theme 2009-2010:
virtual worlds, real bodies
The MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project is planning several events for the current academic year. This year’s theme is “Virtual Worlds, Real Bodies,” in which we explore various ways in which popular culture and media related to Japan are intertwined with issues concerning the body, gender, and sexuality. Too often the scholarship that examines popular culture reinforces the impression that media representations exist on screen, in earbud headphones, or are associated primarily with the technologies of conveyance rather than in their points of contact with material bodies, with ideological and practical relations of gendered and transgendered people, and permeating the intimate spaces of desire.
event highlights
Hip-Hop Japan Remix Mixer
DJ Ian Condry at the Enormous Room, Cambridge MA
Come hear the latest Japanese hip-hop, and meet others interested in Cool Japan!
Free
(In conjunction with Beat Research [www.beatresearch.com])
Date: Monday September 28, 2009
Time: 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM
Location:
The Enormous Room
569 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
 Avant-garde Dance Butoh |
"Hip Hop and Tokusatsu (Special Effects Films) Robots: Expanding the Language of the Body in the Japanese Avant-garde Dance Butoh"
Prof. Bruce Baird (U Mass, Amherst)
Talk and discussion (with free pizza lunch)
Date: Tuesday November 17, 2009
Time: 12:30 - 2:00 PM
Location: MIT 4-364
 Summer Wars |
Summer Wars Screening and discussion with Director Mamoru Hosoda
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New England premier screening and discussion with the director.
Date: Monday March 1, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: MIT 26-100
about cool japan
Since January 2006, Professor Ian Condry has organized the Cool Japan: Media, Culture, Technology Research Project at MIT and Harvard. The project presents colloquia, international conferences, and arts events to examine the cultural connections, dangerous distortions, and critical potential of popular culture. The goal is to encourage scholarly debate, research, and networking in the Boston area for faculty and students interested in media and globalization related to Japan. The project is sponsored by the MIT Japan Program, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and MIT Foreign Languages & Literatures.