Associate Professor Iida giving a lecture
In collaboration with The Kyoto University Museum and Kyoto University Research Administration Office, South-West Area, the Research Resource Archive hosted a lecture-and-discussion event entitled, "Academic Resources and Visual Records of Academic Activities: Exploring Their Use in Relation to the Evolving Media Environment", at its Audio-Visual Station.
As part of its permanent exhibition, the Audio-Visual Station hosts a daily screening of two documentary films from the 1950s that depict some of the first large-scale expeditions undertaken by Japanese researchers after World War II. In 2010, those films -- Karakorum and The Peak of the Bride, Chogolisa -- were released as a DVD-and-book package titled, ‘Pioneers of field research’. The event invited two experts who had been involved in the publication of the compilation -- Associate Professor Taku Iida from the Department of Advanced Studies in Anthropology, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, National Museum of Ethnology, and Professor Yoshiro Sawada from Otaru University of Commerce -- and presented a lecture and panel discussion with parts of the documentaries being screened in the background.
The lecture was given by Associate Professor Iida. As the audience listened with rapt attention, the scholar reflected on the post-World War II expeditions to, and field surveys in, remote mountains conducted by Japanese researchers, and the impact of film and TV documentaries on such endeavors, as well as exploring the role of video recording in academic research and examining the issues associated with the preservation of visual records. After the lecture, Professor Sawada joined Associate Professor Iida to discuss such topics as the nature of evidence and editing of video recordings as well as the styles of research associated with visual anthropology. The Q&A session that followed elicited numerous audience questions that helped deepen the discussion.
Professor Sawada, middle, taking part in a discussion with Associate Professor Iida, right
Professor Sawada responding to an audience question during the Q&A session
Related link
- Audio-Visual Station, Research Resource Archive
Lecture and discussion "Academic Resources and Visual Records of Academic Activities: Exploring Their Use in Relation to the Evolving Media Environment" held on 5 June 2014
http://www.rra.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp/avs/topics/2014/05/---201465.html
(Japanese text only)
