Humans and Animation 01

Harada wrote an essay for the internet at the request of a teacher at Bunka-gakuin, where he had been working as a lecturer since 2009.
Part 1 was published in 2010, and part 2 in 2011.

The design department to which Harada belonged was abolished in 2011, and the website was also closed, so part 3 remained unpublished.
Here, we will also publish part 3.

Bunka-gakuin was a liberal vocational school that had been in operation since 1921, but its management deteriorated under the influence of neoliberalism. Around 2008, large corporations, capitalists, and right-wing politicians intervened. The school eventually closed in 2018.

The school also offers courses for high school students, and Harada quoted Marx in a speech to about 100 students. He has also taught classes to students from Peking University.

The icon for "Kiyubaru" is the sunlight reflected under the arch of the school gate, which was built in 1937.

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Humans and Animation - 天地玄黄・未来洪荒 (Tenchi Genkou Mirai Koukou) *1

Prologue "Animation is Living"

There are countless materials for animation.
Water, clouds, trees, leaves, soil, mountains, roads, steam, cloth, glass, light, shadow, sound, breath, cities, living things... All materials, living things, and phenomena on Earth can be used as materials for animation, and the Earth itself is a component of animation.

What is animation?
Phenakisticorp (※2), zoatrope, praxinoscope...
Things that should be still begin to move as if they have gained a soul.
Our ancestors welcomed their birth with various neologisms.
The many Latin and Greek words that are the origin of these words give us a sense of the vivid scent of human life.
Several words, including "anima," which is said to be the origin of animation, are also full of the ancient breath of life, such as soul, breath, spirit, breath, and wind.

Things that should be still (dead in human terms) begin to move as if they have life. Here, we refer to both intentional actions and accidental phenomena as animation.

Currently, new industrial structures for animation are being proposed elsewhere.
In response to this, this paper is an attempt to maintain a balance between the minimum standard of living for humans and society, and to present the public with a variety of options.
The definition of animation should be left to the citizens.*3


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*1　Quote from the Chinese "千字文(Senjimon)."
The original text is "天地玄黄・宇宙洪荒 (Tenchi Genkou Uchu Koukou)."

It means "The sky is black, the earth is yellow, and the universe is infinitely vast."
Here, it is replaced with "The future is infinitely vast."

"Senjimon" is used in Harada's new work "Zashikiro."
This is based on what Harada learned about Chinese culture in a private seminar taught by a university professor when he was in elementary school.

*2　Phenakisticorp: A coined word invented by the 19th century physicist Plateau. It is also called phenakistoscope.

*3 This is an implicit criticism of the new business laws regarding movies and animation that the far-right Liberal Democratic Party government has been enacting since 2001, and of the financial world and large corporations that have followed suit.