UNIVERSITY OF VIGO, PONTEVEDRA CAMPUS (VIGO, SPAIN)

3-4th June 2019

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Painting East: Artistic relations between Japan and the West (Artists, aesthetics, artworks)

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Nowadays, intense influences between cultures are commonly associated with new technologies and globalisation. However, when it comes to art, the new millennium is but the last step in a long process of hundreds of years of artistic interaction and cultural exchange between artists from countries all over the world. The relationship between Japan and Europe, strengthened after the Meiji Restoration, richly exemplifies how artists and their production benefit from outside influences, which ultimately permeates between different artistic and cultural manifestations such as cinema, photography, fashion, graphic design, comics or contemporary art. This workshop aims to gather researchers and practitioners who wish to discuss the mutual influence between Japan and Europe on artists, their works and styles. The discussions are open to all periods and artistic media (including fine arts, cinema, photography, graphic design, manga, anime, fashion, etc.). We invite papers that consider individual artists, collectives, artistic movements or specific artworks.

The dx5 digital & graphic art_research group at University of Vigo, in co-operation with Mutual Images Association, invite potential speakers to this workshop. Interested presenters are invited to submit a 300-word abstract on topics related to images of Japan through a foreign lens and vice-versa. PhD students and early career researchers are particularly encouraged to submit papers. Panel submissions are welcome, but also all the individual papers will be grouped with others of a similar theme, where possible. All papers presented may be subsequently published in the peer-reviewed journal Mutual Images: mutualimages-journal.org.

Please send your abstract, along with your details (name, position and institution/affiliation), to: mutualimages@gmail.com

The deadline for abstracts is 30th March 2019. Presentations will be scheduled for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion and exchange. Information about attending as a delegate will be sent out shortly after the deadline. A provisional schedule and details of the keynote will be provided at that time.

We encourage submissions considering the following themes, but not exclusively:

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Times New Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2019 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

Joint Organising Chairs:

José Andrés Santiago Iglesias, University of Vigo, Spain

Ana Soler Baena, University of Vigo, Spain

Tatiana Lameiro González, University of Vigo, Spain

Aurore Yamagata-Montoya, Independant Researcher, Lithuania

Danesin Maxime, Université de Tours, France

Marco Pellitteri, Shanghai International Studies University, China

CARDIFF UNIVERSITY (CARDIFF, UK)

1st-2nd May 2018

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Mediatised images of Japan in Europe: Through the media kaleidoscope

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Europe and Japan are geographically far removed from one another. However, and increasingly, Japan is also present in a variety of public venues and forms travelling on multiple distribution platforms: print, television, and online media. Inevitably, all these sources provide polyvalent images of Japan as traditional and modern, familiar and alien. The variety, and sometimes conflicting nature of these images can raise questions about their accuracy and how representative of Japan they are. Japan is perceived through the kaleidoscope of the media, as a fragmented and scattered succession of images, forming an ever-changing vision. While air travel has become accessible for the masses, Japan remains distant for many Europeans, and thus their main or only sources of knowledge are those that are available to them in their home country or on the Internet. Papers for this workshop can fall into, but are not limited to, the following categories:

• Japan in the European media, in the past and currently
• The press: newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, internet magazines and portals
• Television: variety shows, documentaries released in European TV stations
• Travelogues and carnets de voyage
• European/American cinema and TV shows
• Images of Japan as depicted in Japanese manga and animation (anime, feature films, auteur short animations) as well as Japanese live-action films and TV series released in European countries
• European/American novels, comics, cinema and TV shows
• Accuracy of media portrayals of Japan
• ‘Contradictions’ and ‘paradoxes’ about Japan in European and Japanese media
• ‘Japan’ as a constructed image in/by the media
• Western stereotyping of Japan in the media

Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages, in co-operation with Mutual Images Association, invite potential speakers to this workshop. Interested presenters are invited to submit a 300-word abstract on topics related to images of Japan through a foreign lens and vice-versa. PhD students and early career researchers are particularly encouraged to submit papers. Panel submissions are welcome, but also all the individual papers will be grouped with others of a similar theme, where possible. All papers presented may be subsequently published in the peer-reviewed journal Mutual Images: mutualimages-journal.org.

