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

[Aaron Gerow]

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