quickly, here are some things I would stress:
>
>         1) Do not build anything until a clear plan has been made for 
> how the facility should be used. This plan should be made not by 
> government bureaucrats, but by researchers, fans, and industry figures 
> in equal numbers. Personally, I think it is important that the center 
> should be a research and exhibition center first (the NFC's problem is 
> that it is a preservation facility first, leaving research as an after
thought).
>
>         2) Crucial is defining its place amongst the various media. If 
> it does anime, clearly it does film, since much of anime was produced on
film.
> If it does include non-film media, will it include TV? How is manga 
> "new media"? What of computer games? How are all these to relate to 
> existing archives like the NFC or the Kyoto Manga Museum or NHK? 
> Personally, I think mixing anime, manga and anything "cool" is a 
> problem: it is stretching too far, is confusing (it has no principal 
> other than some vague pop culture or market-based definition), and 
> steps on many toes. I would drop manga and focus on anime, TV, 
> computer games, and media art, though of course allowing for research 
> and exhibitions exploring connections with other media like film.
>
>         3) As a research center, it should have not only a library and 
> viewing facilities, but space for conferences and workshops. Viewing 
> should be easy and inexpensive for individual researchers. The center 
> should have a publication arm that produces academic journals, 
> exhibition catalogs, and full-length monographs. The center should 
> both employ a full staff of researchers--who have time for research 
> and the freedom to be inventive in research and programming--and have 
> fellowships for one-year research projects on site. A research center 
> cannot succeed without connections to academia, so the Bunkacho must 
> cooperate with the Monkasho to create academic programs at nearby
universities to further media research.
>
>         4) The Bunkacho must coordinate with industry to collect not 
> only important end products, but also materials related to production, 
> including internal company documents. NHK and the other TV networks 
> have been terrible at making available their full catalogs: the law 
> should require them to deposit all that in the center for free, 
> unrestricted viewing.  The Bunkacho must also work with companies to 
> have them waive copyright for use of stills, etc. of any publication 
> produced by the center, or for any materials that a scholar uses from 
> the center in class or in publications. The center should be thought 
> of as not following industry, but leading it in terms of its cultural, not
economic aspects.
>
>         5) As an exhibition site, the center should not only hold 
> regular series, but also regular festivals and lecture series for the 
> general public. It thus needs various size halls for such exhibitions, 
> some of which can be rented for scholarly or community media events.
>
>         6) The center should not just be thought of as an 
> international promotion site for the industry's products, but an 
> independent cite for critical research and discussion. It can work in 
> concert with industry, but its needs should trump that of industry. It 
> should thus focus primarily not on introducing Japan's new products, 
> but on critically examining their history, culture, ideology, etc. 
> Only such an institution will get the respect of foreign researchers. 
> To further the international aims of the center, it should also 
> sponsor international fellowships, translations of critical works, and
subtitling of historical media works.
>
>         7) The center must be fully budgeted for at least a decade 
> after it opens, which means lots of money for staff, publications, and 
> events. That is the problem with hakomono gyosei: fund what's good for 
> your construction company buddies, but not what will actually fill the 
> box. If they want to avoid the impression that this is just Aso's pet 
> project, this center should not be built until other related 
> institutions like the NFC are reformed and fully funded.
>
>         8) The point, in the end, is not to show cool Japan, but to 
> show how cool Japan is towards its own media history.
>
>         A bit quickly written (I probably forgot a lot) and probably 
> totally unrealizable, but I hope this helps. Thanks for the chance to
dream a bit.
>
>         Aaron Gerow
>         Assistant Professor
>         Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>         Yale University
>         53 Wall Street, Room 316
>         PO Box 208363
>         New Haven, CT 06520-8363
>         USA
>         Phone: 1-203-432-7082
>         Fax: 1-203-432-6764
>         e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
>         site: www.aarongerow.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
Eija Niskanen
c/o Hirasawa
Koenji-kita 4-2-10
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Tokyo 166-0002