Please send your abstract, along with your details (name, position and institution/affiliation), to: mutualimages@gmail.com

The deadline for abstracts is 15th February 2018. Presentations will be scheduled for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion and exchange. Information about attending as a delegate will be sent out shortly after the deadline. A provisional schedule and details of the keynote will be provided at that time.

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Times New Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2018 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 15th February 2018.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Christopher Hayes, Cardiff University, UK

Aurore Yamagata-Montoya, University of the West of England, UK

Danesin Maxime, Université de Tours, France

Marco Pellitteri, Kobe University, Japan

Matteo Fabbretti, Cardiff University, UK

Fabio D. Palumbo, University of Messina, Italy

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY (NAGOYA, JAPAN)

22-23th April 2017

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Japan and Asia: Representations of Selfness and Otherness

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For the fifth Mutual Images Workshop, which is taking place on 22-23 April at Nagoya University (Japan), we seek papers aiming to explore representations of Selfness and Otherness in and between Japan and other Asian nations. We are particularly interested in presentations that critically interrogate current imaginations of the self-other, Japan-Asia, modern-premodern, and other commonly employed conceptual pairs.

Rather than being confined within contested geographical definitions of Asia, we invite participants to consider “Japan” and “Asia” as imaginary, constructed spaces/notions. Our primary interest is in mutual imaginings. What parts have colonialism, war, and contemporary transnational flows of people, goods, and ideas played into the formation of Selfness, Otherness, and their conceptual, literary, visual, and broadly cultural representations? What has been the interplay of hybrid(izing) modern global culture and these representations? What about changing technologies and modalities of production and consumption? In breaking away from the binary coupling of “Self” and “Other,” what new visions and directions can be generated in the investigation of cultural processes and products?

We are soliciting case studies in the fields of literature, visual and media studies, cultural sociology, and the fine and performing arts. We welcome contributions examining the dual role of cultural works as both participant in and product of the discourse on “Selfness” and “Otherness” from the mid-nineteenth century to present day.

This inter-disciplinary workshop is open to both postgraduates and academics at any stage of their career.

DEADLINE

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 31st January 2017. Presentations will be 20-minute long, followed by 20 minutes of Q&A and discussion. Abstracts are to be submitted to the following address:  mutualimages@gmail.com

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Calibri 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2017 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 15th February 2017.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt, Nagoya University, Japan

Aurore Yamagata-Montoya, University of the West of England, UK

Danesin Maxime, Université de Tours, France

Marco Pellitteri, Kobe University, Japan

Matteo Fabbretti, Cardiff University, UK

AARHUS UNIVERSITY (AARHUS, DENMARK)

13-14th May 2016

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Fictionality in representations of Japan and Europe from a cross-cultural perspective

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For the fourth Mutual Images workshop, we seek to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe through the notion of fictionality. These past decades, the growth of cultural exchanges has created new opportunities of fictionalization between European and Japanese. Far from being restrained to its definition as a genre, Fictionality has become a key element in our contemporary society. Whether it is in entertainment media (novel, manga, video games, movies and other forms of current entertainment), Art (photography, painting), or even our perception of the other, the self, and reality, fictionality is present in our everyday life. The 20th century challenged our ability to imagine, evoke our/others’ imagination and receive it, and the 21st century is not slowing down this process. Fictionality in the form of the intentional use of invented stories and scenarios is ubiquitous in these cultures. It is employed in politics, business, medicine, sports, and throughout the disciplines of the academy. The power of fictionality, as a communicational strategy, has considerably grown with the postmodern age and globalisation.

In the different sessions of this workshop, we will interrogate the different aspects of contemporary fictionality, focusing on the mutual images of and between Europe and Japan. We invite papers on the fictionality in representations of Europe in Japan or by Japanese artists, media, etc., as well as vice versa. We are especially interested in the ways in which invented stories and scenarios shape our beliefs about the actual world to a surprising degree. Fictionality is powerful and contributes to negotiating values, mediating the past and many other things. We particularly invite papers that consider the influence of such processes in our societies and mentalities, within a wide range of cultural, social or economic aspects; e.g. from artistic media, such as literary productions, to mutual images in video games. Even though the focus of this workshop is on contemporary culture, we accept papers with a diachronic perspective and also papers based on one or more theoretical frameworks.

