New media, experience and Japanese way of tea (Chado)

Gunji, Jennifer

Abstract

The philosophy of the Japanese Way of Tea (Chado) can play a significant role in design education. By heightening use of the senses, Chado cultivates inner awareness of self and other through process, form and practice. Established by sixteenth century grandmaster Sen Rikyu. Chado is based on the Zen principles of "harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility." This synthesis of ideals becomes a spiritual manifestation of the human soul.

Concentration on the senses is becoming more critical in design. Development of multimedia technolgies challenge designers to create more experiential expressions in virtual settings. To accomplish this, one is required to possess advanced technological skills and enhanced intersensory awareness. Inevitably design will come to express olfactory, taste and tactile sensations through a primarily visual setting. This inclination will encourage the generation of design experiences that awaken consciousness, emotions and empathy within their audience. The focus becomes the creation of experiences that are humanized through the sensitivity of designers and their ability to interconnection mind, body, emotions and spirit into design, while developing interaction with the audience.

Establishing Japanese aesthetics as a fundamental experience in design education will prompt students to cultivate their sensory preception, sharpen their aesthetic understanding, heighten cultural discernment and enrich their ability to create and express what they experience. Exposure to these ideas will inspire students culturally, intellectually and spiritually which ultimately contributes not only to their understanding of design, but also to appreciation for life.

As a student finishing her master's degree in graphic design at the University of Illinois, I have experienced, first hand, the evolving predicament of design education. With the influx of new media programs across the nation and the demand of students to integrate these programs into existing graphic design programs, the state of design education has become rather indeterminate and unfocused. Many students are captivated by and desire to be further versed in new technologies, which allow for an expression of design in new terms: design as interaction and experience versus design as layout. Yet, many graphic design programs are unable to provide students with instruction in the flourishing areas,of web and multimedia design.

Thus, students leave with a background primarily focusing on traditional print -based design and with only light exposure in the world of new media.

Like many universities, my graphic design department is undergoing the same identity crisis in terms of relinquishing parts of tradition and opening a willingness to embrace a needed redefinition of thoughts, languages, methodologies, processes and tools. With the subsequent advancement of new media and technologies, the teaching of graphic design has been ultimately faced with significant decisions concerning how to position itself in a hypermedia environment. This program, no different than many others, has struggled to identify with the changing climate of design.

Due to the lack of faculty proficient in technical skills, the program has no option but to resist forging new structures of multidisciplinary studies that focus on new media.

In my graduate studies, I am not seeking answers, but I am expecting to shape the context for current and future design pedagogy. Instead of waiting for new ideas to be embraced by the graphic design department, I would like to participate in the development of new ideas, in shaping new programs and in redefining the field of design. Many students feel that they are being forcefed recipes for education, as defined in design cookbooks from twenty years ago. I wish to add my own recipes to the book, by defining a future of design with expanded goals, philosophies and deliverables. Ultimately, I feel I am part of the redefinition of design education and thus what it will become is a personal responsibility.

I entered the graphic design program to develop new ways in which design could be made a part of our daily lives.

I am not interested in "making things pretty" nor am I interested in developing the "catch-all" end product. I came with the intention to further focus upon the possibilities of design, without concentrating upon a specific media. What I discovered was that I was becoming a product of a traditional design program that failed to encompass my interests and goals because the program itself had lost direction in the confusion of the changing climate of design education.

The lines between art and design, research and product, conceptualization and content, teaching and learning need to blur. I am seeking the understanding and exploration of design as an experience. Graphic design can no longer Vibe limited to an orchestration of text hand image. By introducing dimensions ,.pf sound, space and time, the study of design has evolved into the creation of experiential expressions of reality. To do this successfully, one is required to not only possess advanced technological skills but an enhanced intersensory awareness and intellecttial willingness to explore and challenge the possibilities. These technological demands lead to a need to create and develop designs that embody more human-like experiences through the visual and the aural, moreover, it will also be increasingly critical for designers to express olfactory, taste and tactile sensations through a primarily visual setting. The current need is for students to become "adept at the traditional skills of design, and engage in dialogue with the virtuosos in the world of social science, economics, architecture, theatre and the narrative arts."- Thus, design education must be willing to reformulate the teacher-student dynamic (understanding that learning and teaching becomes more collegial), build teaching strategies that focus upon concept / content development. explore new forms of expression which allow freedom of experimentation. and finally, see design as experience rather than layout or product. Focusing upon experience and interaction, design must begin to willingly encompass the use of elements beyond pure layout: sounds, emotions, feedback, motion, time and behavior. Design is more than a one-way experience, but rather a two or even three way conversation. The inclination is to encourage the development of web or multimedia experiences that awaken new depths of consciousness, feelings, emotions and empathy within the audience | participants. The elemental focus becomes the creation of an experience that is humanized through the sensitivity of the designer to interconnect her/his mind, body, emotion and spirit into design, but also with, full understanding of how the design will relate and develop interaction with the audience.

