Events by year: 2015

4 June 2015

Diversity in Education: Alternative Schools

A. S. Neill, a Scottish writer and education philosopher, created a community in which children could be free from adult authority, which in 1927 became Summerhill School in Suffolk, probably the world’s best-known “free school”. The school and Neill’s “free school” ideas became famous through his writings and lectures. In Japan, Professor Shinichi Hori was impressed by Summerhill and translated many of Neill’s books into Japanese, later establishing his own schools in Wakayama, based on Neill’s educational philosophy of liberty and democracy exercised by children.

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26 May 2015

Two Truths

This talk highlighted the curatorial concerns of Griffin Gallery Director Becca Pelly-Fry about the impact of cultural displacement on artistic practice. She moderated a conversation amongst the 6 Japanese artists from the exhibition Two Truths. Two Truths explores the Buddhist doctrine of the same name that differentiates between two levels of truth: conventional and ultimate (or, relative and absolute). Conventional truth is how we usually see the world; a place full of diverse and distinctive things and beings. Ultimate truth is empty of concrete and inherent characteristics; there are no distinctive things or beings.

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11 May 2015

Artist Talk: Post-Apocalypse by Keita Miyazaki

Keita Miyazaki, a young Japanese artist, works on creating sculpture series and installations which evoke a sense of the post-apocalyptic. He is an artist exploring the supposedly polar notions of orderliness and fantasy. His installations select materials for their capacity to suggest ambiguity: traditional like metal, light and fragile like paper, invisible like sound. These juxtaposing techniques avoid concrete description, instead suspending forms in a state of uncertainty.

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7 May 2015

Diversity and Innovation in Japan and the UK

‘Galapagos Syndrome’ has become a term to describe Japan’s insular attitude to the outside world. Like the species on the Galapagos Islands, Japanese corporations did not adapt their business models to the outside world, consequently losing their competitive edge to businesses in China and the rest of Asia. Similarly, in the sphere of policy-making, diverse and external opinions were not taken into account, and rather the vested interests of insiders were prioritised within a cosy, closed community. With increasing insularity and nationalism in the UK, does it risk going the same way?

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28 April 2015

Japan’s Long Economic Stagnation

The Japanese economy came out of its latest recession in the last quarter of 2014, but expectations of higher growth have been somewhat dampened. This recession is the sixth that Japan has experienced since 1997, and the past twenty or so years of tepid economic growth have been characterised as Japan’s “Lost Decades”.

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23 April 2015

organism of control 1 keita miyazaki

Private View: Post-Apocalypse by Keita Miyazaki

Keita Miyazaki, a young Japanese artist, works on creating sculpture series and installations which evoke a sense of the post-apocalyptic. He is an artist exploring the supposedly polar notions of orderliness and fantasy. His installations select materials for their capacity to suggest ambiguity: traditional like metal, light and fragile like paper, invisible like sound. These juxtaposing techniques avoid concrete description, instead suspending forms in a state of uncertainty.

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16 April 2015

Miso: A Versatile Ingredient

Thanks to the ever growing popularity of Japanese cuisine worldwide, miso soup is well-known- however, the real value of miso is still not very much appreciated yet in the UK. Miso (a fermented paste made from soybeans), is so versatile that it can be used as a base seasoning in variety of dishes- not just in soup- as a sauce, dressing and even marinade.

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7 April 2015

The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation

This third edition of The Anime Encyclopedia brings the landmark reference work up to date with six additional years of information on Japanese animation, its practitioners and products, as well as incisive thematic entries on anime history and culture. Helen McCarthy summarised the book’s genesis, its main aims, and share some of the stories it has accumulated along the way to its third shelf-shattering edition of over a million words.

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12 March 2015

Glenn Gould and Natsume Soseki

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Three Cornered World, Alan Turney’s award-winning translation of Kusamakura by Japan’s great literary maestro Natsume Soseki (1867-1916). Two years after it was published, the translation was read by the world’s most famous pianist Glenn Gould (1932-82). The Three Cornered World was not only to become Gould’s favourite book, but also one that would obsess Gould for the last 15 years of his life.

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