JAMedia Creation Special Research Ⅰ
This course consists of a research topic presentation, presentation of the project implementation over the year and the associated research, and submission of a final thesis. This course is positioned as a preparatory stage for the “Media Creation Special Research Ⅱ” that will be taken in the second year.
At the beginning of the first year, based on the research plan submitted during the admissions process, a primary supervisor and a secondary supervisor are assigned to give guidance to clarify the research topic and plan of the original proposal. Appropriate advice and guidance will be provided by the supervisors to the student on their proposed research plan through the “Research Plan Review” and the “Ethical Review,” in addition to guidance on planning during “Project Research Ⅰ.”
In the second semester, while incorporating the results of “Media Creation Research Ⅰ,” students will proceed with their research while regularly meeting with their primary and secondary advisors to report their progress and consult on the topic and aims of their research and project, as well as on the content and methods. Finally, students will complete their yearly dissertation research and project, by submitting a doctoral status report after the “Doctoral Research Status Report Meeting.” In addition, the primary supervisor will provide guidance on qualifications for submission and publication of the dissertation as well as the exhibition of the work.
Class 1: Guidance
Class 2-3: Guidance on establishing a research topic and devising a research plan
Class 4-7: Individual guidance based on your research topic
Class 8: Preparation for research plan review and ethics review
Class 9-14: Individual guidance for doctoral dissertation and periodic progress reports
Class 15: Doctoral research status report meeting (submitting reports)
The research topics of the supervisors are as follows:
(Kyo Akabane) Interaction Design
Focusing on interaction design, Professor Akabane researches documentation of interaction and methods of creations using media technology. In relation to “prototyping,” which is an important part of the design process for interaction design, Professor Akabane aims to develop a workshop for the systemic acquisition of media creation and develop a prototyping method using digital fabrication technology. While at the same time, Professor Akabane is working to develop an archiving method using multi-view video and 3D scanner to record interactions in the design process.
(Masayuki Akamatsu) Media Art
Professor Akamatsu conducts critical analysis and discussion as well research and production, by fusing art and technology to focus on the subject of autonomous mobility, starting with bicycles. This involves the use of various environmentally sensitive practices, augmented reality, and audio-visual technologies to examine the body and creativity of the individual, the exchange and sustainability of society, and the emergence of interaction between nature and machines. This is not an automatic device or figurative work but rather is intended to be a work that is closely related to the body and consciousness and responds to the environment and changes.
(Miki Okubo) Aesthetics and Art
Self-representation (i.e. self-expression concerning personal subjects), within a highly advanced information society, has become mundane, homogenized, and abundant via the new aesthetic experiences made possible by immersive platforms and digital devices. Simultaneously, via this “possibility for vicarious and sympathetic experiences” this type of self-expression has the potential to overcome the category of “individual life” and confront universal topics, such as: ecological problems and income inequality. With this perspective in mind, we will search for new aesthetic constructions in media creation.
(Tomoko Kanayama) Communication Through Media
In an advanced information media society, disputes over race, gender, religion, and political beliefs have emerged, creating an era of division and conflict. The 20th-century myth that communication through dialogue and participation is a good thing is collapsing, and in the internet society, tolerance for unity and coexistence of small public spheres, as well as growing together as a society has been frustrated, and as a result, new ways of communication are beginning to be questioned. In this class, we will look at media as a medium and place that defines communication, which makes the process of constructing relationships and meaning with others (im) possible, relativize existing media communication theories in contemporary society, and explore this question through new theories, methodologies, and media.
(Ryota Kuwakubo) Media Art
To examine the relationship between media technology and the world in a rapidly changing information environment, it is necessary to recognize objective facts and to actively look at the problems that each individual faces in such an environment, and to explore specific ways to share and to resonate these problems by connecting them to society. To that end, considering “media art” as a means of universalizing such individual problems, Professor Kuwakubo carries out practical research, including problem discovery, diachronic/synchronic research, work planning, production, and presentation, and self-analysis.
(Takahiro Kobayashi) Information System Engeering
With a special focus on information systems engineering, Professor Kobayashi targets applied research in a wide range of fields. Up until now, the typical fields have included entertainment, welfare, and agriculture. While reflecting on the irreversible effects that the continuous development of information systems has had, Professor Kobayashi explores the topics of the appropriate use of technology in the current social environment and how to live without being too dependent on technology, based on concrete and practical experiments.
(Shigeru Kobayashi) Inovation Management
First, we will learn how the definition of innovation has evolved from the past to the latest international standards, along with the background. Next, we will learn about the issues, theories, and methods related to the process from idea generation to implementation, along with the overall flow of the research field through reading literature in English and Japanese on business administration and other fields. After that, through having students analyze and refer in detail to case studies that are closely related to their research topics, such as small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, and media arts whilst then referring to those examples, the students will make a plan to be implemented as a research project and acquire experience for practice by carrying it out while appropriately managing the research budget.
(Nobuya Suzuki) Interaction Design
In response to the problems of modern society, which have come to play a central role in advanced information and media communication methods, Professor Suzuki conducts developmental research on advanced design processes, including visual literacy (creation), interaction design (design), prototyping (practice), while taking media technology and its impact as the main research theme. In addition, including co-creation, as a practice of the design process, the possibilities and issues of information media and design are studied from a holistic perspective with a bird’s eye view, including the return to local communities and industries.
(Masami Hirabayashi) Comunication Design
Through understanding, sensing, and observing communication in various media and time-spaces, and the analysis provided from the use of machine learning, Professor Hirabayashi implements research systems that extend communication to suit a variety of situations, by using interactive media technologies based on real-world interfaces, the internet including web systems, sensing environments, and the IoT. Professor Hirabayashi explores methods of realizing media creation through communication that is possible through interactive systems that guarantee real space, with practical applications.
(Shinjiro Maeda) Video Creation
Today, “images” combined with digital technology have not only dramatically increased the freedom of conventional visual creation, but have also had a major impact on media environments such as printing and communications as well as artist fields such as art and theater. Professor Maeda conducts practical studies of today’s visual expression through the production of artworks, organizing techniques, and expression related to new and old visual media, with an eye to the new visual culture that has emerged from changes in the transmission and viewing of images. In addition, the experience of creators will be reduced to shareable knowledge, and methods of creation and fundamental technologies will be developed.
(Shigeru Matsui) Visual Media Studies
Based on the changes in the infrastructure surrounding the media in the latter half of the 20th century, we will reposition contemporary art as a cultural phenomenon and examine the changes in the image of the artist and the concept of the new. Professor Matsui seeks to extract how cross-disciplinary efforts via mass media (broadcasting and publishing culture) have dismantled institutionalized art disciplines and designed radical expressive strategies as a culture of resistance. The purpose of this study is basic research intended to establish a critical theory of expression through the new media maturity period, using the old media maturity period as an object of analysis.
(Koji Yamada) Information Engineering
As the value of information in society increases, the infrastructure of networks used to transmit information safely and securely, and analytical methods (such as soft computing) to enhance the value of information are gaining attention. On the other hand, to create an information society that is easy to live in for modern people with diverse values, it is necessary to create an environment that recognizes the existence of individuals and allows everyone to live together. Therefore, information technology is considered as one method for each user to respond individually. Taking into consideration how information technology should be incorporated into the field from the perspective of welfare, together with information infrastructure and information analysis Professor Yamada explores ideal 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.