全学自由研究ゼミナール　(Architecture Beyond the Human)

Week 1 – Introduction | Discussion Week 2 – Welcome to the Anthropocene | Lecture Week 3 – 1st Student Presentations: Topic Selection | Assignment Development Week 4 – Architecture and Anthropocentrism in the West | Lecture Week 5 – What is Posthumanism? | Lecture Week 6 – 2nd Student Presentations: Work-in-Progress | Assignment Development Week 7 – Worldbuilding and Fiction – Discovering Nonhuman Umwelt | Lecture Week 8 – Extinction and Places of Memory | Lecture Week 9 – 3rd Student Presentations: Work-in-Progress | Assignment Development Week 10 – History & Technology Through an Ecological Lens | Lecture Week 11 – Materiality & Contemporary Art | Lecture Week 12 – Fine Tuning | Assignment Development Workshop Week 13 – Final Exhibition of Student Research Projects

Lectures, Assignment Development, Discussions

Assignment Conduct research on a “beyond the human” scenario related to the built environment which A) resonates with your own personal interests and B) design a response to this scenario in any medium you see fit. A. Identifying a scenario of interest: This can be any scenario that resonates with you at a personal level which you can connect to the theme of the course and that you wish to spend an entire semester exploring. Examples could include but are not limited to: a building or a place, a museum exhibit, an object, a patch of land in your own backyard, a work of fiction, a religious / social practice, an endangered species, a historic event, a traditional or contemporary practice of building. Your research will be to contextualize this scenario within space and time and to reflect upon the ways human and nonhumans relate (for better or worse). Topics can be chosen from within Japan or globally. The only other requirements are that you must include a nonhuman perspective in your work and attempt to engage with at least one other researcher, expert or individual from outside the classroom who can provide you with critical feedback. B. Designing a response: The definition of design here is also open-ended. You could choose to “design” a well-presented graphic essay, write or re-write a fictional story, make a film, design a game or propose an imaginary building or structure within the city or neighborhood. This design response should present your research in an engaging way and should allow you to explore a mode of creation that you are already familiar with or want to develop. This response will be developed and presented several times throughout the semester to the professor, classmates and invited guests of the class for feedback and exchange of ideas.

This seminar will be held by Dr. Jesse RAFEIRO, *****, https://www.tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/***** [Languages Used] Lectures and discussions will be in English but on a case-by-case basis students can use Japanese or bilingual texts in their assignments if it is deemed relevant or important for public access to their research. [Receiving Credits] Regular attendance and submission of the final assignment.