Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement

Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement is an exploration of Japanese culture through performance. The piece incorporates stylized, ritualistic, and contemporary movement. The device used to portray our research was a folk tale told solely through physical expression. Music by Japanese composers and projections of the country supported the movement and helped to tell the story of the culture. We were deep into our research when we embarked on our trip to Japan to observe the specificity of the culture in everyday life and performance. Everything that we read, watched, and took part in manifested itself in the final presentation. The stylistic form of the piece was influenced by our studies and experiences within the Syracuse University Drama Department. We used a Japanese traditional folk tale about a young girl named Tokoyo to demonstrate both the physical culture and the societal priorities of the Japanese people. The process began with rigorous research of everything from the mie poses of Kabuki theatre to the way in which Japanese people board a subway car. Once we learned all that we could from books and videos we were fortunate enough to travel to Tokyo to immerse ourselves in the culture. In Tokyo we furthered our understanding of the Japanese lifestyle through observation, conversation, and participation. The process of developing an entertaining and educational piece of theatre began with story boarding, developing characters, and devising a way to include traditional and contemporary movement in one unified performance piece. We started our choreography of the story with a prologue to establish the relationship between the two central characters: Tokoyo and her father. Each movement was specific to what we had learned in our research and placed in the piece to demonstrate an aspect of gestural language. This made the work of creating the performance twice as difficult. We had to not only focus on storytelling but on the research that we had accumulated. The piece was well received by audiences that left the theatre with opened eyes to a culture so far from their own as well as an avant-garde theatre style. Though the audience didn’t understand or acknowledge the significance of every single nuance of the culture, they understood the themes of the story and the underlying emotions of the characters. Our performance educated our audience on a culture of which they may have had no prior knowledge. To do so through movement is extremely powerful. Movement has no language barrier and though the gestures may seem foreign the feelings emoted are clear. Body language is the ultimate communicator; watching an American member of our audience moved to tears by an unknown Japanese phrase of movement proves that this is true. This universal connection of humanity is just what we sought to demonstrate when we decided to explore cultural movement

Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement

Tokoyo: A Story of Cultural Movement is an exploration of Japanese culture through performance. The piece incorporates stylized, ritualistic, and contemporary movement. The device used to portray our research was a folk tale told solely through physical expression. Music by Japanese composers and projections of the country supported the movement and helped to tell the story of the culture. We were deep into our research when we embarked on our trip to Japan to observe the specificity of the culture in everyday life and performance. Everything that we read, watched, and took part in manifested itself in the final presentation. The stylistic form of the piece was influenced by our studies and experiences within the Syracuse University Drama Department. We used a Japanese traditional folk tale about a young girl named Tokoyo to demonstrate both the physical culture and the societal priorities of the Japanese people. The process began with rigorous research of everything from the mie poses of Kabuki theatre to the way in which Japanese people board a subway car. Once we learned all that we could from books and videos we were fortunate enough to travel to Tokyo to immerse ourselves in the culture. In Tokyo we furthered our understanding of the Japanese lifestyle through observation, conversation, and participation. The process of developing an entertaining and educational piece of theatre began with story boarding, developing characters, and devising a way to include traditional and contemporary movement in one unified performance piece. We started our choreography of the story with a prologue to establish the relationship between the two central characters: Tokoyo and her father. Each movement was specific to what we had learned in our research and placed in the piece to demonstrate an aspect of gestural language. This made the work of creating the performance twice as difficult, not only focusing on storytelling but on the research that we had accumulated. The piece was well received by audiences that left the theatre with opened eyes to a culture so far from their own as well as an avant-garde theatre style. Though the audience didn’t understand or acknowledge the significance of every single nuance of the culture, they understood the themes of the story and the underlying emotions of the characters. Our performance educated our audience on a culture of which they may have had no prior knowledge. To do so through movement is extremely powerful. Movement has no language barrier and though the gestures may seem foreign the feelings emoted are clear. Body language is the ultimate communicator; watching an American member of our audience moved to tears by an unknown Japanese phrase of movement proves that this is true. This universal connection of humanity is just what we sought to demonstrate when we decided to explore cultural movement

