Meet the Instructor | General Education Requirements
Course Description
In recent years, Japanese contemporary culture has gained an immense following worldwide. Part of the attraction comes from the striking originality that seems to defy pressures of globalization. What are the sources of this originality? Can it be traced to traditional art forms? When Japan opened its borders in the 1850s, after centuries of isolation, Western visitors discovered unique and sophisticated traditions they had never seen before: of rock gardens, haiku, tea ceremony, martial arts, ikebana, and Noh Theater. In this seminar we will explore Japanese arts through comparative examination and direct engagement. Through discussions, viewings, readings, and presentations we will learn to interpret historic and contemporary examples. We will do creative exercises and workshops in traditional Japanese arts of calligraphy, ikebana, and tea ceremony on a continuum with aspects of familiar contemporary forms like anime or manga. These exercises and workshops will lead to artistic final projects in a form chosen by each of you.
General Education Requirements
Meet the Instructor
Jaroslaw Kapuscinski
"I am a composer, animator, installation artist, and pianist. My work has been presented in venues such as New York MoMA and the Pompidou Center in Paris, and received awards at international video and media festivals in Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United States. My primary interest is the creation and performance of works in which musical instruments are used to control multimedia content. My collaborators include poets, animators, cinematographers, photographers, dancers, and choreographers. I was trained as a classical pianist and composer at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and expanded into multimedia at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and during doctoral studies at UC San Diego. I have lectured internationally and taught at McGill University in Montreal, Royal Academy of Arts and Music in The Hague, Art Conservatory and Music Academy in Odense, and the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific. At Stanford, I teach seminars in composition, workshops for intermedia artists, and classes on Asian traditional music and arts."
