43th Research Workshop (Online)
Date: 12 December 2020 at 15.00-17.00 (Members Only)
If you want to join this research workshop, please ask DHWJ.

[Presentation 1]

Dr. Qian Gao

Professor, Design College, Yunnan Arts University, China
Visiting Researcher, National Museum of Ethnology, Japan

Title: The re-emergence process of Chinese Dongba character in Japan as design resource

Abstract:
The Naxi Dongba religion’s hieroglyphs, which disappeared from Chinese culture, due to religious policies after the founding of China, were developed into souvenirs and cultural artefacts in Lijiang, in the Yunnan Province of china during the 1980s and especially after the expansion of tourism in the latter half of the 1990s. The re-emergence has been treated as an object of research and cultural reconstruction and is due to a variety of factors, including work by researchers but also due to the interest of the media and tourists. Interest in the characters crossed country borders to Japan. Especially post 2003, when scriptures with the Dongba characters began to be regarded as a “Memory of the World”. The activities of various media and designers continued to create an increase in interest in the “Dongba characters” and this continues to the present day, as an important facet of “Youth culture” in Japan.

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[Presentation 2]
Chie Suzuki

Title: The Boundaries of “Inclusive Design” in Postwar Britain 1960-1994: A Social and
Cultural History of Disability, Postwar Modernity and Everyday Life

Abstract:
In postwar societies, “inclusive design” was implemented through legislation and social demands and it was normalized as a universal value, reflecting the emergence of welfare state, disability right activism and major shifts in social values. This paper attempts to address the politics of inclusion and marginalization within the context of design history of disability in postwar Britain, using primary sources from Design Council archive, Disabled Living Foundation (DLF), Mass Observation archive etc. It became increasingly apparent that “inclusion” had had its boundaries that separated professional world from domesticity.