We encourage submissions characterized by interdisciplinary approaches. This workshop is open to Ph.D. students, Ph.D. holders and academics at any stage of their career.

DEADLINE

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 20 March, 2016. Acceptance notifications of the abstract proposals will be sent by 31 March, 2016. Presentations will be 20-minute long, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A and discussion. Abstracts are to be submitted to the following address:  mutualimages@gmail.com

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Calibri 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2016 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 31 March 2016.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

This edition of the Mutual Images workshop is organized in collaboration with the Center for
Fictionality Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.

KOBE UNIVERSITY (KOBE, JAPAN)

12-13th June 2015

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Japanese pop cultures in Europe today: Economic challenges, Mediated notions, Future opportunities

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For the third Mutual Images workshop, we seek to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe through contemporary popular cultures. These past decades, Japanese pop cultures (manga, anime on television and at theatres, video games, toys, gadgets, cosplay, fan-fiction, light novels, dramas and other forms of current entertainment) have been an important vector of Japanese culture on Europe.

In the three sessions of this workshop, we will interrogate the commercial, media and cultural aspects of the development of Japanese popular cultures in Europe today. We particularly invite papers that consider the influence of Japanese popular culture on European societies and mentalities, within a wide range of cultural, social or economic aspects; e.g. from artistic media, such as literary productions, to eating habits. We encourage submissions characterized by interdisciplinary approaches. This workshop is open to Ph.D. students, Ph.D. holders and academics at any stage of their career.

SESSION 1

Europe: just a market place or a true commercial partner for Japanese pop cultures?

Japanese pop cultures have reached many foreign markets and have been welcomed by European consumers as well. In this first section of the workshop we aim to interrogate the interactions that may have arisen and still arise from this continuing and ever-changing encounter. What are the contexts in which Japanese pop cultures were and are successfully (or unsuccessfully) imported? What social, economical, sociological, cultural aspects have contributed to its expansion? We encourage papers based on frameworks coming from all disciplines of Humanities and Social sciences.

SESSION 2

Japan in European media and public opinion before and after the boom of ‘J-cultures’

Media in European nations show different conceptions and adopt several different rhetorical narratives on Japan. These varying notions are certainly due to the history of the diplomatic relations with Japan, the national cultural tradition, the critic literature along the centuries. However, in the last thirty years a further shift might have been at play, due to the success of J-cultures (especially manga, animation, toys), a phenomenon at work since the late 1970s. An example (but not the only possible) of this process is the impact of anime on television consumption and manga in the publishing market, which may have played a role in the definitions of Japan in the mainstream media and in the ways Japan has been told to the public. Therefore in this section we aim to interrogate the ways J-cultures have played and are currently playing a role upon the attitudes adopted in the media discourse on Japan.

SESSION 3

Japan, outpost of the 21^st century’s culture?

For the third part of this workshop, we seek to explore the role of Japanese pop cultures in the making of the 21^st century’s culture. For the past decades, globalization and the intensification of transcultural exchanges have spread the seeds of future opportunities. Those seeds are now blooming, challenging our own very conceptions, starting with the ‘mutual images‘ between cultures. There is a wide range of elements at stake, be it the Literature’s creation and reception, the education of our new generations, or common politics. By considering the Japanese pop cultures’ phenomenon in Europe today, we aim here to determine, through a wide range of topics, to which extent it holds future opportunities. Can it participate in the making of new mutual images between Japan and Europe? Would it be able to influence the education of our future generations, their politics and their social lives? Can it be seen as an outpost of the 21^st century’s culture, or just an ephemeral transition?

DEADLINE

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 28 February, 2015. Acceptance notifications of the abstract proposals will be sent by 15 March, 2015. Full draft papers must be submitted by 31 May 2015. Presentations will be 20-minute long, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A and discussion. Abstracts are to be submitted to the following address:  mutualimages@gmail.com

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Calibri 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2015 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 15th March 2015.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

This edition of the Mutual Images workshop is organized in collaboration with the Department of Sociology of Kōbe University, Prof. Yui Kiyomitsu and Dr. Marco Pellitteri, with the strategic and financial support of JSPS.

