On March the 12th we visited two different campuses of the Keio university, a private university founded 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa. In the morning we went to Hiyoshi Campus and the Graduate School of Media Design, were “our” professor Lars Erik Holmquist is giving a class each year. It was a very inspiring visit!
Professor Masa Inakage, Dean of the school gave us a brief history and presentation of the school and also of his own background. He introduced us to some of the different Japanese mindsets (for instance “cute/kawaii”) that he ment was playing a role in the understanding of the school and the blend of cutting edge industry and academia that the school is very actively trying to maintain. He also mentioned that 25% of the students at the School of Media Design come from 50 different countries outside of Japan and that a lot of the classes are held in English.
The aim of the graduate school is to educate the leaders of the new creative digital industry. The society is transforming into the age of creativity, following earlier stages as the agrarian, the industrial and the knowledge society. Asked how this is to be done, he answered that one important way to teach creativity is to inspire. The school is involved in different projects developing for instance Digital Signage, Urban Media (city planning), Global Computing and Media Telescope as they are researching and developing not only screen media but also physical media.
Each year the school admits 80-90 master students and 10-20 PhD students giving a total of about 200 students studying at the school each semester.
We also had time for a demonstration of “the Twister” and a tour around the very inspiring sets were the students work together with the staff. The involvement of the staff in the students’s projects is an important way to reassure the quality of the projects in order to make them usable for the industry.
The sites of the Campus were very grand and inspirational and we were invited to lunch in the Faculty Lounge before rushing off to the next campus.
Photos by Ingemar Björling
