Quick Primary Readings
What is Superflat and how does it tie in with the Otaku
subculture and the country’s nationalism?
I figured it would be good to start the analysis off by just establishing what Superflat is and the impact it has on one of Japan's quirkier but popular subcultures. Otaku first and foremost originated from the 70's as an umbrella term that describes various imagery and post-war subcultures (such as tokusatsu/monster films, figurine and model collection, sci-fi and manga/anime).
The importance of Otaku in itself is not particularly because of the number of products emerging from said subculture that were internationally accepted wholly, but because of the way it had shaped the mentality of Japanese society (opening some sort of dialogue in regards to the country's conflicting nationalism and international standpoint).
Takashi Murakami was born in the early 60's, thus belong to what is considered the first generation of otakus, also personally experiencing the disregard of the subculture by academic intellectuals and critics (while often argued as a sociological phenomenon). From here we can see how and why Superflat's idealism and connotations had come about. "... devoid of perspective and devoid of hierarchy, all existing equally and simultaneously.", created by exploring the spatial dimensions created by combining traditional Japanese painting and the aesthetic of modern Japanese anime.
A rather interesting quote that I came across came from Shuichi Kato's A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times, "The history of Japanese literature can be described as a history of the multiplex expression of a process of challenge by external and transcendental worldviews to this indigenous worldview, which internalises them and at the same time secularises and 'de-transcendentalises' them."
This presents the nature of Japan's nature in emphasizing the empirical, that it is important to observe and appreciate 'here and now' as opposed to the West's emphasis on the transcendental.
"To be honest, I really just want to show how I'm feeling right now, at the moment this is where I'm at. I'm not talking about democratizing art or anything like that," said Murakami during an interview with the Japan Times.
How to approach Website
In terms of how I would design the website, I was thinking that it would be interesting to design a mascot/character of sorts that is inspired by Murakami's own KaiKai and KiKi.
The character will be prominent throughout the essay as a visual guide for the reader and I plan on using say the anatomy of the character as a way for the reader to navigate the website (head is the intro, torso will be split into chapters that comprise the bulk of the essay, etc).
