Conversations on Superflat (part 2)
After our Superflat panel at Anime Boston, we received a few emails from readers with really interesting questions about the movement and the presentation. Here are some excerpts from these conversations:
reader: it never felt to me that Murakami was condemning cutesy or fetishized art in and of itself, but the ridiculous abundance of it in Japanese culture (virtually EVERYTHING has a cute mascot there) and people’s intense obsession with such escapism that they resort to If you look at the personal blog of one of Murakami’s otaku friends that I mentioned a while ago, he’s into a lot of weird/cute/creepy otaku things and draws manga containing fanservice of underage girls. BUT, he also has an active social life and an actual family that he supports, and leaves his strange interests in the realm of fiction - he doesn’t seem at all like someone Murakami would condemn, despite whatever weird anime things he might be into.
There are people who were very confused by Murakami’s efforts to defend a loli fanservice-filled manga during last year’s anime/manga censoring fiasco, because they assumed that Murakami was simply against such things because he deems them as being harmful in the same way that Americans deem them as being harmful (THEY LEAD TO CHILDREN BEING RAPED IN REAL LIFE etc etc) when in reality I don’t think his problem isn’t with the existence of such things, but with its sheer prevalence (there is Shonen Jump manga aimed at young boys with loli fanservice in it) and people’s intense obsession with it that turns them into severely broken people. With some effort someone can easily balance strange anime fandom with a decent, productive life, and chances are Murakami is okay with such people. What I’m saying is that Murakami is clearly far, far from having a Miyazaki-esque view of moe and loli and whatnot. But due to their gut reaction to such things, people instantly assume that Murakami is simply against such art in any form and views it as inherently immoral and wrong.
It should also be noted that one of Murakami’s superflat artists, as I mentioned earlier, is a self-described “lolicon”, and when asked if his work contains he instantly responded with a “no”. And really, all his work shows this off this theme - it’s sometimes intentionally distorted and strange in a traditional superflat way and can be seen as a self parody (i.e. “man, I’m pretty freaking weird”) but sometimes it’s simply delivered straight-facedly without any attempt at parody: (NSFW!) http://www.hintmag.com/artcrawl/artcrawl.php - if Murakami was completely revolted by such things, he wouldn’t support his protege in showing his art to the world; art containing the sexualization of underage girls and boys that he admits is not societal criticism, but simply about “releasing his fantasy world through his work, instead of acting it out in real life.”.
While Murakami himself is most likely not into these things, some of his artists ARE and don’t really make any efforts to hide it. He’s also a huge fan of Evangelion (and its creator Hideaki Anno), a show that sexualizes the hell out of its 14 year old characters (with Anno’s approval no less - he’s the one who decided to make Asuka’s plugsuit even more fanservicey in 2.22). But once again, Evangelion also has an anti-‘otaku basement dweller’ message and is meant to show off just how bad people will end up if they avoid society and facing their problems head-on. A lot of people see this mix of unironic fanservice and otaku criticism as being completely hypocritical, but I don’t necessarily see it as such - with some effort, you can be a nerd and be into some weird things to an extent while still having a fulfilling social life.
Also, one more question - in that video, when you listed works that you guys view as being ‘superflat’ like FLCL and Persona 3, was it just your own personal thoughts with no real connection to Murakami and other self-described superflat artists? Because as far as I know, FLCL wasn’t really associated with Murakami or his art (Murakami only seems interested in Gainax’s older work), let alone Persona 3 and 4 - am I wrong here?