Redefinition of design education becomes increasingly important in light of global culture. The World Wide Web allows for unprecedented communication. As these new means of interaction emerge on a daily basis, design if present, can frame those interactions aesthetically, functionally and emotionally. The future of design lies in our understanding and exploration of interaction.

For over ten years, I have been studying the discipline and philosophy of the Japanese Way of Tea (Chado). Chado is a means of cultivating an inner awareness through respect for process, form and practice. Beginning my design studies simultaneously, this synthesis of abstract ideas is naturally manifest in my study and cultivation of design. As a means of broadening awareness and appreciation for a diversified viewpoint of design, my exposure to Japanese aesthetics and philosophies, with thel primary focus on Chado, gave a new understanding of diverse cultures and their impact on design. It also inspired me to examine my own culture with more scrutiny.

What I discovered was that this combination of studies and disciplines was fully applicable to further understanding and exploring interaction in design. I began to develop and apply teaching techniques that explore thinking, seeing, understanding and experiencing as it relates to Japanese aesthetic teaching methods and how it is relevant to the study and understanding of new media and design education. Traditional Japanese techniques do not rely upon notes or other mechanical means to help a student. It is based on repetition of principles in different forms that underscore the realization that things are and we must, as creators and receivers, learn to recognize the subtle forms and variations of that which is communicated.

Japanese aesthetic theories provide abstract ways to perceive the world. The abstract means maintain itself independently from the material form. Things imply materials. However, things do not imply thought. Thought will last beyond the lifespan of an object. In most forms of Japanese art, it is the individualized responsibility of receivers to identify the relationships to these forms of art. The study of Japanese aesthetics maintains that it is easier to understand the abstract than it is to try to understand the theories of the material. Material forms are manifestations of ideas. With this comprehension, one is able to remanufacture those ideas by producing or applying it to another object. We no longer focus on the end product, but the conceptual process explored to develop that product. In the study of the Way of Tea, although serving a bowl of tea with utmost respect to a guest is the ultimate goal, it is the understanding and application of the process that becomes most critical.

Although the study, practice and experience of the Way of Tea may seem extremely far-reaching in relation to developing web or multimedia design, 4Ibelieve that the interconnection will be clear with continued technological advances. As students of design, it is necessary to have sharpened technological skills and enhanced sensory skills that enables the evolution of connections and experiences without alienation or removal of the senses. A means of balancing the ti,"and also cultivating the latter, can be slone through the study and understanding of the Way of Tea. The study of the Way of Tea encourages a heightened use of the senses. Concentration on the senses is and will continue to become more and more critical in the practice and understanding of design.

My goal is to further develop the significance of Japanese aesthetic education as an essential experience in teaching the study of art and design. I believe that the philosophy and understanding of the Way of Tea, as a primary aspect of aesthetic education, is basic to the quality and appreciation of life. It is within the framework of the Way of Tea that students are asked to cultivate their sensory perception, sharpen their aesthetic understanding, elevate cultural discernmeet, appreciate the moment and enrich their ability to create and express what they experience.

Focusing on the development of interconnecting the study of design and the Way of Tea, this unification provides a necessary balance between what is rational and systematic to what is emotional and what prompts such reactions. It introduces and recognizes the connective fiber between the mind, heart and spirit as a means of enriching ones' perspectives and capacities to experience life. My interest is to heighten student's sensitivities through experience. This heightened sensitivity provides the means to create design experiences that further scrutinize the process of development to fully account for the audience, rather, than focusing solely on the end product.

When experiencing tea for the first time, participants are often left with a sentiment of beauty and tranquility through their heightened senses, which is beyond their everyday realm. It is not a customary form of art or design here. