11.08.2010 / The wait is almost over!

I have just received an 'inspection' copy of my book. If all goes well the first batch will soon be making its long journey from Hong Kong to the UK and copies should be available by the 10th of September.

Klick here for a 20 percent discount when ordering the book: discountTheJapaneseHouse.pdf

18.07 - 10.08.2010 / Japan - Geffrye Museum Shopping Trip

I have just arrived back in japan to collect/buy a variety of household goods for my upcoming exhibition (March 2011) at the Geffrye Museum in London entitled: At Home in Japan - Beyond the Minimal House. My shopping list is more than 5 pages long; slippers, drying racks, futons, lights, garden tools, seasonal dolls are just a few of the things I hope to find. It will be a very hectic trip and I will depend once more on a support network of very generous Japanese friends!

I have already entered the last week of my stay in Japan and 10 packages are on their way by ship to London. I have also posted some fragile items by airmail and today (August 2) one box containing two Japanese display dolls, donated by a very kind family from Osaka, has already arrived in the UK. I only sent it from Kyoto Central Postoffice on the 31st of July; AMAZING!!

04-06-2010 / Image and Object Workshop, University of Oxford

Image copyright @ Susan Andrews

Lecture Theatre, History Faculty, George Street

This workshop organised by Sarah James (Art History, Christ Church) brings together people from

different disciplines at Oxford to enage in a debate about the uses of photographs as images, objects

and documents. It should be a very exciting event!

Programme
10.00 Introduction: Craig Clunas
10.30 Session 1: Political Bodies & the Photographic Document
Michael Biggs (Sociology), Jane Caplan (History), Sarah James (History of Art)
Discussant: Alastair Wright

11.45 Session 2: Photographs as Objects: Archives & Collections
Richard Ovenden (Bodleian), Sally Crawford/Katharina Ulmschneider, (Archaeology)
Vicky Brown (History of Art/Centre Visual Studies), (John Johnson Collection)
Discussant: Gervase Rosser

1.00 pm Lunch

2.00 Session 3: Deconstructing Images:Photography &/As Methodology

Katerina Reed-Tsocha, (Ruskin), Rebecca Beasley (English), Assimina Kaniari (History of Art), Geraldine Johnson (History of Art)
Discussant: Hanneke Grootenboer

Tea: 3.15

3.45 Session 4: Photography’s Spaces & Places
Inge Daniels (Anthropology), Derek McCormack (Geography) Clare Harris (Anthropology), Dan Hicks (Pitt Rivers)
Discussant: Craig Clunas

5pm Closing remarks

12-05-2010 / Researching Home

On May 12 I gave a talk about visual and material methods to study the home at an ESRC funded workshop at the University of Manchester.

A summary of the discussions will be made available on line at www.manchester.ac.uk/realities

'The Japanese House' - Cover

12/2009: The cover of my upcoming book has finally arrived. It should be in the shops by June 2010.

Japanese Ruins, Fragments and Decay.

- Murielle Hladik (2008, Traces et fragments dans l'estetique Japonaise) has written one of the key academic works about ruins and the notion of decay throughout Japanese history. A real treat!

- Photographer, Michael John Grist, shares his intruiging photographs of Japanese ruins ranging from ghost towns, abandonned hotels and prisons, to disused theme parks, ski lifts and military installations.

Snapshots from fieldwork in Japan (1996-2006)