New Frontiers Grant Budget
Camera Equipment
Up grade my camera equipment to the state of the art professional highest resolution digital
camera in the market. The high-resolution technology made possible to print large scale digital
film with highest quality.
Digital SLR Camera Body.
$ 7,000.00
45mmTilt &Shift Lens
50mmMakro Lense
35mm Lense
$ 1,400.00
$ 1,300.00
$ 600.00
64GB Flash Memory Card $300 x2
Camera Case
$
$
600.00
300.00
Heavy dutie Tripod
$
900.00
Subtotal:
$12,100.00
Computer related Equipment
Up grade my 5 years old laptop computer for digital imaging while in Japan
plus extra storge devices:
McBook Pro 15” with
AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro - Auto-enroll
$ 3,900.00
4TB External Hard drive X 3
$ 200.00 each(for image storage space)
$
Subtotal:
600.00
$4,500.00
Photographic Materials and Chenistry
Digital Transparecy Film 42” X66’ $ 300.00 X2
Constrution of Contact print frame
Rice paper 36”X66’ $350 X 6
$ 600.00
$ 1,500.00
$ 2,100.00
Chemical:
Silvernitrate: 500g X2
@ $800.00
Potassium Ferricyanide 500g X 2 @50.00
Ferric Ammonium Citrate 100g@$10.00 X 10
$1,600.00
$ 100.00
$ 100.00
Subtotal:
Printing Digital Film:
Large format inkjet Printer rental and ink Fee.
Subtotal:
$6,000.00
$2,000.00
$2,000.00
Assistant:
In Okinawa: $100/day X 20 days
$2,000.00
Subtotal:
$2,000.00
Travel
Traveling requires for the research project in Japan during my sabbatical leave in spring 2015.
During Feb –July 2015, total of 3 weeks in Tokyo for preparation and film printing. 1 month in
Okinawa Islands
Travel/Transportation
Round trip airfare
Indianapolis -Tokyo- $ 1,800.00 X 2
Japan rail pass 21 days
$ 3,600.00
$ 900.00
RT airfare Tokyo- Okinawa main island
$ 600.00ea. X2 RTS
$ 1,200.00
Transportation with in Okinawa islands
(Kume island, Miyako island, Ishigaki island,
Yonakuni island and other smaller islands)
$ 3,000.00
Rent Car in Naha, Okinawa: $70/day X 30days
$ 2,100.00
RT airfare Indianapolis – WashingtonDC
Rent Car in Washington DC $400.00 weekly
$
$
Lodging and Meal
Lodging for 3 weeks in Tokyo @$150 X 21
Meal per day in Tokyo $ 100.00/day X 21 days
$ 3,150.00
$ 2,100.00
Lodging and meal for 1 month in Naha, Okinawa
One month $2000.00/month (monthly apartment)
Meal per day in Okinawa $ 80.00/dayX30 days
$ 2,000.00
$ 2,400.00
Lodging and meal in Washington DC
$150.00X 6 nights
$
350.00
400.00
900.00
Studio Rental
Total of 1 month: studio Rental $1000/month
$ 1,000.00
Subtotal:
$23,100.00
TOTAL:
$49,700.00
Budget Justification for Funds Requested
I will spend my time mastering the processes of cyanotype and salt printing, as well as
acquiring test materials. These materials are essential to the process that is involved in
creating the work. Due to shipping restriction on the chemistry required for the processes,
I will have to purchase the actual chemical and paper materials I will use in Japan. These
chemicals are unique to the processes I will be using and require a large quantity of
materials, therefore I need to get an appropriate supply to complete work on the scale I
would like to. As I have outlined in my budget proposal, it will be essential for me to
acquire a new high-resolution digital camera and appropriate lenses for image making to
replace my outdated model so that I have the ability to create high-resolution digital film
for final contact printing of the digital negatives with the hand coated surfaces. I will also
require an updated Mac Book Pro computer to replace my current 5 year old model for
processing and editing large image files. In addition, because of the size of the files that I
will be working with I will also need extra external storage devices for saving, backing
up and transporting these files.
