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. Taught in English.
Course Narrative: In JAPN 314: Japanese Visual Culture & Media, we analyzed different forms of Japanese media, such as many emaki scrolls and some movies in order to draw conclusions about Japanese culture and society during different periods of time throughout history. For this course we completed weekly reflections about different media that we had analyzed as well as two essays and a Visual Portfolio Project. Through my Visual Portfolio Project, I was able to analyze four different images of media that were produced in Japan in order to conclude their meanings, historical significance, and their representations of Japanese culture, as I had learned in this course, and present them to my peers. Visual Portfolio Presentation Rene Hurtado From this course I gained invaluable insight into Japanese culture and traditions, as well as the history of Japan. By learning about a different culture, this course allowed me not only to gain more awareness and respect for this culture but also to analyze images and media from any other culture in the future. Using this knowledge, I plan to continue to expand my awareness of other cultures as well as analyze images objectively and with an open mind. Living in a city where there are many diverse cultures, the knowledge I have gained from this course has already been able to assist me in my academic career as well as my professional career, allowing me to make deeper connections with my peers and to keep the doors open for future expansion of my cultural awareness.