Participatory Digital Media as an Educational and Interpretive Resource in Japanese Art Institutions

This thesis examines an approach to digital media production at Japanese art institutions thatincorporates participatory methodologies that expand outcomes beyond resource creation to includecommunity engagement goals. Over the course of several decades, digital media that include video,audio, online editorial, and interactive content have become an increasingly popular method forsharing and interpreting research at art institutions across the globe. Japan, however, has beenhesitant to adopt these practices for reasons related to administration, austerity, alienation, andcopyright. Conversely, a tendency has emerged among some museums and art centers withcommunity- and education-driven charters to produce digital resources within the framework ofparticipatory collaborations with volunteers and residents.In the first chapter of this thesis, I explore the overall history of digital media technology andprofessionalization of digital media departments within art institutions around the world, thenexamine factors that had an impact on Japan’s unique relationship to this evolution. In the secondchapter, I introduce a theoretical framework that draws heavily from Nina Simon’s TheParticipatory Museum, Pablo Helguera’s Education for Socially Engaged Art, and Paolo Freire’sPedagogy of the Oppressed to better understand the impetus for and effect of participatory practiceon communities. I also examine workshop techniques from urban planner Isami Kinoshita anddirectly apply this participatory framework to the field of digital media via Jenny Kidd’s Museumsin the New Mediascape. In the third chapter I examine two case studies: Yamaguchi Center for Artsand Media’s Guruguru Radio podcast and the Setagaya Art Museum’s Setabi Channel Jr digitalvideo project. In this section I also explore the importance of education departments in developingdigital media at Japanese art institutions.In the final chapter, I detail and analyze my experience creating the “Koganecho CommunityVideomaking Project,” a special research project I undertook at the Koganecho Area ManagementCenter in Yokohama inspired by my theoretical framework and findings at other art institutions inJapan. In each of a series of workshops, I invited locals and artists-in-residents to take on the role ofco-producers and collaborate in the production of an online video making project about theircommunity and neighborhood.Finally, I offer an open-ended conclusion about the viability of and potential for digital mediaproduction as a means to cultivate participation with local communities, surmising that Japanese art institutions may exist within the proper conditions to overcome some of the challenges this fieldwill face.