I am planning to travel twice to Okinawa on different occasions to begin photographing
the actual war memorials. During this time I will also have to travel to Tokyo for two
weeks at the beginning of my trip to obtain and prepare chemical materials for shipping
to Okinawa and have special equipment, such as a contact printing frame built to expose
the digital negatives when I arrive in Okinawa.
Because of the limitations and physical aspects of working with the chemical materials I
will need to rent a studio space in order to prepare my photographic surfaces. When I
arrive I will set up my working studio and begin to visit and photograph the war
memorials and begin to collect the raw materials for my images. The processes involved
in completing the rubbings and the photographic processes which I will be using are
extremely time intensive and will require many hours and tests to fully complete. In these
processes, each print becomes a unique image that cannot be replicated, therefore,
multiple efforts will have to be made to create the final unique images. Again, an
appropriate quantity of chemistry, paper and digital negative materials are required
because of the size at I will be working at and because of the inherent unpredictable
nature of the process.
After I have obtained the final materials, I will travel back to the United States to create
the actual digital negatives that will be used for the final exposures in Okinawa. This will
require me to print and have access to printing facilities. During my time in the United
States, I will also travel to Washington D.C. in order to obtain actual photographs of
American war moments to juxtapose with those I have collected in Okinawa. Once I have
created my final series of negatives, I will travel back to Okinawa to develop and expose
the final images using the sea and sun of Okinawa. My plan is to create a series of
approximately twenty new photographic works for final presentation.
New Frontiers in The Arts and Humanities Grant
Project Proposal –Memorial: Tracing the Past
I am applying for the New Frontiers Major grant to propose a new body of digital
photographic work. Recently I completed my Banta Cliffs, Gama Caves, and Remains
work, in which I dealt with locations that bore witness to thousands of tragic and
unimaginable deaths during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. For the continued
development of these bodies of work, I am interested in locating the cultural differences
and commonalities that are present between mainland Japan, Okinawa, and the United
States. This includes the interdependence of economy, politics, and media. I believe that
the sociological, political, and personal shared histories of this region are invaluable to
me in exploring this new body of work.
Throughout the Okinawa main island there are a number of World War II memorials with
which I would like to explore new ways to create digital photographic imagery using a
frottage technique on the memorials’ text. Using sumi ink to rub on the surface of the
memorials, I will single out specific words and fragmentize the sentences to create
images that float within a composition. I am interested in deconstructing the political
agenda and the military glorification imbedded in the war memorials’ text. I am planning
to digitize and manipulate the frottage image by adding English words taken from
American and western war monuments to create a digital negative film. I will then
expose this digital negative film with the Okinawan sun on to Gettoh-shi (Okinawan wild
ginger paper) to produce a salt print and cyanotype print.
Historically, the islands that now make up the Japanese Prefecture of Okinawa were an
independent state known as the Ryuku Kingdom (15th to 19th century). The Ryukyu
Island chain (Okinawa Prefecture) is geographically scattered along the southern rim of
the East China Sea, bridging Japan and Taiwan, and hence mainland China. Okinawa’s
geographic location made it an intercultural trading center, and helped it to develop its
own unique cultural blend of Oceanic, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. A further
hybridization of Okinawan culture occurred through its direct interaction with Japan and
the United States after World War II, adding even more layers to the cultural makeup that
distinguishes Okinawan culture from that of mainland Japan. Okinawa has a history of
colonization by both Japan and the United States, comparable to the Native American
experience in the U.S. The Japanese conquered Okinawa and made it a part of their
empire in 1879. During World War II, the Okinawa islands became the forefront of the
battlefield, which turned it into the only Japanese soil that was landed on and defeated by
the U.S. military force.
After the war, the U.S. occupation was extended until 1972 in Okinawa, which had a
huge political and economic impact on Okinawans’ lives. This created a complex cultural
makeup that differed greatly from that of Mainland Japan.
Even after the U.S.
occupation was officially over, one third of Okinawa’s soil was still occupied by the U.S.
military due to a political deal between the Japanese and the United States governments.
As a result, the people of Okinawa are painfully situated between Japan and the United
States, politically as well as culturally.