eric: At a certain point we have to remember that an artists work is separate from their personal life, nor does the fact that Murakami has friends who are striaght up otaku disprove that there is an element of critique in Murakamis work. If we take the Andy Warhol example again (and I am really pushing heavily on this point because I think it is important), we can observe that while Warhol was friends with a number of socialites and celebrities, going as far as to paint personalized portraits for/of them, he was never not criticizing the condition of their social status. The Leo Castelli portrait in particular is often studied for this reason. In fact his relationships with these celebrities itself was a form of criticism: he himself became a super-flattened ever-bored persona, the unsatisfied voyeur; his entire personality was a form of critique, a scathing hyper-exaggeration, a character type. And yet, it was 100% sincere: he truly loved celebrities, he truly loved being famous. Murakami may (or may not!) being playing a similar game: his relationships with otaku, his status as an otaku are itself a manifestation of his criticisms, an invented half-ironic half-sincere persona developed in order to criticize and celebrate, to understand (and appreciate!) from within, to de-construct and re-construct. Whether or not Murakami has friends who are actual lolicom fans or moe mangaka seems less signficant than the semiotics of the pieces themselves which, in my opinion, are not harmless symptoms of kawaii culture but instead point to the hidden pernicious machinations of kawaii culture. Murakami’s defense of loli art, when seen from this perspective is not confusing at all, it makes perfect sense. Nor could I really picture any artist, even if condemning a certain artistic style for being pernicious, advocating any kind of censorship. This kind of tactic is seen by a number of post-modern artists: J.G. Ballard was put on trial for obscenity in the early 80s (forgive me, that date might be wrong?); when asked if his literature is obscene he replied “Of Course! It is supposed to be!”
If Murakami is playing this kind of semiotic game, then the question of irony is never absent, nor can it never be fully sussed out. If Murakami is both celebrating and critiquing simultaneously, then he could easily be doing neither or nothing at all: his art is simply an examination, affectless, meaningless, lacking depth, or super-flattened. The term super-flat, super-flat art itself, is necessarily self-reflexive in this way.
When commenting upon Evangelion you say: “A lot of people see this mix of unironic fanservice and otaku criticism as being completely hypocritical, but I don’t necessarily see it as such - with some effort, you can be a nerd and be into some weird things to an extent while still having a fulfilling social life.” This is the exact stance I think that Murakami is trying to take in all of his art: otaku criticism and unironic fan-service presented simultaneously.
My memory is a bit fuzzy but I am pretty sure there was a video showing (or maybe a special screening of?) FLCL during the original superflat exhibit in NYC a few years ago. That being said, our presentation, and a general ongoing project I’ve had (possibly being developed into an MA / PhD thesis?!) is to expand and reinterpret Murakami’s use of the word/concept superflat so as to better understand the post-modern condition. We were/are attempting to investigate the concept of super-flat as either symptomatic of the post-modern condition or an integral tactic for understanding the machinations of this condition. Questions that are included in this investigation would be: what cultural texts could be better examined from a super-flat lens? To what extent are super-flat products the result of the post-modern flattening of affect, late-capitalist consumer culture, and 21st century technology? With these questions in mind, we could easily see things outside of Murakami’s scope as super-flat: persona 3-4 were included in the presentation as an example of this, along with the american vinyl toy industry (Kidrobot) and the rise of American celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga. We were/are attempting to understand the ways in which the super-flattening of concepts like high/low art and east/west art manifested. So Persona 3/4 worked out to be a great example: the way in which the simulated experience of a (simulation of the idea of) “Japanese” childhood is sold to American audiences is, in a word, superflat.
[as always: feel free to send us requests, questions, ideas, commissions, or inquiries by email or ask box!]
UPDATE/REMINDER
The time of the panel has changed from 10pm to 6pm, but everything else remains the same (and there is a decent chance it will change again)!
What is Superflat?: Where Anime fits in Post-Modern Culture
A panel discussion with speakers Sam Kusek and Eric Shorey
Join us as we try and parse through the difficulties and nuances of the complex neologism coined by Takashi Murakami: “Superflat.” Usually used to refer to a specific style or group of post-modern Japanese artists (Yoshitomo Nara, Chiho Aoshima, Satoshi Kon, among others), Superflat art self-reflexively critiques and celebrates anime and otaku culture. The tropes of superflatism include: one dimensionality, saturated color, hyper-sexuality and infantaliziation, blurred lines between fantasy and reality, fetishism (cultural and sexual), and the ambiguous engagement with a kind of national-character mythos (often with the atom bomb) and late capitalist economic structures.
Contradictorily: “Superflat” can also be used to describe certain phenomena within Asian (and sometimes American) culture, the same phenomena that Superflat art often criticizes. So things like: Power Rangers, Street Fighter, Ultraman, and Godzilla can appropriately be called “Superflat” as well. Can Superflat also be seen as a sensibility, a mode of engaging with anime and other cultural texts? What anime can be criticized by a super-flat apparatus, and what anime could be called Superflat?
