ARC-iJAC Activities

On February 4 (Sat), 2023, Professor Ryo Akama--Director of the Art Research Center (ARC)--delivered a special lecture on The ARC Research Space: Aiming at Perfecting a Comprehensive Digital Research Space at the digital humanities conference Materials, Media, and Methods: Digital Issues in East Asian Studies.

The hybrid conference, which focused on the problems, challenges, and breakthroughs with digital technologies in East Asian Studies research, was hosted by the Institute of East Asian Art History (IKO) and the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies (HCTS), Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg and organized in cooperation with Nanjing University of the Arts.

Poster design: Xiaojie Chang. Poster image: Xiaojie Chang, via AI image generator DreamStudio, 2023.

立命館大学アート・リサーチセンターは、新型コロナウイルス感染症によって生じた課題への対応や、海外の研究者に提供するデジタル研究ツールやリソースの利用方法についての情報を発信することの重要性を受け、プロモーションビデオ「カスタムメイドのオンライン研究データベース“My Database”」を公開しました。

このビデオは、巨大なポータルデータベースから、自分が使いたい資料を取り込み、自分だけのオンライン研究データベースをカスタム構築するサービスを紹介するものです。

この紹介動画は、北米日本研究資料調整協議会（NCC North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources）の要請に応えるかたちで、これまで2本のプロモーションビデオを英語で作成し、NCCのホームページの「Comprehensive Digitization and Discoverability Program CDDP」のサイトから公開を開始しています。 なお、1本目のビデオは、研究者個人や教室でも使用できる教育ツールとしての「ARCくずし字翻刻システム」を紹介しています。

CDDP Video Series Highlight: Custom-Built Online Research Database with 'My Database' (NCC website)

The ARC Kuzushiji Transcription Support and Archiving System

立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター　文部科学省 国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際共同研究拠点」（ARC-iJAC）は、 国際オンラインシンポジウム「西洋における日本美術の受容を辿るー中欧のケーススタディを通して見る」を開催します。
このイベントはライブ同時通訳で行われ、英語・日本語対応となります。

日付：2023年1月28日(土)
時間：16:00～18:00（JST）、8:00～10:00（CET）

主催　立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター　文部科学省 国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際共同研究拠点」（ARC-iJAC）

＞＞参加登録は こちら

<Program>

1. Opening Remarks: Prof. Ryo Akama (Director of the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University) & Emily Li (University Research Administrator, Ritsumeikan University)

2. Keynote Speech: Professor Hans B. Thomsen (Chair for East Asian Art History, University of Zurich)
Title: 'Academia and Museums: The Importance of Collaborative Projects'

3. Individual Presentations

  紀要『アート・リサーチ』24号の原稿募集を開始しました

　本紀要は、アート・リサーチセンターで展開する各研究プロジェクトの活動成果を広く公開する目的を持つとともに、芸術文化を専門とした学術雑誌として、例年多くの方にご投稿いただいております。
 アート・リサーチセンターは、1998年度設立以来、文化・芸術・情報科学に関する優れた研究拠点として、国の複数の補助金に採択され、2019年度には文部科学省「国際共同利用・共同研究拠点」として認定されるなど、研究を一層深化させています。また、文化芸術のデジタルアーカイブにおける先端的拠点としても、高く評価されています。

オンラインジャーナルとして年複数回発行し、年度末には、それらをまとめた冊子も発行します。
原稿募集は随時行っております。
投稿機会の自由度が大幅に高まりますので、是非とも積極的なご応募をお待ちしております。

Background:
Kelly Midori McCormick is an assistant professor of Japanese history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, specializing in the history of the material and visual culture of modern Japan.
Carrie Cushman is the Edith Dale Monson Gallery Director and Curator at the Hartford Art School. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University and is a specialist in postwar and contemporary art and photography from Japan.
Supported by the ARC-iJAC, their project team has created and launched the bilingual website Behind the Camera--part database, part educational tool--spotlighting a diverse range of international experts on the history of Japanese photography from the perspective of gender and power.

Thank you very much for your time today. Could you please tell us about your motivation to start your FY 2021 ARC-iJAC project Expanding the Study of Japanese Photography and Gender: Modules for Teaching and Public Access?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: Conceived in 2017, Behind the Camera was established to address the lack of scholarship and access to primary sources on the histories of Japanese women in photography. The idea for Behind the Camera was sparked with a simple question: what resources existed on the roles that women have played in the history of Japanese photography?

Since the introduction of the first camera to Japan in 1848, women have been integral to the social constructions of photography as a visual technology, art form, and commercial practice.

Women photographers require a history that intersects social and political history with the close analysis of their work and its implications for visual culture in Japan.

Beyond accounting for historical omissions, we sought ways to interrogate the overwhelmingly male-centered historiography of Japanese photography and to address the ideologies that have consistently reinstated gendered hierarchies within the photography world.​​ We knew that these efforts could not be individual but would require a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.