Thermally-efficient tea set design

Understanding the importance of tea in our daily life and provides in depth research on the history of tea, the culture behind drinking tea, the benefits of drinking tea as well as some key statistics involving the world tea consumption. Various health hazards of drinking hot tea or cooling the tea by blowing air from the mouth have been listed at length. This, in turn, throws light on the necessity of coming up with an innovative design for the teapot, teacups, and the accompanying items i.e. the teaspoons and the saucers. Prior to designing the tea set, various materials for the making of the tea set have been analyzed along with the study of the evolution of the tea sets and their design across centuries. For this thesis and the tea set designed, the prominent designer whose work was researched was Christopher Dresser, the 18th century modern designer who is thought to be the forerunner of modern design built on form, simple linear design, and function. The design process involved extensive brainstorming and developing the design mock-ups for the tea sets. With the identified design guidelines in mind, the most suitable design was then finalized. The actual modeling was done through the use of 3D printing, which helped substantially reduce the time for prototyping. This document provides the details of the project along with information on the background research, the methods followed, and the results of the various studies done. Supplemental video entitled Seeing Light

Active Design: Creating a Blue Zones model for interior environments

How might interior environments play a role in promoting life long well being? According to Passarino, et al., genetic variety only accounts for about 25% of the variation of human longevity. A combination of diet, environment and exercise comprise the greatest factors. The amount of time Americans spend indoors presents a challenge to increasing physical activity: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that Americans spend 93% of their lives indoors (Roberts, 2016). Therefore, if physical activity is crucial to living longer, the design of interior environments could logically be a critical factor in promoting natural movement and sustaining lifelong well-being. National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner identified five “Blue Zones” throughout the world where people naturally live longer: Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Oligastra Region, Sardinia; Loma Linda, California; and Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. These regions have unusually high concentrations of centenarians who had grown old without noticeable signs of heart disease, obesity, cancer or diabetes (Buettner, 2015). Buettner identified nine common principles that universally characterize well-being in the Blue Zones. The first, and most crucial to design in the built environment, is to “move naturally.” Healthy centenarians, Buettner says, “live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving” (Buettner, 2015). This research will seek to translate Blue Zone principles aimed at promoting continued well-being through natural movement that can inform principles for the creation of interior environments. RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES Further analysis of Blue Zones principles will address specific conditions and behaviors that encourage natural movement. A literature review and case studies will be presented that show a correlation between natural movement within the built environment and measurable increases in healthy outcomes. The example projects include La Maison de Verre, Paris, France; L’Unité d’Habitation à Marseille, France; and Tea House, Bethesda, Maryland. Interior design that encourages regular natural movement occurs primarily in the design of a building’s major circulation systems and its program (Center for Active Design, 2010). Corridors, elevators and lobbies that connect other spaces in the program encourage walking. Elements like stairs, bicycle storage and furniture that produces micro-movement promote activity when they are visible, safe and attractive. Programmed spaces that encourage physical activity like dance/movement studios and those that promote healthy diets also lead to increases in healthy behaviors, which ultimately lead to increased longevity. Using these guides, a building in Richmond, Virginia will be redesigned as a micro-Blue Zone that could be used as a model for promoting increased life long well being. This two-level adaptive reuse, mixed use commercial project will address vertical transitions, social spaces and outdoor relationships that encourage residents and visitors to move throughout the day

Towards a deep ecology of art, technology and being - an ontological investigation with particular reference to the rock-cut edifices of Ellora, India, and Tadao Ando’s water temple

This practice-based thesis is an interrogation of ‘being’, one not centred on the human being. It concerns a being that manifests through dynamic inter-relation between human and other entities and phenomena in the universe. It considers several interrelated questions, interrogating notions of 'relational being','non-anthropocentric being', 'the being of a space', ‘the space of being’. Ultimately, one is considering the implications of relational being for ‘deep ecology’. With regard ‘relational being’, key inter-related Buddhist ideas drive the thinking and practice: ‘relational origination’ (pratityasamutpada), and ‘emptiness’(shunyata). Furthermore at the heart of this particular history of technology is a discussion of the significance of zero. The Sanskrit term shunya, means both ‘zero’ and ‘empty’, and relates to shunyata. There are several principal objectives. Firstly an analysis of perceived relational dynamics in Ellora’s rock-cut architecture, technology, and ontology. Secondly, scrutiny of apparent correspondence between Ellora’s Edifice Twenty-Nine and a contemporary Tantric shrine: the Water Temple, constructed in 1991. Thirdly, an examination of ideas in contemporary science and technology that engender reconsiderations of notions of ‘relational being’. The primary practical outcomes are two films: relationship-place naka-ma and zero = every day? Both approach the question through phenomenological process, paralleling Ando’s conception of ‘architecture’ as an integrated and inter-acting entity of built edifice, wider landscape, and the spectatorship of persons who frequent it. This research engenders ‘new knowledge’ in terms of: offering pluralistic, trans-national and trans-disciplinary insight on current thinking relating to art, architecture, technology, spectatorship, and ontological practice; evolving knowledge with regard interactions between body, humanly constructed entities, wider environments/ecologies; engendering new perspectives on considerations of cyberspace, Ellora, Ando, and the Water Temple; contributing to a counter thesis vis-à-vis the colonial project of objectification and ossification of the other

