Tag Archives: Japan

Stave off back-to-school angst with the latest episodes of our Student/Space videos

Spring 2015 Orientation begins today. And while an Art Center initiation holds the potential to overwhelm and intimidate with its alphabet soup of acronyms (extra credit to any new student who can define ACCD, CSE,  JFK and LAT). Then there are those daunting tales of Art Center’s punishing workloads and cringe-inducing crits.

Of course, it’s worth noting that any challenges encountered here will not be experienced in vain. There is a method behind the madness. An Art Center education, above all else, instills a process-driven approach to the audacious act of bringing innovative and imaginative ideas to life.

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Art Center in Asia: It Began in Japan

Product Design alumnus Kenji Ekuan (BS 57), second from right, arrives in the United States in the 1950s.

Product Design alumnus Kenji Ekuan (BS 57), second from right, arrives in the United States in the 1950s.

In the latest issue of Dot magazine, we take a look at Art Center College of Design’s long history—nearly 60 years—of connections to Asia. Take a trip with us through time and across the Pacific as we look back in history and forward to the future. Today, we explore the College’s historic relationship with Japan.

In 1956, Edward A. “Tink” Adams, Art Center’s first president, traveled to Japan with Advertising alumnus George Jergenson (BFA 35)—then the director of the College’s Industrial Design (ID) Department—and ID faculty member John Coleman. They had been invited by the Japanese government to tour the country and to share their thoughts on how industrial design could provide a competitive advantage for a nation still early in its post-war recovery.

After returning to the U.S., they filed a formal report containing several recommendations for Japan, including instilling a sense of national pride in products being “Made in Japan”—they cited Nikon’s confidence in placing its name on its camera, “one of the finest cameras anywhere”—and making sure Japanese students fully grasp their country’s rich cultural history. The future designer, it stated, “will learn more…from studying Japanese masters of painting and design than he will from Western art.”

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“Hiroshi Sugimoto: Past Tense,” four decades of alum’s work at the Getty Museum through June 8

Polar Bear, 1976, Hiroshi Sugimoto, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council. © Hiroshi Sugimoto

Polar Bear, 1976, Hiroshi Sugimoto, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council.
© Hiroshi Sugimoto

Long interested in the “re” part of representation, Hiroshi Sugimoto has, since the 1970s, used photography to investigate how history pervades the present. His first photographs, made while still in high school, captured film footage of Audrey Hepburn as it played in a movie theater.

Now the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles brings together three separate bodies of work by the 1972 Art Center Photography alumnus — four decades’ worth of meticulously crafted prints that inventively reframe objects from the collections of a variety of museums. The exhibition Hiroshi Sugimoto: Past Tense, continuing through June 8, features “Dioramas” (1975–1994), “Portraits” (1999) and his newest series, “Photogenic Drawings” (2008–present).

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Of one minute wonders and sustainable paper planes: February’s Art Center alumni notes

Hiroshi Sugimoto's design for for his museum complex in Odawara, Japan

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s design for for his museum complex in Odawara, Japan

From art installations inspired by NASA’S space oddities to a self-styled museum in Japan: Art Center alums have been busy in February. Read on for more details about last month’s alumni accomplishments, including Designmatters’ new alumni engagement efforts.

News

Dan Goods GRPK 02 was featured in a story on Yahoo News about his work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).  Yahoo

Satyendra Pakhalé PROD 94 discussed his design process and curiosity in a One Minute Wonder video. One Minute Wonder

Hiroshi Sugimoto PHOT 74 has announced plans to design and build a new museum for his work, the Odawara Art Foundation, which will be located in Odawara Japan. Wall Street Journal Blog

Jennie Warren PHOT 05 collaborated with Welsh singer Cate Le Bon and illustrator Erin Althea and on a series of promotional images for Cate’s upcoming tour. Erin Althea’s Blog

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Alum Bruce Osborn photographs tsunami survivors for National Geographic Japan

Bruce OsbornThe March 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine’s Japan edition features Art Center alum Bruce Osborn’s photographs of parents and children in Tohoku, two years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region, resulting in a nuclear disaster and the deaths and displacement of thousands of residents. The vivid, colorful portraits, taken against the backdrop of affected areas, capture the resilient spirit of those who live there.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osborn has lived in Japan since 1980. After studying Photography at Art Center College of Design, he worked as the photographer for Phonograph Record Magazine before moving to Japan where he continues to work as a photographer and filmmaker. His Oyako project, which takes its name from the Japanese word for “parent and child,” grew out of a series of photographs he began in 1982 and continues as a popular annual tradition throughout Japan on the fourth Sunday of July.

ACSG Leads Japan Relief Effort

Art Center’s Student Government is teaming up with the College to raise $5,000 in donations for the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Japan is still in desperate need of funds to revitalize their coastal communities after last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Donations will be accepted through April 20.

Art Center has maintained a close relationship with Japan dating back to the 1950s when the first design students sponsored by JETRO came to study at the College. In recent years, students from Tama Art University and Art Center have collaborated on several projects, including a study on earthquake safety, in an effort to design more effective approaches to education, preparedness and recovery. Please help us send desperately needed aid to Japan.

ACSG has set up a new website for the effort, and will update it regularly with progress. Donate today, and please tell your friends—together we can reach our $5,000 goal.

Check out the website and donate today.

Statement on Japan by Art Center President Buchman

On behalf of the Art Center College of Design community, I would like to express our deep concern for the impact the devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan has had on all those affected by these tragic events.

Art Center has maintained close ties with Japan since the 1950s when the first design students sponsored by JETRO came to study at the College. In recent years, students from Tama Art University and Art Center have collaborated on several projects, including a study on earthquake safety, in an effort to design more effective approaches to education, preparedness and recovery. As we hear the news of this catastrophe, we are reminded of the common ties that bind those of us along the Pacific Rim.

Our shared vulnerability compels us to offer comfort; our long history provides a pathway to deliver it. Please know that we are reaching out to our many alumni, corporate and academic partners in Japan so that we can lend support where it is most needed. At the same time, we have dedicated resources to assist those students, faculty and staff on campus who are coping with losses from these events.

As the effects of Friday’s earthquake continue to unfold, our friends in Japan are foremost in our thoughts.  We mourn those who were lost and send our heartfelt wishes for a rapid recovery to all who survived.

Sincerely,

Lorne Buchman
President
Art Center College of Design

Image by designer Nick Nawroth. Prints are available for purchase, with half of the proceeds donated to the American Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.

* Editor’s note 3/16: Nawroth has contacted us to let us know that 100% of proceeds will be going to Japan relief efforts.