The Great Wave off Kanagawa (ukiyo-e artist: Katsushika Hokusai)
Course Description
JAPN 314: Visual Culture and Media
An analysis of historical and modern Japanese society through works of art and media including photography, film, maps, and other visual materials. Students learn to extract information from images as part of a visual analysis, while dealing with socio-geographical methods for understanding urban flows, economic disparities, transportation, and built environments. Students compare what they understand about Japanese culture with their own familiar environments. Taught in English.
(Prereq: Junior or Senior Standing)
https://csumb.edu/course/japn/314
https://csumb.edu/catalog/course-descriptions
Meets MLO4
(Prereq: Junior or Senior Standing)
https://csumb.edu/course/japn/314
https://csumb.edu/catalog/course-descriptions
Meets MLO4
Course Narrative
This class met MLOs 2 (Culture) and 4 (Research and Technology). The books, Visual Methodologies and A Geek in Japan were utilized for this class. Dr. Dustin Wright taught this class introducing the Japanese culture where I learned to critically analyze art like the Ukiyo-e (Edo period). This type of art consists of a woodblock printing process depicted on scrolls of subjects including sumo wrestlers, actors of kabuki theatre and geishas. I learned about Japanese culture through anime, manga and film. I also learned about the miscellaneous ways to analyze visuals under the Sites of Production (the image itself, its audiencing, production and the site of the image). I reveled in the colorful pages of the “Geek” book as it was full of facts on this amazing culture.
Moreover, research and technology came into play as each student selected a visual aspect of the Japanese culture to investigate and present via a power point to the rest of the class. I am a visual person so I immensely enjoyed watching and learning the myriad facets of the Japanese culture through this visual aspect.
I am happy to have taken this class for I hardly knew anything about Japan. The visual culture through film, painting and photographs were very helpful to understand a different perspective. This course instilled a desire to learn more about this culture and hope that someday I can visit along my family.
Below you will find a link to an essay analyzing pictures of the "The Gail Project" collection (Okinawa) and another link to a power point as representative of both the media and the culture aspect.
Moreover, research and technology came into play as each student selected a visual aspect of the Japanese culture to investigate and present via a power point to the rest of the class. I am a visual person so I immensely enjoyed watching and learning the myriad facets of the Japanese culture through this visual aspect.
I am happy to have taken this class for I hardly knew anything about Japan. The visual culture through film, painting and photographs were very helpful to understand a different perspective. This course instilled a desire to learn more about this culture and hope that someday I can visit along my family.
Below you will find a link to an essay analyzing pictures of the "The Gail Project" collection (Okinawa) and another link to a power point as representative of both the media and the culture aspect.
mendez_gail_project_essay-.docx |
pp_japn_314_final_portfolio.pdf |