To that end, in 2019, we brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel for a two-part panel at the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, sponsored by the Japan Art History Forum. The conversations generated at the AAS made clear that the histories of Japanese women in photography required a sustained platform that would allow for research to develop organically and collaboratively.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the project transformed into a website where specialists share carefully researched arguments and source materials made available to the public in both English and Japanese. In times when travel to archives and conferences is difficult, this website seeks to bring photographs, scholarly perspectives, and historical resources directly to you.

We are delighted about the launch of your digital humanities website Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography.

Can you share some of your experiences with us during the implementation of this project? Have you come across any particular challenges?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: The Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan is an incredible resource for researching Japanese visual culture and producing new information about it. We were thrilled at the opportunity to work with the ARC but the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that our initial goals of using the recording facilities to conduct interviews with current Japanese women photographers were not possible.

We were able, however, to use the generous funding to produce an interview between the photographer Nagashima Yurie and art historian Handa Yuri. This interview will be the first to introduce a wide range of audiences to Nagashima's scholarly work on the history of the Japanese women photographers who gained recognition for their work in the 1990s and Nagashima's critical interpretation of the male photo critics who shaped the way the world saw this generation of women photographers.

Is there anything particularly fascinating you found while implementing this project?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: To create the modules for the site, we approached historians of photography to present an issue from the history of Japanese photography from a gender studies perspective. One of the most gratifying things about this project is how many new angles scholars have approached and created their modules from. Many have seen the new format of a video lecture paired with an image archive as a structure that allows them to explore new topics or synthesize larger projects in a compelling and captivating way.

For instance, Dr. Elena Creef drew on networks of Japanese war brides that her mother is a part of to create a collection of family photographs that illustrate their experiences as they moved from Japan to the United States in the postwar period.

While the majority of the modules are focused on historical events, a selection of the modules has been created by curators who reflect on exhibition practices in relationship with the gender histories of Japanese photography.

Maggie Mustard's module on the exhibition she curated, The Incomplete Araki: Life, Sex, and Death in the Work of Nobuyoshi Araki, held at the Museum of Sex, New York in 2018, examines the many challenges with presenting work by the very controversial photographer in the context of the MeToo movement.

Do you have plans to expand this website, for example, by adding new modules? If possible, could you please tell us more about them?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: We will be adding a new collection of modules to the website in 2023. We are excited to present lectures by Ayelet Zohar on Ishikawa Mao; Kerry Ross on marketing cameras to women in the Taisho and early Showa period; Judy Legewood on May Ebihara's anthropological photographs in Cambodia; Phillip Charrier's lecture, Shigeo Gocho, women, and everyday resistance in 1960s Japan; Miryam Sas on Rethinking Japanese media theory, and interviews with Eileen Smith on photographing Minamata; and an interview between Komatsu Hiroko and Franz Prichard.

How did you first connect with the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University? / How did you hear about the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC)?

We saw a call for applications and after investigating the resources at the ARC were excited to partner with Ritsumeikan in the hopes of spreading the word about the project and collaborating with Japanese scholars.

Is there anything else you would like to comment on or highlight?

We are actively seeking contributors in Japan and around the world who would like to contribute new modules on the history of Japanese photography from new perspectives. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have a proposal for a module.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li.)

2023年1月18日（水）18:00より、Web配信にて第114回国際ＡＲＣセミナーを開催いたします。

プログラムは下記となります。

1.
講師：安宅望氏 (立命館大学大学院　文学研究科　博士課程後期課程)

タイトル：「近世後期における奈良の寺社の実相」－奈良奉行川路聖謨の日記『寧府紀事』から見えてくるもの

2.
講師：戸塚史織氏 (立命館大学大学院　文学研究科　博士課程後期課程)

タイトル：「勝川派の浮世絵作品にみられる改印の問題」

日時：2023年1月18日（水）18:00～19：30

参加：Zoom配信（関係者のみ・予約不要）

※ARCメンバー以外の方は Youtubeよりご参加いただけます。こちらからご覧下さい。

立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター 部科学省 国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際研究拠点」(ARC-iJAC)協力のもと、「アフリカ× 日本 アレワ紡の時代　―ナイジェリアと日本の繊維生産 1963-2005」が開催されます。

開催期間：2023年1月10日(火)－2月17日(金)

主催：京都工芸繊維大学美術工芸資料館

共催：国際共同研究採択課題「新しい近代京都機械捺染史構築に向けて―近代デザインと産業史をむすぶデジタル・アーカイブを一助として―」（プロジェクトリーダー：関西学院大学非常勤講師、同志社女子大学非常勤講師　上田 文）

協力：京都・大学ミュージアム連携／立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター 部科学省 国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際研究拠点」

詳細はこちら ↓ ↓ ↓

2023年2月18日（土）に第12回「知識・芸術・文化情報学研究会」を開催いたします。それに伴い、発表者の募集をいたします。奮ってご応募ください。

ARC-iJACでは、2023年度に本拠点から研究に必要な経費の配分を受けて共同研究を行う、国際共同研究課題〔研究費配分型〕を公募しています。申請締切は2023年1月20日（金）午後17時です。

国際共同研究課題〔研究費配分型〕の公募要項・申請書はこちら

• 国際共同研究公募要項〔研究費配分型〕
• 申請書