Inspired by Japan

It’s raining. People with transparent umbrellas are walking toward me. They’re wearing long pants and T-shirts. I have an umbrella, too; the raindrops are pelting against it. A black taxi drives past me. The buildings around me are gray and at least three or four stories tall. It’s twilight; I can’t tell if it’s morning or evening. The headlights of the cars reflect off the wet asphalt, and black power lines hang overhead. They converge on a pole, forming a thick tangle. I’m in Tokyo. At least, that’s what I decided 60 seconds ago with a single click. Now I’m here, where neon lights meet traditional temples and Mount Fuji peeks out from behind skyscrapers. Is this how I imagined Tokyo? To be honest, I didn’t have any precise idea of what Tokyo would be like. Maybe skyscrapers? But that’s pretty much the most generic defining feature of any metropolis. There’s a supermarket up ahead. “Go inside!” I want to shout to my virtual twin, who’s about 12,500 kilometers away. The website virtualvacation.us has piqued my curiosity, and I’m going to keep strolling through the Japanese capital for now.

A Virtual Journey as a Tourist This is roughly how the students in the Interdisciplinary Course (IP for short), led by alumna and Mary Somerville Fellow Sophia Streit and Prof. Monika Aichele, must have felt in the early days when they took their first virtual strolls on virtualvacation.us. Each week, the roughly 26 seminar participants packed their digital backpacks. Like a travel group, they fanned out across the Japanese islands, into the cities, villages, and various landscapes. Whether as a group or individually, they explored their new surroundings with a single click. Sometimes two groups would meet by chance in the same place and share completely different impressions. What all course participants had in common was their desire to be observers of another culture, another country. And their longing for faraway places, for travel—especially for Japan. A country that many already knew from personal vacations. On their virtual excursions, the students drew inspiration from Japan’s typography, illustration, graphic design, and art. They gathered many interesting and beautiful impressions and brought back their personally designed souvenirs in the form of animations. Some portrayed a small village, while others explored the country’s gods and goddesses. For each of the different travel dates, the students were given a term to pack in their travel bag. For example, “hikkikomori”—a Japanese term for people who voluntarily isolate themselves in their apartment or room and reduce contact with society to a minimum. The students were then asked to incorporate these concepts into their creative work. During the Zoom meetings, in addition to Prof. Monika Aichele and Sophia Streit, the seminar participants also shared stories about their own trips to Japan. The Zoom background was adjusted to match each participant’s experience. This created not only a shared sense of travel but also a very personal and inspiring atmosphere.

Katharina Schnaubelt, one of the students, was initially skeptical about whether she should take the course. She wondered how she could gain insight into a country without ever having been there—and to what extent someone unfamiliar with a culture should be allowed to write about it. In the end, she decided to enroll in the IP. The main reason she chose the course was the many small projects and the tight schedule with a focus on individual interests. Seminar participants were able to decide for themselves which projects or locations they wanted to explore in greater depth and which they did not. Another goal of the course was to increase animation potential by 100 percent, according to Katharina Schnaubelt. Whether it was After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Procreate, or Clip Studio Paint—various tutorials helped students familiarize themselves with the respective animation tools or strengthen and expand their existing skills. In addition, working groups quickly formed among the students in the well-attended seminar. They didn’t hesitate to put in extra hours in the evenings to delve even deeper into one program or another. Katharina Schnaubelt ultimately produced her work using a Risograph. Risography is a Japanese printing process—a stencil printing method similar to screen printing—that applies ink to the paper without the use of chemicals or heat. Since 2019, the Communication Design program has had such a printer—and the prints it produces have a very distinctive look.

By the end of the course, Katharina Schnaubelt’s expectations had been more than met, and her skepticism proved unfounded. “The two instructors succeeded in introducing us to a foreign culture so sensitively and beautifully that we never felt like outsiders passing judgment or evaluating it.” The course always defined itself as a travel group that brought back “souvenirs” in the form of animated images and impressions from Japan, thereby avoiding cultural appropriation. At the end of the seminar, the travel group landed virtually at Narita Airport once more: it was early in the morning, almost everyone was jet-lagged and holding a cup of coffee. After a while of waking up, the class wistfully began the final semester presentation: a variety of animations and travel reports. Together, they then decided that they would love to stay longer. For now, they’ve postponed the flight back…