45th Research Workshop (Online)
Date: 17 July 2021 at 15.00-17.00 (Members Only)
If you want to join this research workshop, please ask DHWJ.

[Presentation 1]

Akira Azuma
Title: The Referential Use of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival Architecture in Blade Runner (1982)
Abstract: Although set in the future, Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner is noted for the use of various past styles for its cinematic elements such as plot, costumes and props (most notably the photos “Replicants” carry), and their sources have been discovered by scholars. When it comes to the film’s set, however, these scholars have stopped at just pointing out that past architectural styles are used, and fell short of identifying exactly what past architectural styles are used. This presentation reveals that the most prominent of the past architectural styles used for the film’s set (and models) is Mayan Revival, especially as practiced by Frank Lloyd Wright during his California days, and investigates why this particular style is used extensively in the film.

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[Presentation 2]
Kahlua Tsunoda
Title: The Photographic Expression of the Futurist Theorist A. G. Bragaria: Rethinking Photodynamism through Dante’s “Divine Art”
Abstract: Anton Giulio Bragaglia, an Italian futurist artist, invented a new experimental photography called photodynamism (1911-1914) in order to reshape the photographic art of his time. Since these images closely resembled the scientific photography of the same age, Bragaglia sought to justify his works as artistic expressions. This study focuses on his mention of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Art” in his discussion of art theory in the book Futurist Photodynamism and proposes that Bragaglia intended that his photographic experiment should portray the invisible internal movement of the mind through the visible external movement of the body. This study thus shows that Bragaglia may have intended to support the artistic legitimacy of photodynamism in an unconventional way by presenting this humanistic view.