TOURS UNIVERSITY (TOURS, FRANCE)

17th May 2014

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Portrait of Japan: Myths and Realities of Japan in Art

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For the second year, Mutual Images is glad to invite you to participate in a workshop seeking to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe. We hope to further discuss the “mutual images” that circulate between Japan and Europe in a forever process of definition of the Self and the Other.

This year’s thematic will take us to the frontier between myth and reality, or rather myths and realities. The plural enables us to interrogate questions of subjectivity, cultural perspective, reconstruction of the past, ‘invented traditions’.

We welcome papers that consider Japanese or European artists or artworks working with the idea of Otherness (respectively in Europe or Japan), as well as artists who have incorporated imported techniques as an interrogation of the artist’s cultural identity.

During the workshop we aim to answer to a manifold of questions about, among other subjects, cultural identity, image-building, art’s involvement with the social field. What is the difference between myth and fiction? How can the artist create a myth? What part of reality and what part of myth lies in the artistic production? What cultural attitudes and discursive strategies lie beneath Japanese artistic products and works intended to depict European cultures? This workshop aims to interrogate the concept of reality and fiction in art, through the specific lens of cultural identity. We encourage submissions with a pluridisciplinary approach and concerning all artistic media.

This inter-disciplinary workshop is open to both postgraduates and academics at any stage of their career.

DEADLINE

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 31st of January 2014. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by 5th April 2014. Please note that the presentations should be of around 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of exchanges among the participants.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the following address: mutualimages@gmail.com

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Garamond 11) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: MUTUAL IMAGES 2014 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 15th of February 2014.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Aurore Montoya, University of the West of England, UK

Danesin Maxime, Université de Tours, France

Marco Pellitteri, Kōbe University, Japan

KONAN UNIVERSITY (KOBE, JAPAN)

29-30th June 2013

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Exporting young Japan: Between text and image

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This is the first of what we hope will be a long series of workshops assembling researchers from different fields and with a wide range of interests. This interdisciplinary workshop seeks to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe through the specific angle of the exportation of visual and textual representations of Japanese youth.

What do the Japanese students depicted in manga and the Sweden students who read them have in common? What is the point to hold an exhibition about Japanese children’s books in Paris? How does the story of the young Chieko Wataya fit into the international multi-story plot of the movie Babel? Do Japanese and French girls identify similarly with Lady Oscar? Those are only a few of the many questions that could be explore during this workshop.

Texts and Images, in all their forms, have permeated all societies. From the classical texts to text messaging; from traditional painting to contemporary photography; as well as through mixed forms, like advertisements who combine both text and image, they are omnipresent. Although the intensification of such exports is a recent phenomenon, and so this workshop will focus on late twentieth and twenty-first centuries; we will also consider possible submissions for earlier exchanges that could have mapped the field for the European interest in contemporary Japanese youth and youth culture.

This workshop, in its ‘mutual’ perspective will consider:

• texts and images of and about Japanese youth imported in Europe
• how the concept of ‘Japanese youth’ is integrated into European creations

Our concern is then with the exportation of both goods and ideas. We encourage papers that will consider the processes and motivations of such exportations, their reception in Europe, as well as the analysis of the supports exported (texts and/or images).

During the workshop we aim to answer to a manifold of questions about, among other subjects, cultural perceptions, youth culture, cultural importation and appropriation. More specifically we will consider what aspects of Japanese youth culture have been exported, by whom, why and how they have been received.

This inter-disciplinary workshop is open to both postgraduates and academics at any stage of their career, seeking to examine the imported perception of Japanese youth and the importation of youth-oriented goods.

DEADLINE

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 13th April 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by 1st June 2013. Please note that the presentations should be of around 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of exchanges among the participants.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the following address: mutualimages@gmail.com

WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information and in this order: a) title of abstract, b) body of abstract, c) up to 10 key words, d) author(s), e) affiliation, f) email address.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

E-mails should be entitled: YOUTH2013 Abstract Submission.

All abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by a jury of specialists. Authors will be notified via email on the results of the review by 31th April 2013.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest, then, to resend it.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Aurore Montoya, University of the West of England, UK

Yukio Konishi, Konan University, Japan

Danesin Maxime, Université de Tours, France