
We will launch the East Asian Technics Research Forum in September 2025. This international research project explores the particular characteristics of East Asian technics through four interrelated perspectives: landscape, recurrence, humidity, and scale.
According to philosopher Yuk Hui, the world once harbored diverse forms of cosmotechnics—technics rooted in distinct cosmologies and worldviews. In contemporary East Asia, however, the vast majority of social systems are structured around modern Western technology. This condition is clearly reflected in the realm of contemporary art in Japan, where technologies such as generative AI, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and the metaverse are rapidly embraced, often without critical examination. Meanwhile, local forms of technics—such as wood carving, calligraphy, and ink painting—remain confined within the framework of “tradition,” and have become increasingly disconnected from contemporary artistic discourse.
Critically addressing this disjunction between contemporary art and cosmotechnics, the East Asian Technics Research Forum aims to investigate technics specific to East Asia and explore their (re)integration with indigenous modes of thought, particularly those associated with sansui (shanshui). Here, “technics” refers not merely to technologies or artistic media, but to a broader concept—one that includes art (in its premodern sense, encompassing both the aesthetic and the technical) and technē, both of which imply poiēsis, or the act of bringing-forth. The project seeks to reposition East Asian technics within a global contemporary context, opening new possibilities for both scholarship and artistic practice and surfacing latent cosmological sensibilities embedded in local practices. Through this effort, we hope to articulate a pluralistic, interconnected vision of society that transcends national and regional boundaries.
The outcomes of the research will be shared widely from 2026 onward through publications, symposia, and exhibitions, both in Japan and internationally.
Schedule
2025
◆Session 1
The Question of “Technics” in Modern Chinese Aesthetics: The Mechanism of the View of Nature
Date| Friday, September 19, 8:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Yi Ding
◆Session 2
Madang: The Technics of Gathering
Date| Friday, October 17, 9:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Sanghae Kwon
◆Session 3
Shanshuihua and “Technics”: On Liu Kuosung’s “Spaces Series (Taigong xilie)”
Date| Friday, October 31, 8:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Motoyuki Kure
◆Session 4
Landscape Photography and Techniques: On Trees in the Parks
Date| Friday, November 14, 8:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Yoshiaki Kai
◆Session 5
Date| Friday, December 5, 9:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Zhao Chen
2026
◆Session 6
Date| Friday, January 16, 9:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Koji Ichikawa
◆Session 7
Date| Friday, February 6, 9:00 PM (JST)
Speaker| Xiyue Yan
Zoom URL
https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/j/2681761549?pwd=yN1S0kuIO4qesSUVExxsbr5FODivja.1
Meeting ID: 268 176 1549
Passcode: 107969
Note: The East Asian Technics Research Forum is an invitation-only initiative.
If you are interested in participating or would like more information, please contact us at:
sansui3020[at]gmail.com (Please replace [at] with @ when sending your message.)
















































































