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Accepted Paper:
Ruins and "creativity": focusing on environmental development and cultural policy in Japan since the 1980s
Shoko Sumida
(Ritsumeikan University)
This report explores the relationship between the incorporation of "creativity" in environmental development and cultural policy in Japan since the 1980s and the interest in and utilization of ruins.
Paper long abstract:
In Japan, ruins in a physical sense begin to exist because concrete buildings have become popular since modern times, and they have aged over time, or buildings have been abandoned due to changes in the policy of the owning company. The ruins that are created in this way can be said to exist by paradoxically eliminating their function and meaninglessness. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, photographers and explorers in the Japan traveled to the ruins and took an interest in them. In addition, some of the ruins that appeared in this way are protected as industrial heritage and used as spaces for art and manufacturing. In other words, ruins that have lost their function and meaning are broadly associated with "creativity" when they are found and meaningful. So why are ruins and creativity connected? The ruins themselves are the former places of production, and for this reason they can be said to be places of memory and creation, but is that really self-evident? In order to answer this question, this report explores the relationship between the incorporation of "creativity" in environmental development and cultural policy in Japan since the 1980s and the interest in and utilization of ruins.