This panel will specifically discuss various movies, games, and cultural phenomenon like: FLCL, Paranoia Agent, Persona 3 and 4, the Street Fighter franchise of video games, and Hello Kitty. Through this discussion, we will atempt to create a more concrete definition of Superflat and figure out where and how anime can and should be analyzed under a post-modern lens.
Anime Boston, April 23, 6pm
(we are super excited.)
What is Superflat?: Where Anime fits in Post-Modern Culture
A panel discussion with speakers Sam Kusek and Eric Shorey
Join us as we try and parse through the difficulties and nuances of the complex neologism coined by Takashi Murakami: “Superflat.” Usually used to refer to a specific style or group of post-modern Japanese artists (Yoshitomo Nara, Chiho Aoshima, Satoshi Kon, among others), Superflat art self-reflexively critiques and celebrates anime and otaku culture. The tropes of superflatism include: one dimensionality, saturated color, hyper-sexuality and infantaliziation, blurred lines between fantasy and reality, fetishism (cultural and sexual), and the ambiguous engagement with a kind of national-character mythos (often with the atom bomb) and late capitalist economic structures.
Contradictorily: “Superflat” can also be used to describe certain phenomena within Asian (and sometimes American) culture, the same phenomena that Superflat art often criticizes. So things like: Power Rangers, Street Fighter, Ultraman, and Godzilla can appropriately be called “Superflat” as well. Can Superflat also be seen as a sensibility, a mode of engaging with anime and other cultural texts? What anime can be criticized by a super-flat apparatus, and what anime could be called Superflat?
This panel will specifically discuss various movies, games, and cultural phenomenon like: FLCL, Paranoia Agent, the Street Fighter franchise of video games, and Hello Kitty. Through this discussion, we will atempt to create a more concrete definition of Superflat and figure out where and how anime can and should be analyzed under a post-modern lens.
Anime Boston, April 23, 10pm
(we are super excited.)
Nick Cave, Meet Me At The Center of The Earth, seen @ Norton Gallery, West Palm Beach FL
Inspired by Joseph Beuys and Leigh Bowery, Nick Cave uses elaborate costumes (known as “Soundsuits”) made out of recycled clothes and materials in energetic dance pieces that celebrate and reconstruct the identity of the wearer.
<3
Eric Duyckaerts, How to Draw a Sqaure
The artist delivers a series of painfully long and obfuscating fake philosophy lectures that utilize jargon and nonsense to approach an exponentially abyssal “academic” a-thesis. (Point is: this is creepily similar to an actual philosophy lecture)
pix from Disorient party: Gratitude NYC — Village of Light @ Electric Warehouse Brooklyn.
Gotta love burners.
I just posted a few pictures from the open studies in Brooklyn. Check back here in the next few days for a few more pieces from Brooklyn BETA spaces!
Shark-punching diorama (I think it was titled Survival Tip #5) @ Fire Proof Bar/Cafe (Brooklyn BETA Spaces)
Bee. Ay. (Bad Ass.)
Rashaad Newsome presents “Shade Compositions,” a live performance featuring a a chorus of more than twenty black women. Influenced by improvisatory orchestral music and live video-mixing, Newsome divides his performers into groups akin to instrumental sections as they enact his choreographed sound score made up of repeated sequences of culturally specific or stereotypical gestures, movements, and vocalizations. Newsome simultaneously records, loops, edits, and remixes in real-time the audio and video documentation of the performers using a hacked Nintendo® Wii™ game controller. The resulting layers of real and projected imagery investigate assumptions and constructions of identity in mainstream media and popular culture.
“Shade Compositions” is an ongoing performance series that, depending on the nature of the space, uses a variable number of black females who perform choreographed dismissive actions that are often characterized as “ghetto” in order to create an orchestra of rhythmic compositions. Using an instrument created with Max MSP technology, a crescendo of aggravated music is built up by the artist editing the beats created live by the girls, thus making each a one-of-a-kind performance.
my new favorite artist?
-eric
