corr: asking your inputs about the Bunkacho project, the National Center for Media Arts
Sarah Teasley
sarah.teasley at rca.ac.uk
Thu Jun 11 18:10:44 EDT 2009
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.
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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
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