Hello, this is Yamauchi from the Produce Department. It's been a while since my last post, but how are you all?
Today, we will introduce a new learning environment created by Monosus and HAUS, "Special Lectures for Part-time Lecturers," and announce the next event .
Part-time lecturer special lectures are exactly as the name suggests, lectures by part-time lecturers with in-depth content. Special lectures are advanced study in English, so the content is naturally aimed at advanced students in that field. However, what makes these part-time lecturer special lectures so different from those in the academic field is that anyone with a desire to learn can participate (and you can listen to the lectures with a beer in hand).
It's open and casual, but the content is hardcore. It's a place of learning that seems to exist, but is hard to find.
The original trigger was when I was drinking with Yosuke Hayashi of HAUS, a co-organizer, a few months ago and he told me about a part-time lecturer (Yosuke himself works as a part-time lecturer).
"Part-time lecturers" are people who teach in their own fields and are active at the forefront of their fields. However, their talents and knowledge, which are touched upon in their lectures, are rarely made public beyond the educational field. I wish there was a place where I could learn their specialized and fresh knowledge more freely... Oh, well, let's do it at Monosus! An event where experts from various fields gather.
So, things progressed smoothly, and for the first session in December, Yosuke spoke about his lecture "Introduction to Internet Art" at Nagaoka Institute of Design. It was a full two-hour lecture on the history of Internet art, which uses the structure and characteristics of the Internet as a material and medium for expression. It was quite interesting. I can't show you all the slides from that day, but to introduce just the topic, it was something like this ↓
What do you think? I think that even just this index will give you an idea of the concentration of "Special Lectures for Part-time Lecturers." (In fact, these contents were discussed with a wealth of images, videos, and website introductions.)
Listeners listening intently (members of Monosus & HAUS)
The Monosus members usually work on the Internet through website production, but it seemed to them that this was a refreshing lecture for them, as they were able to experience the world of the Internet from a cultural and historical (and radical) perspective.
After the lecture, we moved to a bar and had a lively discussion, exchanging opinions and questions. Below are some impressions from the Monosus members who attended the lecture.
- It may seem obvious, but just being in a slightly different industry can make all the difference in the way you see things! I was surprised by so many things.
- It was a great experience to learn about the way the same genre is perceived and interpreted over time. I knew very little about net art, but I was genuinely surprised to learn that it is already so mature, or rather, has such a long history. I had no idea that there was a world like this, and that there were people who were thinking about and disseminating information about it!
- I thought that the ephemerality of the works, which disappear due to technological innovations unique to the Internet, is what makes them art.
This first session was a trial run, so attendance was limited to Monosus and HAUS members, but from the next session onwards, we hope to make it open to anyone.
The next event will be held on Wednesday, February 5th!
Part-time Lecturer Special Lecture #1 [From Self-organization to Production - Lecturer: Goro Murayama]
So, on Wednesday, February 5th, we will be hosting a special lecture entitled "Part-time Lecturer Special Lecture #1: From Self-Organization to Creation" with contemporary artist Goro Murayama as the lecturer!
Murayama, who expresses self-organizing processes and patterns through paintings and drawings, is active as an artist and has participated in various international art exhibitions, while also teaching as a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts and Musashino Art University.
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Lecture #1 "From self-organization to production"
Murayama expresses self-organizing processes and patterns through his paintings and drawings. Self-organization is a phenomenon that autonomously creates an orderly structure. It has been developed as a scientific theory since the 1980s. Examples of this include snowflakes, traffic jams, ant colonies, and even the formation of cell membranes. It is a phenomenon that is widely seen in organic structures such as life and society. He deals with systems in which structures emerge endogenously through the interaction of partial elements, rather than organizations in which a blueprint for the entire structure is given from the outside in advance. Murayama presents new forms of painting and drawing by referring to this theory. In general, the composition of a painting is created by creating a sketch, and then the work is put into practice based on that sketch. Unlike this, Murayama sets up his own method for the production process. By introducing a self-organizing rule in which the previous state of the painting becomes the starting condition for the next step, he is able to create organic, life-like patterns that do not fit into cyclical patterns.
In this lecture, I will provide an overview of autopoiesis theory, a specific form of self-organization, and the theory of production that can be derived from it.
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This time too, it looks like it's going to be a very intellectual and dense lecture...!
Personally, I think you will be able to enjoy the above lecture topic even more if you watch the video of the Setouchi Triennale 2019 residency production on Mr. Murayama's website in advance.
There are only 15 general admission seats available, so please apply early!