otaku cluture

   In today's the theory class, our group discussed about contemporary art market in New York. One of our member had an experience living in New York so she had presentation of that. When I was asked aspects of contemporary art in Tokyo, I thought that I need to mention 'OTAKU' culture (which is in English probably ....geek/nerd? )
Because of it is Takashi Murakami's art works. In his art practice, it can't be explain without otaku culture.
It is not exaggeration to say that he introduced otaku culture for the world.

In Japan, people call some manias''otaku'' there are various otakus. For example anime otaku,manga otaku so on....
Surprisingly, otaku culture is much wider than you are expecting. From those different categories.









Most of otaku people spend much money and time in their own hobbies than their own lives.
so image of otaku people is the follow that

Generally, they like sating indoor. They tend to put on own glasses and have a bad eyesight because they like computer games. Therefore, they don't care about own appearance at all.

When I was working in Tokyo, there were sort of otaku people
(my colleague) in the office. They were into manga or anime.
They also looked like him→　（the boy in the image is much nicer than my colleague）

I wish my classmate would understand this strange culture.

Tutorial4

It has been about one month since I have started 'everyday project'.
I became to feel differences of each days.

I am there around 9.08 am

Sunday-very quiet
Saturday-you can see football team
Friday-for some reasons, it seems to be quiet (because of the beginning of weekend?)
Monday to Thursday- normally people rush to school or work(especially on Monday,
people seem to be unhappy?)

But this thought might be just my prejudice, they might not rush or be unhappy.
I compare with my life in Tokyo and Edinburgh, aspect of  commute is totally different but somehow I could feel the same atmosphere...

                                                                              rush hour congestion in Tokyo

I was thinking how people think of 'ordinary life' or 'everyday' then interesting thing happen.
Suddenly one lady spoke to me (she was curious about what I am doing) so we had a conversation.
And she let me talk how she uses the park and how she enjoys and I gave my 'facebook' access to her.
I talked this to my tutor these things and I found that sharing something through my project is very interesting and promotes me to create new idea. I haven't had any social network service  before (even Facebook, I was not very happy using it) but I thought that I should use them on my own way and change my mind.

Group critic 2

It was interesting group critic today. (I guess I am getting used to talk with them) Each of the students has their own unique ideas which I would not come up with.I didn't have much experience discussing about own works with group when I was a student in Japan, so it makes me nervous but also it has a great influence for my practice. After my presentation of my project,I asked them how I should show my everyday photo. They recommend me to using slideshow  or movie. I have never ever used video before, so that would be new challenging for me. So we discussed about the difference between movie and photography then one of student let me us very interesting works.It was beautiful and amazing works between photography and video.(please check the website↓)

Photographer Jamie Beck and her partner Kevin Burg, who has a background in video and motion graphics, take beautiful photographs and turn them into something that rests comfortably between photography and video. According to Beck and Burg, their work is just a little more than photographs and a bit less than video. Many of the movements are so subtle that you don’t notice them at first. The bigger movements tend to look almost like video, but it is these subtle movements that make these photos so intriguing.

http://weburbanist.com/2011/05/04/moving-pictures-stunning-photographs-brought-to-life/

Tutorial 3 'EVERYDAY PROJECT'

Since middle of October, I have been planning my project and started practicing 'everyday project'. During the reading weeks,I was testing which point is the best place to take a photo everyday
and composition of the photo so on. Then I showed some images to friend in Japan and discussed about the project(through Skype) He suggested that the image looks too whole and the image is just green and can't see the object.It was a simple comment but I found that most of pictures I take are just whole image of landscape which is not specific. Therefore I changed the distance of the lens between camera and the object (Arthurs seat).

After the discussion,I left home immediately and took photos and send it to the friend again.He said 'I don't like the framing,why the mountain(hill)is the middle of the image?'
I went to the meadows again and tried to take different way.However strangely, the framing was almost the same as that one which he doesn't like. I thought that maybe I prefer that one so I decide to the frame of (the following)  

I used to change my works if someone criticize it, then the works was becoming something different and I often confused what I want to do! Although I just thought that I should trust my sense in this project,I appreciate my friend's feedback! 


In the tutorial, I showed that and explained what I have been doing for this project these days. My tutor suggested me trying to find another idea or project at the same time... 
I didn't think I can do things at the same time but while I was planing this project in the meadows, I was curious to a puddle and took some pictures of it. I thought I wish I could jump into a puddle.I talked about that thought to her and she encouraged me to keep going that project as well.I didn't suppose that it would be work but it can be idea for next project.