Investigation of Japanese aesthetic life through the work of Sōtatsu and Kōrin, An

Art history research paper.1997 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (pages 28-29).Obtaining an understanding of the main components of the Japanese insight into beauty requires not only a grasp of the formal visual elements of the style, but also an understanding of the aesthetic as it pervaded every aspect of life in Japan. Much has been written about the intimate relationship between crafts such as pottery and spiritual life under the influence of Zen, but in screens we have examples of a Japanese art form which blend characteristics of the flat, painted image with those of objects of utility. During the Momoyama and Edo eras of the 17th and 18th centuries came new advances in the Japanese style of painting, primarily due to the artists Sōtatsu and Kōrin, now referred to as "The Great Decorators." This paper traces the traditional Japanese aesthetic from its Eastern religious and philosophical background to its expression in the screen paintings of the Sotatsu-Korin School Connections to the activities of the Japanese way of life of the period and the specific vocabulary used to discuss art of all varieties in Japan help to illuminate key concepts such as irregularity, simplicity, intuition, decoration, pattern, and utility. All of these are intimately related to the Buddhist and Zen procedures for living an artful and natural life and all seek to provide a harmonious blend between the artificial and the natural

FESTIVALS, SPORT, AND FOOD: JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT IN POSTWAR LOS ANGELES AND SOUTH BAY

This study fills a critical gap in research on the immediate postwar history of Japanese American community culture in Los Angeles and South Bay. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute research and literature of the immediate postwar period between the late 1940s resettlement period and the 1960s. During the early to mid-1940s, Americans witnessed World War II and the unlawful incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. In the 1960s, the Sansei (third generation) started to reshape the character and cultural expressions of Japanese American communities, including their development of the Yellow Power Movement in the context of the Black and Brown Power Movements in California. The period between these bookends, however, requires further research and academic study, and it is to the literature of the immediate postwar period that this thesis contributes. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the nearly absent literature of Japanese American community redevelopment in the transboundary Los Angeles/South Bay area. It is in this area that we find the largest and fastest growing postwar Japanese American population in the country. This community built lasting networks and relationships through the revival of cultural celebrations like Obon and Nisei Week, sport and recreation – namely baseball and bowling, and ethnic resources in the form of food and ethnic markets. These relationships laid the foundations for later social activism and the redefining of the Japanese American community. Far from a period of silence or inactivity, Japanese Americans actively shaped and reshaped their communities in ways that refused to allow the wartime incarceration experience, so fresh in their minds, to define them

The Japanese Tea Ceremony -The Relevance of a Mindfulness Practice for Sustainability and Pro-Environmental Behaviour

The Japanese tea ceremony is perceived as a transformative practice. Transformative practices for consciousness can be relevant as sustainable pathways. Studies suggest that mindfulness leads to sustainable behaviours and recommends that more studies are done on mindfulness practices. A reason for that is that mindfulness, among other causes, leads to a higher connectedness with nature (CWN), which studies suggest lead to pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). This study’s main result argues that the Japanese tea ceremony is a mindfulness practice that leads to a higher CWN and consequently sustainable mindsets and PEB. The data registered a transformation in attitudes, which include for instance empathy and respect towards the environment, valuing material belongings which may lead to decreased consumption, a non-waste mentality, environmental concern, ecological mindfulness and resourcefulness. Therefore, the Japanese tea ceremony is suggested to be a transformative practice that shows a potential for being a sustainable pathway. Data was collected through a qualitative triangulation research method, deploying both a survey and interviews. A conceptual framework included a way to investigate both the tea ceremony as a mindfulness practice and as a practice that leads to CWN. The data was analysed and suggested attitudes, views, experiences and beliefs that point towards sustainable mindsets and PEB

Material and Spiritual Entanglements with Ceramics: Looking at the case of contemporary Western practitioners in Japan

