Course description: An analysis of historical and modern Japanese society through works of art and media including photography, film, maps, and other visual materials. Students learn to extract information from images as part of a visual analysis, while dealing with socio-geographical methods for understanding urban flows, economic disparities, transportation, and built environments. Students compare what they understand about Japanese culture with their own familiar environments.
In this course, I had the opportunity to learn about Japanese culture through visuals. In this class, I was able to analyze ancient and modern art such as the evolution of Ukiyo-e. I was also able to learn about Japanese culture through film, anime and manga. We all had the opportunity to research and learn about different visual aspects of Japanese culture through our peers. We learned about the different methodologies to analyze visuals such as analyzing the site of the image, the image itself, and the audience of the image.
One of the toughest parts for me in this class was that I didn't really know that much about Japanese culture. I knew what I had learned through anime and some friends but I had never had a formal class to learn about these things. As a Spanish major, I had to learn a lot about different terms and things that help create Japanese culture.
Overall, I really liked taking this class because I think it's much easier to learn about another culture through visual culture, whether that be photographs, paintings, film, or whatever else. I know feel like I know more and I because of this class, I really hope that one day in the future I will be able to visit Japan!
Below I have attached a report I wrote analyzing three different photographs from a collection called, "The Gail Project" of Okinawa.
In this course, I had the opportunity to learn about Japanese culture through visuals. In this class, I was able to analyze ancient and modern art such as the evolution of Ukiyo-e. I was also able to learn about Japanese culture through film, anime and manga. We all had the opportunity to research and learn about different visual aspects of Japanese culture through our peers. We learned about the different methodologies to analyze visuals such as analyzing the site of the image, the image itself, and the audience of the image.
One of the toughest parts for me in this class was that I didn't really know that much about Japanese culture. I knew what I had learned through anime and some friends but I had never had a formal class to learn about these things. As a Spanish major, I had to learn a lot about different terms and things that help create Japanese culture.
Overall, I really liked taking this class because I think it's much easier to learn about another culture through visual culture, whether that be photographs, paintings, film, or whatever else. I know feel like I know more and I because of this class, I really hope that one day in the future I will be able to visit Japan!
Below I have attached a report I wrote analyzing three different photographs from a collection called, "The Gail Project" of Okinawa.