Des(s)ert of the Real: Copies, replicas, and representations in Japanese cultures
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
11:30 am to 4:30 pm
- Venue
- Japan House London, Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA
About this event
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard used the phrase ‘the desert of the real’ in 1981 to describe a modern society of mass consumption in which representations of reality have obscured and sometimes replaced reality itself. In this hyper-reality, words like ‘authenticity’ and ‘reality’ become meaningless, and everything exists as a copy without an original.
This symposium explores the question of the origin and the copy, the fake and the real, with particular emphasis on Japanese food replicas. These three-dimensional simulacra of dishes made from plastic, used by restaurants to advertise their food, are often described as ‘hyper-realistic.’ But what do we mean by this?
As Japanese food replica technology becomes more advanced, and its artistry ever more evocative – the fake can be increasingly difficult to distinguish from the original. With Japanese food replicas now so embedded in the country’s diverse food cultures – at once hyper-real but also vital to the marketing of actual eating experiences – this symposium examines fundamental questions relating to what this means for how we live, consume and understand the world around us.
Programme
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 11:30am-1:00pm | Keynote – You Eat with Your Eyes First: The Story of Food Replicas in Japan Speaker: Nose Yasunobu This talk explores the birth, production process and functions of food replicas in Japan. Starting with the origin of food replicas in the 1920s, Nose Yasunobu looks at how their application, presentation and production process have changed throughout the last 100 years. This keynote will be livestreamed to the Hall from Japan and complemented by video material. |
| 1:00pm-2:00pm | Lunch break and optional gallery tour A 30-minute complimentary tour of the exhibition Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s food replica culture will be led by Simon Wright, Director of Programming at Japan House London. Spaces are limited, so please book tickets for this separately. |
| 2:00pm-4:00pm |
Each presentation will last approximately 20 minutes and be followed by a 10 minute Q&A. |
About the facilitator
Dr Fabio Gygi, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Chair of the Japan Research Centre, SOAS, University of London.
Dr Fabio Gygi is interested in the ritual life of objects and how medical and social categories are formed around practices of disposal. He is the co-editor of The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan and has written about animism, dolls, robots and Marie Kondō.
About the speakers
Nose Yasunobu
Born in 1951 in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Nose Yasunobu graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University and joined the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. After working in the Tokyo and Osaka offices, he became the head of the Osaka Culture Department and member of the special editorial board. While working in Osaka, he became interested in food culture.
He is currently working on a book entitled Let’s Eat Here and There in the Archipelago! B-class local gourmet for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun electronic edition. He has authored numerous books on food replicas, regional Japanese cuisine and cultural practices surrounding food in Japan.
Dr Matsuba Ryoko, Lecturer in Japanese Digital Arts and Humanities at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia.
Matsuba Ryoko is a specialist on Edo period printed culture. She received her PhD from Ritsumeikan University (2008). Her current research focuses on the recording of craft techniques in Japan. She is the leader of the ‘Digital Japan’ project aiming at digitization of museum collections.
The project involves such institutions as Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the British Museum, and is supported by the Art Research Centre (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University.
Dr Rupert Cox, Director of the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester
Dr Rupert Cox conducts research in intersections between art and science and anthropology and innovative forms of public engagement. He received his PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh in 1998. Rupert Cox has taught at Edinburgh, Oxford Brookes and London University (SOAS) and held research fellow positions at Kyoto University and Okinawa College of Technology.
He has written books on the idea of the Zen Arts, Copying Culture and Material Heritage in Japan and about forms of representation that lie ‘Beyond Text’ in anthropology and is currently working on the politics of environmental sound in Okinawa.
Dr Phil Swift, Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology, University College London
Dr Phil Swift is an anthropologist with research interests in cosmology, ritual, and the problems and issues of anthropological translation. His doctoral research was on the concept of conversion in a Japanese new religion. He obtained his PhD from Osaka University in 2018.
His latest publications include an introduction to the legacy of Hans Peter Duerr and a study on the ritual practices in Japanese new religions.