As a Japanese/American living in the United States for the past 25 years, I feel like an
outsider in both cultures. Still I am stranger in all the places my family could call
“home.” As my wife is Okinawan and my daughter is Okinawan/Japanese/American, I
am personally invested in finding points of connection and disconnection between actual
and constructed memories on both cultural and familial levels.
I have completed three previous bodies of work that are related to Okinawa, Banta Cliffs,
Gama Caves and Remains. With this new work, I hope to challenge the ongoing cultural
and societal ambivalence towards the conflicting histories of Okinawa through an
interpretation of the hyper text imagery, deconstructing the political agenda and the
military glorification imbedded in war memorials in Okinawa and abroad.
Living in Okinawa during my sabbatical in 2006 provided an immersion into Okinawan
culture and history that has led me to three major bodies of work: Remains, and Banta
(Cliffs): Stained Memories. Banta (the Okinawan word for cliff) deals with digitally
captured and reconstructed images of the suicide cliffs. Great numbers of innocent
Okinawan civilians – men, women, children, young and old alike – were coerced into
committing suicide by jumping off of these cliffs during the Battles of Okinawa and
Saipan. The twenty-one large-scale images (20” x 60”) of the cliffs that comprise the
series were shot with a high-resolution digital camera. These files were then stitched
together and digitally manipulated using Photoshop to create larger vertical images with
altered perspectives. This format references historical Chinese and Japanese landscape
scroll paintings. However, through the use of then state of the art digital technology, I
was able to achieve a sharpness that exceeds photographic reality and creates a hyper-real
landscape.
The new work, which will use the antique photographic processes of salt and cyanotype,
as well as elements of drawing and digital composition, will bring together the past and
the present not only conceptually, but through the use of materials as well. While the use
of digital technology can create views and visual experiences that must exist
photographically, bringing my hand into the work will elaborate on the human
connection to the past and the present, as well as my own experience of more intimately
placing myself into the context of a cultural history. This work reflects another side of my
work and interest in Okinawa. I imagine this new body of work to comprise the final
section of an Okinawa Trilogy.
In addition to my application to the Indiana University New Frontiers Grant, I will be
applying for additional support from the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship
project during my sabbatical semester. Beyond exhibition, I plan to use the work
generated through this grant in order to apply for further funding from, the Japan
Foundation, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the Central Indiana Community
Foundations. I also have been involved in discussions with Nikon Japan, and Epson
Japan regarding potential corporate funding for future work that continues to push the
edge of their technologies.
The principal location of my creative activities will be in Okinawa, Japan with support of
Sakima Art Museum. I will also travel to Kyoto, and Tokyo for printing facilities and I
have secured permission to do so.
During previous visits to Japan I have met and discussed new war memorial idea with
curators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, The National Museum of
Modern Art, and Sakima Museum of Art, one of a renowned Japanese Art Museum in
Okinawa where I had a solo exhibition of Banta Series in 2009. The Sakima Museum of
Art has known for collecting and exhibiting contemporary artwork that deal with a theme
of Peace and War. The director Michio Sakima already committed to exhibit Gama cave
series with new work upon the completion in 2015.
While in Japan on sabbatical, I plan to meet again with these and other museum curators
in order to arrange an exhibition of these new works that will travel throughout Japan and
Okinawa. I also plan to exhibit these images in the US and am involved in ongoing
discussions to this end with curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine
Arts Houston and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Arts. I have a commitment from my
gallery representation Sepia EYE in New York City; Photo Gallery International in
Tokyo; 1839 Contemporary Gallery in Taipei; Tanto Tempo Gallery in Kobe; and Pictura
Gallery in Bloomington to show this work in 2015-2017. I will also propose for a
combined exhibition of the Okinawa series at the Grunwald Gallery on the IU
Bloomington Campus in near future.
