JAResearch in Media Creation Ⅱ
In order to further develop the research skills from their master’s research, students build upon the basic research methods acquired in “Media Creation Research 1,” and will develop the ability to independently carry out research activities from a perspective based on their own themes with an interdisciplinary and international perspective, as well as understand research methods for high-quality media creation. In this course, students will learn to understand the research methods for high-quality media creation through practice. Students will come to understand the necessary components for writing a paper on media representation and master the process of writing through exercises in literary research, collection of research examples, hypothesis setting and theoretical verification, and discussion methods.
Class 1: Guidance
Class 2-3: Topic exploration / discovery and background examination
Class 4-5: Prior research and research analysis
Class 6-7: Submission and discussion of research topics and thesis plan
Class 8-10: Research survey and analysis methods, discussion of the selection methods of expression
Class 11-13: Theory/systematization and plans for implementation
Class 14-15: Structure of paper and research methods
Students will select a research topic from a faculty member that is relevant to their own research. The research themes of each faculty member are as follows:
(Kyo Akabane)
With a focus on interaction design, Professor Akabane teaches the systematic acquisition of media creation techniques, prototyping methods using digital fabrication technology, and other methods of creating using media technology, and recording of interactions, all in relation to “prototyping,” which is an important part of the design process.
(Masayuki Akamatsu)
With the main theme of autonomous transportation, starting with bicycles, and in response to practical research and production, heuristic criticism and discussions that integrate technology and art, Professor Akamatsu, teaches about the use of various environmentally sensitive techniques, augmented reality, and audio-visual technologies. He uses those to teach about the physicality and creativity of individuals, the exchange and sustainability of society, and the interactivity and emergence of nature and machines.
(Miki Okubo)
In a highly advanced information society, media, despite providing an abundance of artistic expression, has become mundane and homogenized. In this class, through referencing practical experiences, such as – video games, fashion, selfies, immersive platforms, and social media – she teaches the theories and methodologies necessary for examining media expression and developing ambivalent perspectives that overcome the dichotomy of art vs. non-art, fiction vs. reality, corporeal vs. non-corporeal.
(Tomoko Kanayama)
In the advanced information and media society, we view media as a medium and place that defines communication and makes possible the process of constructing relationships with others. Professor Kanayama teaches us to relativize existing media communication theories in contemporary society and teaches about these questions from new theories, methodologies, and media practices.
(Ryota Kuwakubo)
In order to examine the relationship between media technology and the world, students are required to recognize objective facts, actively look at the problems that each individual faces, and concretely explore ways to share and resonate these problems by connecting them to society. Here Professor Kuwakubo will teach media art as a way of universalizing individual problems.
(Takahiro Kobayashi)
While reflecting on the irreversible effects of the continuous development of information systems, Professor Kobayashi focuses on information systems engineering with a special emphasis on the appropriate use of technology in the current social environment. He also looks at how people should live their lives without an excessive dependence on technology, and teaches applied research on these topics.
(Shigeru Kobayashi)
Firstly, we will learn how the definition of innovation has evolved from its classic meaning to the latest international standard, along with its background. Next, we will learn about the issues and methods from idea creation to implementation, referring to findings in business administration and fields like it. After that, we will analyze and learn from cases of implementation with limited resources, such as small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, and media artists.
(Nobuya Suzuki)
Professor Suzuki as his main theme teaches media technology and its impact on the design process, including visual literacy (creation), interaction design (design), and prototyping (practice). Professor Suzuki’s teaching provides an overview of the possibilities and the challenges of information media and design from a holistic perspective.
(Masami Hirabayashi)
Professor Hirabayashi teaches practical implementation methods that ensure timeliness, using examples of systems that extend communication suitable for various situations to infrastructures including real-world interfaces and web systems, based on analysis of communication structured on various media in time and space using things like machine learning.
(Shinjiro Maeda)
The “images” that are linked with digital technologies, are having a major impact on not only traditional visual arts but also on media environments such as printing, communications, as well as on artistic fields like theater and art. Professor Maeda teaches students about today’s visual expressions by organizing technologies and expressions related to new and old visual media, with an eye to the new visual culture that has been created by changes in the way images are transmitted and viewed.
(Shigeru Matsui)
Based on the changes in the infrastructure surrounding media in the late twenties, we will reposition contemporary art as a cultural phenomenon and examine the culture of the image of the artist and the concept of the work. Professor Matsui aims to dismantle the institutionalized cross-disciplinary field of the arts, which is mediated by mass media, and extract how strategies of radical expression have been designed as a culture of resistance.
(Koji Yamada)
Professor Yamada focuses on the existence of network infrastructure for safe and secure communication, and on information technology as a means for each user to respond individually using analytical methods that increase the value of information. He teaches how these ideas should be incorporated into the field from a welfare perspective, teaching about information infrastructure, information analysis, and information technology.
(Mika Kan)
Professor Kan places a spotlight on the changes in representation culture and society as a result of advancements in media technologies. Based on the post-contemporary history of art, she delves into the background of historical and social contexts targeting visual expressions whilst relativizing the expressions of individual artists and viewers. She teaches about methodologies to explore art practices as “questions.”
(Kensuke Tobitani)
By perceiving various technologies which start with machine learning as new technologies in relation to AI, Professor Tobitani does not only examine their mathematical side but rather whilst looking at the development of technologies, he also examines the sense of values that can possibly be formed in society. For that purpose, in this lecture he unravels the history of mathematical statistics, and the various technologies connected at the fundamental level such as probabilistic and statistical senses. Additionally, he also lectures about those societal developments, and in particular their interface with expression domains.
Materials needed for this class will be introduced as needed.