Westliche Künstlerinnen und Künstler sowie Intellektuelle haben in Ostasien häufig nach Inspiration und Ideen gesucht, die über die normativen Muster ihrer Gesellschaft hinausgehen. Dabei fühlte sich diese gesellschaftliche Gruppe vor allen Dingen von Vorstellungen über Japan angezogen, die auf handwerklichen sowie spirituellen Ideen basierten, die seit Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts Verbreitung fanden. In diesem Aufsatz wird der Fall von westlichen Keramikherstellenden untersucht, die zwischen den 1960er- und 2010er-Jahren nach Japan gekommen sind, um sich im Land über die heimische Keramiktradition fortzubilden und diese auch auszuüben. Auf der Grundlage von Interviews, die die Autorin in Japan mit vierzig Personen aus dem entsprechenden Bereich führte, wird die Anziehungskraft der japanischen Keramik sowie ihre Verstrickung mit der Philosophie des Handwerks analysiert. Nachdem die Autorin die umstrittene Beziehung zwischen japanischer Keramik und den spirituellen sowie philosophischen Traditionen des Landes nachgezeichnet hat, wird auf die Schilderungen der Keramikherstellenden eingegangen. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf der Auseinandersetzung der Befragten mit den von Japan geförderten Werten und Prozessen der Keramikherstellung, insbesondere in ihrer körperlichen, materiellen und sensorischen Dimension. Die Analyse der Autorin basiert auf der Grundlage neuerer Theorien über Anfertigung und Herstellung, die östliche philosophische Bezugsrahmen und eine darauf beruhende bestimmte Sichtweise der Ästhetik einbeziehen. Diese Ästhetik geht über das moderne westlich-konventionelle Verständnis von Kunst und Schönheit hinaus, weshalb die Autorin argumentiert, dass die in Japan entstandenen Herstellungsprozesse von Keramik und die spirituellen Philosophien den Herstellenden verschiedene Möglichkeiten bieten, vielfältige soziale Verbindungen mit Materialien, Objekten, Geschichten, Menschen, Gemeinschaften und Umgebungen zu artikulieren und zu erforschen. Auf diese Weise können die vielen Ebenen der relationalen Auseinandersetzung aufzeigt werden, die in der Praxis der Herstellung mitschwingen. Schließlich argumentiert die Autorin, dass die ausgewanderten Keramikherstellenden durch ihre kosmopolitischen Orientierungen, ökologischen Bestrebungen und der Suche nach einem erfüllten Leben von der Philosophie der japanischen Keramik angezogen wurden. Indem diese gesellschaftliche Gruppe den von Japan geförderten materiellen kulturellen Praktiken neue Bedeutungen verleiht, veranschaulichen die Verstrickungen der Herstellenden mit japanischer Keramik den fließenden Charakter von Objekten und ihrer Macht, Identitäten jenseits künstlich definierter Grenzen zu formen, die so orientalistische und kulturnationalistische Diskurse untergraben.Drawn by images of Japan centred on ideas of craftsmanship and spirituality, disseminated from the mid-nineteenth century, artists and intellectuals in the West have often searched East for something beyond the normative patterns of their societies. This paper looks at the case of Westerners who have crossed national borders to practice ceramics in Japan between the 1960s and the 2010s. Based on interviews with forty participants in Japan, I investigate their attraction to and entanglement with the ethos of Japanese pottery through an analysis of their narrative accounts. After tracing the contested relationships between Japanese ceramics and the country’s spiritual and philosophical traditions, I explore the practitioners’ accounts of their engagement with Japan-fostered ceramic making values and processes, particular in their bodily, material, and sensorial dimensions. Drawing on recent theories of making that incorporate Eastern philosophical frameworks and a view of aesthetics that goes beyond modern Western conventional understandings of art and beauty, I argue that Japan-nurtured ceramic making processes and spiritual philosophies function as a way for practitioners to articulate and explore multifaceted social connections with materials, objects, histories, people, communities, and environments, thus showing the many layers of relational engagement encapsulated in the experience of making. Finally, I claim that the makers’ attraction to the ethos of Japanese ceramics is rooted in cosmopolitan orientations, ecological aspirations, and the search for a good life. By giving Japan-fostered material cultural practices new meanings, Western practitioners' entanglements with Japanese ceramics illustrate the floating character of objects and their power in shaping identities beyond artificially defined borders, thus subverting Orientalist and cultural nationalist discourses