VISUAL CULTURE IN JAPAN
Summer session at Temple University Japan,
Minami Azabu (Tokyo)
May 14-July 1, 2004

Temple University offers several options for students considering a summer program of study in Tokyo, Japan. Japanese Visual Culture, is a six-week program scheduled for May 14-June 27, 2004, which focuses on the central theme of human visuality and specifically visual culture in modern Japan. Based at Temple's branch campus in Tokyo, Temple University Japan, the program is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students interested in Japan, Asian Studies, visual anthropology, visual sociology, media studies, or inter-cultural communication. Students enroll in two courses carrying three credits each for a total of six credits.

Temple University has the largest and longest surviving American University campus in Japan -- see http://www.tuj.ac.jp/newsite/main/index.html

ELECTRONIC DEMOSTRATION PORTFOLIOS
for Visual Anthropology Majors
Paper prepared for Journal of Educational Media.
What support strategies can be used to improve student learning and knowledge retention? Paper suggests the creation of Electronic Portfolios for Capstone Courses including the preparation of Intellectual Autobiographies. Pros and cons of this assignment are reviewed alongside the description of one course in visual anthropology at Temple University.

FROM PURILURA (Print Club) TO SHA-MAIL TO
PURIMO-DOS AND BACK:The Beat Goes On.
On-going study of the use of keitai cameras (cell phones containing a camera) and “sha-mail” in Japan. Comparisons are made with Print Club. Point is made that we are seeing a case of a maturing integration of image-technology comprising home media.

CELEBRATING LIFE AFTER DEATH:
The Appearance of Snapshots in Japanese Pet Grave Sites.
Paper in preparation for “Looking at Animals, Looking at Society” -- Special Issue of Visual Studies - Fall, 2004
Within a larger study of Japanese personal photography in contexts of home media, home mode communication, and Japanese culture, this paper offers a detailed case study of how snapshots are used in a sample of pet cemeteries in contemporary Tokyo, Japan. Meanings of these images are discussed in terms of animism, memory, communication, household maintenance, pet-extended families and connections to patterns of human ancestor worship.

EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS: A Photo Essay
(in process)
This photo essay addresses the ubiquitous bathroom sign: “Employees Must Wash Hands Before…” What variations are found? More to the point, why do we need to see this sign? Why is either the sign or the prescribed activity necessary? Are we witnessing a case of mandated hygiene or the prolonged yet persistent death of Common Sense?

Comments or Questions?

GHOST PHOTOGRAPHY:
Nihon No Shinrei Shashin as Home Media
On occasion, some Japanese will claim they find ghost images in their personal snapshots. Personnel at temples and shrines know what to do with these dreaded artifacts. What might connect this thinking to other cultural features or to other aspect of Japanese home media? How might the legacy of ghost-lore and related imagery be connected to this phenomenon? This paper explores this topic with interviews and examples from both mass media and home media.

ONE HOUR PHOTO
A Self-Interview
We are speaking with Dr. Richard Chalfen, Professor of Visual Anthropology at Temple. He has been a member of our faculty since 1972, specializing in cross-cultural studies of pictorial home media. The popularity of the recent feature film, One Hour Photo (OHP) prompted us to contact Dr. Chalfen.

LOOKING AT JAPANESE SOCIETY:
Hashiguchi George as Visual Sociologist
Paper prepared for IVSA ANNUAL MEETINGS
Southampton, UK - July 8, 2003
This paper examines how one Japanese documentary photographer, Hashiguchi George (b. 1949) explores his own society and culture much like a visual sociologist. Little known in the U.S., Hashiguchi implicitly poses questions and provides pictorial responses to questions of social order and Japanese social organization. Hashiguchi George’s work is marketed, sold and distributed as books, as a combination of fine art and documentary photography. His work seems to give a fine example of Howard Becker’s notion that “when art which is aimed at exploring society … [it] might just as well be social science information.”