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.
(Alina Zhdanova)
Drawing from research into remembering and forgetting, Lecturer Zhdanova examines the cultural and social contexts involved in the formation of memories, based on personal narratives obtained through interviews and related research methods. Through the alternation between research and creative practice, she engages in practice-based research that traverses artistic practices such as video and installation works, theoretical inquiry, and teaches the processes of generating research questions, constructing research methodologies, and developing theoretical frameworks.
(Miki Okubo)
Associate Professor Okubo critically examines the subject-centered worldview that has prevailed since the modern era, and by traversing topics such as ecology, theories of life, philosophy of technology, artificial intelligence research, and insights in new anthropology, she redefines technology as a broad concept. She also bridges contemporary philosophy with science and media expression, and researches frameworks for a new worldview.
(Mika Kan)
Associate 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.”
(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.
(Yoshihisa Suzuki)
In light of the transformations of society from the mid-twentieth century to the present twenty-first century, Associate Professor Suzuki analyzes the formation of culture brought about by media technologies in sound and music from social factors such as academic, capital, and audience-related factors, and examines it as a multilayered framework. He teaches practical research methods and approaches to social connection with the goal of constructing a sustainable cultural foundation.
(Shoko Tateishi)
By considering people’s experiences as a series of “events” composed of interdisciplinary elements such as technology, art, culture, cities, and architecture, and by focusing on the forms of “events,” Lecturer Tateishi aims to deconstruct, analyze, integrate, and create theories of intricate experiences in the age of complex media. She will teach the theories and methodologies to think from the perspective of media theory and media studies that make achieving this objective possible.
(Kenichi Hagihara)
Associate Professor Hagihara reinterprets the “discoveries” and “trial and error” that arise as beginners acquire new tools, come across their techniques, and embody them, as the fundamental process of image generation. He investigates how transformations in visual media affect human behavior and reorganize bodily perception through creative practice, and teaches concrete methods for deriving new research questions.
(Kensuke Tobitani)
By perceiving various technologies which start with machine learning as new technologies in relation to AI, Associate 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.
(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.
(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.
Materials needed for this class will be introduced as needed.