During the spring and fall of 2014, I will spend my time mastering the processes of
cyanotype and salt printing, as well as acquiring test materials. Due to shipping
restriction on the chemistry required for the processes, I will have to purchase the actual
chemical and paper materials I will use in Japan. As I have outlined in my budget
proposal, it will be essential for me to acquire a new high resolution digital camera to
replace my outdated model so that I have the ability to create high resolution digital film
for final contact printing of the digital negatives with the hand coated surfaces as well as
an updated Mac Book Pro computer for processing and editing large image files.
During the spring of 2015 I am planning to travel twice to Okinawa on different
occasions to begin photographing the actual war memorials. During this time I will also
have to travel to Tokyo for two weeks at the beginning of my trip to obtain and prepare
chemical materials for shipping to Okinawa and have special equipment, such as a
contact printing frame built to expose the digital negatives when I arrive in Okinawa.
Once I arrive I will set up my working studio and begin to visit and photograph the war
memorials and begin to collect the raw materials for my images. The processes involved
in completing the rubbings and the photographic processes which I will be using are
extremely time intensive and will require many hours and tests to fully complete. In these
processes, each print becomes a unique image that cannot be replicated, therefore,
multiple efforts will have to be made to create the final unique images.
After I have obtained the final materials, I will travel back to the United States to create
the actual digital negatives that will be used for the final exposures in Okinawa. During
my time in the United States, I will also travel to Washington D.C. in order to obtain
actual photographs of American war moments to juxtapose with those I have collected in
Okinawa. Once I have created my final series of negatives, I will travel back to Okinawa
to develop and expose the final images using the sea and sun of Okinawa. My plan is to
create a series of approximately twenty new photographic works for final presentation.
Examples of Frottage Technique Using Japanese and English Text
Reviewer 1:
Project Title: Memorial: Tracing the Past
Strengths: The proposal states: “I would like to explore new ways to create digital photographic
imagery using a frottage technique on the World War II memorials' text in the Okinawa islands.
The new work, which will use the antique photographic processes of salt and cyanotype, as well
as elements of drawing and digital composition, will bring together the past and the present
not only conceptually, but through the use of materials as well. While the use of digital
technology can create views and visual experiences that must exist photographically, bringing
my hand into the work will elaborate on the human connection to the past and the present, as
well as my own experience of more intimately placing myself into the context of a cultural
history. “
- Very good project, with exploration of different cultures, and effect of joint history on people
and cultures/ US/ Japan/ Okinawa
- Interesting and poignant outcomes
- Travel and work abroad, creating connections and presence
- Site visits for photos
- New skill (frottage and salt printing)
- Outstanding research record and representation in various museums
- Wonderful previous work
- Well-written and sound plan to achieve the outcomes
Weaknesses:
- Padded budget in terms of equipment? Should be discussed with the artist maybe
Reviewer 2:
Project Title: Memorial: Tracing the Past
Strengths: [PI] is one of IU’s most prominent photographers. The project continues his
previous work on the history of Okinawa, and the loss of life during the Battle of Okinawa,
juxtaposing it with images of war memorials in DC. The innovative feature are the old
processes of cyanotype and salt printing he wants to master; the reason for the acquisition of
these techniques (making the photographer’s hand part of the process; having the images be
exposed by the Okinawan sun) is convincingly and movingly articulated in the proposal, which is
a model of its kind
Weaknesses: The proposal is very expensive, precisely because of its international dimension
(and the necessity to acquire materials in Japan).
Reviewer 3:
Project Title: Memorial: Tracing the Past
Strengths:
the project sounds fascinating, and the applicant has a strong record of high quality work
the grant writer has potential exhibitions lined up
Weaknesses:
It is unclear why the equipment expenses are so high. For example, the cost of the MacBook is
quite high. Why is this version necessary, and why would a slightly less expensive MacBook not
be appropriate? Likewise, the proposal makes a case for a very expensive camera. The
explanation for this piece of equipment is that it has a high resolution and is at the cutting edge
of the equipment available. However, the writer does not explain how this fact relates to the
project. Can it not be done with another format camera? After all, the earlier work of the grant
writer was large format and used a camera already in his possession. In other words, how does
the equipment transform the final product?
It is not entirely clear how this work is innovative? How does it fit into contemporary creative
work? Why is it important in a professional context?