The Work of Art in Contemporary Japan: Inner and outer worlds of creativity

“有创造力”似乎需要两种不同形式的注意力：一种面向外部的关注自己周围的世界，包括他人的作品和自己使用的材料；一种对自我的退缩，或者进入一个相对孤独的空间，以一种专注和沉浸感为特征。这个项目将探索这些“内在”和“外在”世界之间的关系，作为艺术生产相互交织的维度，作为扩大我们对创造力本质的理解的一种方式，特别是创造力的经验和表达是如何被社会，文化和制度背景所塑造和约束的。研究将基于对从事绘画、舞蹈、录像、音乐、服装艺术以及其他跨流派和跨流派表现形式的年轻日本当代艺术家的民族志田野调查。在对日本当代艺术世界进行丰富而详细的分析的过程中，该项目将寻求发展一种新的“大气”创造力理论，这将挑战现有的理解，并将创造力与自我理论更紧密地联系起来。该项目的一个核心问题与作者身份有关，也就是说，谁应该被理解为负责制作特定作品的问题，以及创作过程被认为起源于何处，尤其是艺术家自己。特别是在日本，人们相当重视与他人和其他物体的关系及其影响。那么，我们应该如何看待个人作者身份或艺术代理的概念，以及它是如何构建的？对于日本的许多当代艺术家来说，这些艺术活动和独特的合作互动形式为创造性生产提供了重要的框架；然而，艺术家自己对创作过程的描述也倾向于强调在创作过程中创造一个孤独或私人空间的重要性——一种内在的空间。通过将艺术实践的这两个维度放在一起——内部的隐居空间和活动和合作的社交空间，更广泛地说，当代社会和工作的背景——该项目还将为后工业背景下的工作和非物质劳动的本质提供新的视角。因此，日本当代艺术界是一个探索如何构建和理解个人作者身份和责任的特权空间。该项目的一个中心前提是，研究日本等主要非西方背景下的艺术家的经验，可以为西方艺术生产的现有研究以及它们所建立的创造力叙事提供有力的纠正。更广泛地说，这项研究将为艺术、人类学、心理学和哲学学者之间的讨论和跨学科参与开辟一个空间。在埃克塞特大学举办的跨学科研讨会等活动将有助于协调这种接触。主要研究结果将在学术专著和主要期刊的文章中传播。在日本举办的艺术活动和开放的艺术家研讨会将促进与当地社区的接触，并围绕艺术和艺术家在当代日本社会中的作用进行讨论。与此同时，在伦敦举行的一场艺术活动将寻求改变大众对日本艺术的看法，让这些看法超越漫画、动漫和日本传统艺术等流行文化。公众工作坊将鼓励公众反思自己生活中的创造力，以及日常生活中内部和外部世界的相互作用。研究将以博客文章和项目网站上的播客迷你系列的形式定期更新，该网站还将继续举办数字展览。

Being 'creative' appears to require two distinct forms of attention: an outward-facing engagement with the world around oneself, including with the work of others and with the materials one employs; and a kind of withdrawal into the self, or into a relatively solitary space characterised by a sense of focus and immersion. This project will explore the relationship between these 'inner' and 'outer' worlds, as mutually entwined dimensions of artistic production, as a way of enlarging our understanding of the nature of creativity and, especially, how experiences and expressions of creativity are shaped and constrained by social, cultural and institutional contexts. Research will be based on ethnographic fieldwork with young Japanese contemporary artists engaged in painting, dance, video, music, costume art, among other cross-genre and trans-genre forms of expression. In the course of developing a rich and detailed analysis of the contemporary art world in Japan, the project will seek to develop a new 'atmospheric' theory of creativity that will challenge existing understandings and tie creativity much more closely to theories of the self. A central question of the project pertains to authorship, that is, the question of who exactly should be understood as responsible for making a particular piece of work, and where the creative process is thought felt to originate, not least by artists themselves. In the Japanese context in particular, considerable importance is placed on relationships with other people and objects and the influence these have. How then should we approach the idea of individual authorship, or artistic agency, and how is this constructed? For many contemporary artists in Japan, art events and distinctive forms of collaborative interactions these facilitate provide an important frame for creative production; and yet descriptions of the creative process by artists themselves also tend to emphasize the importance of creating a solitary or private space - an interiority as it were - in and for the process of making. By placing these two dimensions of artistic practice alongside one another - the reclusive space of interiority and the sociable space of events and collaborations and, more broadly still, the contemporary context of society and work - the project will also shed new light on the nature of work and immaterial labour in post-industrial contexts. The Japanese contemporary art scene is thus a privileged space to explore how individual authorship and responsibility are constructed and understood. A central premise of the project is that studying the experience of artists in a major non-Western context such as Japan can offer a powerful corrective to existing studies of art production in the West and the narratives of creativity on which they are founded. More broadly, the research will open a space for discussion and cross-disciplinary engagement between scholars of art, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. Events such as an interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Exeter, will help to coordinate this engagement. Key findings will be disseminated in an academic monograph and in articles in leading journals. An art event and an open artist workshop in Japan will facilitate engagement with the local community and a discussion around the role of art and artists in contemporary Japanese society. Meanwhile, an art event in London will seek to change popular perceptions of Japanese art, moving these past the popular culture of manga and anime and the traditional Japanese arts. A public workshop will encourage the general public to reflect on aspects of creativity in their own lives, and the interplay of interior and outer worlds in their daily life. Research will be accompanied by regular updates in the form of blog posts and a podcast mini-series on the project website, which will also continue to host a digital exhibit.