Kuang_Grade
02-16-2005, 03:25 PM
While not likely accessible to most of FG’s membership, the Japan Society (in New York) is running quite a few events as a part of their “Cool Japan: Otaku Strikes” series this spring. They are doing an exhibit, a few lectures/musical events, and quite a few films.
http://info.japansociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ac_cooljapan
complete schedule
http://www.japansociety.org/events/series.cfm?id_series=1859401724
COOL JAPAN: OTAKU STRIKES!
Japan Society’s Spring 2005 season, titled “Cool Japan: Otaku Strikes!” is an integrated offering of arts programs that explores the impact of Japan’s otaku subculture on the most innovative film, performance art and commercial design in Japan today. Otaku is a Japanese subculture obsessed with fantastic and apocalyptic science fiction, video games, comic books (manga) and film animation (anime), and whose visual language is rapidly becoming globalized. The centerpiece of Cool Japan is Japan Society Gallery's Spring 2005 exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture curated by Takashi Murakami.
Some examples of the events
Onkyo Marathon
Curated by Carl Stone
Improvisational electronic computer music
Friday, April 1 & Saturday, April 2
7 - 11 pm
Saturate yourself in onkyo - an umbrella term (fast becoming an international expression) for a new genre of computer music that is primarily atonal, noise-based and improvised. Eat, drink and be merry―with Japan’s most revolutionary composer/musicians of electronic sound pieces, curated by Carl Stone, the U.S. pioneer of live computer music hailed by the Village Voice as “The king of sampling.” Held in a hanami party (spring night flower-gazing) atmosphere, the audience is encouraged to come and go during the four-hour marathon.
INSIDE THE STUDIO Takashi Murakami & the Artists of Kaikai Kiki
Friday, April 8
6:30 pm
Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami has made a name for himself by transforming pop culture into high art with a bold and often deliberately commercial aesthetic sensibility. His use of pop culture symbols and his creation of the Kaikai Kiki Factory, a collective space for young artists, have earned Murakami countless comparisons to Andy Warhol, yet Murakami's work distinguishes itself by also speaking to a deeper sense of postwar national identity. As the final installment of the Superflat trilogy, Little Boy--which refers to the codename used for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and which personifies the culture of "cute" that dominates popular forms in Japan--goes beyond a surface rendering of Japan's popular cultures to identify a darker graphic subculture, to express Murakami's vision of contemporary Japan. Public art installations by Kaikai Kiki artists will also be in display at several local venues. This program features a conversation between Takashi Murakami, curator of the exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture and artists of Kaikai Kiki.
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (Gamera 3: Jashin Irisu Kakusei)
Friday, May 27
6:30 pm
Gamera Three (known to Japanese fans as G3) concludes the history of the turtle monster film series begun in 1965. A counterattack against Gamera, whose character has oscillated between a destructive monster and a guardian of the earth, comes in the form of a powerful flying monster with multiple tentacles named Iris, who hatches from an egg found at an ancient religious site and is nurtured by Ayana.
I can only hope that some MST3K otaku also show up for the Gamera showing if only to sing:
” Gamera is really neat
Gamera is filled with meat
We all love you, Gamera.”
http://info.japansociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ac_cooljapan
complete schedule
http://www.japansociety.org/events/series.cfm?id_series=1859401724
COOL JAPAN: OTAKU STRIKES!
Japan Society’s Spring 2005 season, titled “Cool Japan: Otaku Strikes!” is an integrated offering of arts programs that explores the impact of Japan’s otaku subculture on the most innovative film, performance art and commercial design in Japan today. Otaku is a Japanese subculture obsessed with fantastic and apocalyptic science fiction, video games, comic books (manga) and film animation (anime), and whose visual language is rapidly becoming globalized. The centerpiece of Cool Japan is Japan Society Gallery's Spring 2005 exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture curated by Takashi Murakami.
Some examples of the events
Onkyo Marathon
Curated by Carl Stone
Improvisational electronic computer music
Friday, April 1 & Saturday, April 2
7 - 11 pm
Saturate yourself in onkyo - an umbrella term (fast becoming an international expression) for a new genre of computer music that is primarily atonal, noise-based and improvised. Eat, drink and be merry―with Japan’s most revolutionary composer/musicians of electronic sound pieces, curated by Carl Stone, the U.S. pioneer of live computer music hailed by the Village Voice as “The king of sampling.” Held in a hanami party (spring night flower-gazing) atmosphere, the audience is encouraged to come and go during the four-hour marathon.
INSIDE THE STUDIO Takashi Murakami & the Artists of Kaikai Kiki
Friday, April 8
6:30 pm
Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami has made a name for himself by transforming pop culture into high art with a bold and often deliberately commercial aesthetic sensibility. His use of pop culture symbols and his creation of the Kaikai Kiki Factory, a collective space for young artists, have earned Murakami countless comparisons to Andy Warhol, yet Murakami's work distinguishes itself by also speaking to a deeper sense of postwar national identity. As the final installment of the Superflat trilogy, Little Boy--which refers to the codename used for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and which personifies the culture of "cute" that dominates popular forms in Japan--goes beyond a surface rendering of Japan's popular cultures to identify a darker graphic subculture, to express Murakami's vision of contemporary Japan. Public art installations by Kaikai Kiki artists will also be in display at several local venues. This program features a conversation between Takashi Murakami, curator of the exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture and artists of Kaikai Kiki.
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (Gamera 3: Jashin Irisu Kakusei)
Friday, May 27
6:30 pm
Gamera Three (known to Japanese fans as G3) concludes the history of the turtle monster film series begun in 1965. A counterattack against Gamera, whose character has oscillated between a destructive monster and a guardian of the earth, comes in the form of a powerful flying monster with multiple tentacles named Iris, who hatches from an egg found at an ancient religious site and is nurtured by Ayana.
I can only hope that some MST3K otaku also show up for the Gamera showing if only to sing:
” Gamera is really neat
Gamera is filled with meat
We all love you, Gamera.”