“Japan is a test, a challenge to think the unthinkable, a place where meaning is finally banished. Paradise, indeed, for the great student of signs.” – Edmund White
Sixteen graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota School of Architecture set out on May 24, 2009 for Tokyo. The Japan traveling studio—led by Blaine Brownell in collaboration with Kaori Ito and her students at the Tokyo University of Science—engaged in a documentary film project entitled “Parsing Tokyo.” This project endeavored to capture material manifestations of immaterial qualities and effects specific to Japan, as seen through the eyes of western and Japanese designers. After the film debut, the students embarked upon a cross-country tour that included Sendai, Kyoto, Osaka, Awaji, Himeji, Hiroshima, and Iwakuni.
UMN and TUS students on the roof
Pecha Kucha Night at Superdeluxe
Farewell Party
A short film analyzing the narrow residential streetscape in Tokyo from a bicyclist’s perspective, by Mark La Venture.
A depiction of Tokyo at its various scales and speeds, by Jessie McClurg.
