Asian Conference
Kyoto
May 25 - 27, 2018
Manga has long been discussed as static images that are felt to move. We see this in the intricate chemistry between panels and page, the play of line, employment of words in multiple registers, the use of narrative, arranged in varying types of sequences, where still images possess movement. From a different perspective, manga has moved globally, from Japan to the world; now even The New York Times has a “Manga Bestsellers List.” But in this media-filled world, manga does not move alone. Manga has often been considered in comparison to cinema, and not because of the many adaptations manga has spawned, but for the cinematic devices in the panels of manga. But in the world of the traditionally considered moving-image, no media is closer than anime, whose close relation has produced mutual exchange. As a commercial industry, manga also connects to many other products in this era of media-mixing, where adaptations move in and away from manga, from games to light novels, from figurines to stickers. In this sense, manga moves not just in the interplay between panels and lines, but through media, with media. As such, we must begin to consider these dynamics, of manga in the context of other media, of manga as its own media, of manga’s form and the forms of the other media it engages with. Further out, we must consider what these forms do, what manga does to other media, what other media do to manga, what manga does in Japan, in the global. Image and text alone are constraining, but if we open these up as placeholders inviting conceptions of form, opening them up towards other media. From there we can begin to gain insight on new ways of conceptualizing movement, stillness, and media in this global century.
Please send 250 word proposals to mechademia@mcad.edu by April 1, 2018. In your email memo field, state: Kyoto_2018_submission