The Online US-Japan ProgramA Pacific Rim FirstFor the 2021 school year, Pacific Rim held its first online program. From Tama Art University, eight students were selected to participate. They included undergraduate and graduate students in Oil Painting, Graphic Design, Product Design, Textile Design, and Information Design.“What is most important about Pacific Rim,” Prof. Wada explains, “is that the students from America and Japan work together to research design while overcoming differences in country, culture, language, and discipline. A major emphasis is seeing the research through to comple-tion while collaborating with the other team members.” For the past 15 years, the project has worked toward solutions to social issues facing Pacific Rim countries. In Japan in 2012, students studied the techniques of traditional craftspeople in the Tohoku region just after the Great East Japan Earthquake, focusing on both the reconstruction of local communities and the possibilities of design. In 2016, the Japan-based project traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, with participants making proposals for the reuse of banana stem fibers while considering sustainability and the role of design.In America in 2017, participants observed ecosystems and biomimetics in Costa Rica, proposing numerous designs for protecting life and contributing to society.“Experiencing different cultures for three months through Pacific Rim,” says Prof. Wada, “becomes a source of strength for students in the future. The project is an excellent opportunity to break out of one’s shell, overcome barriers, and grow by leaps and bounds.”On the first day, the students introduced themselves and presented the talismans they had made for connecting people and nature, the assignment given to them beforehand. They had to create a talisman that would confer magical powers when held, and the students from both universities presented creations made from various materials.The students then formed two- and three-person teams and started researching design-based solutions on the theme “Light and Nature.”The time difference between ArtCenter in California and Tokyo is 17 hours, so the students could only connect in the morning, Japan time. The team members did research, performed experiments, used the universities’ latest equipment, including 3D printers, to create pro-types.An online whiteboard tool called Miro was utilized to keep track of each team’s progress. Though separated by distance, this along with video chat enabled the teams to communicate smoothly.On the final day, the teams presented their research and displayed their projects. The works included a set of three different lights based on a feature of coral ecosystems (if one coral weakens, the entire group is affected), ground lights that projected ice floe patterns onto the floor, pendant lights on the motif of desert vegetation, and miniature lighting enabling people to experience warmth and comfort while traveling the world of ice. Instructors from both schools provided feedback.From the three-day online program on “Light and Nature.” Prof. David Mocarski, photo lower-left, and Prof. Wada, upper-right.Experiencing nature in Costa Rica and making designproposals for protecting life and contributing to societyUse the QR code to access a video overview of Pacific Rim 2021.DAY 3Supervision by Prof. MocarskiThe Challenge of Team Projects—Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural BarriersThe Experience of Different Cultures:Turning Difficulty into StrengthPacific Rim provides students the opportunity to experience the unknown and the challenge of expressing their own personalities while interacting with people of different nationalities. Prof. Tatsuya Wada of the Product Design Course has helped administer the project since its beginning and serves as a project leader.
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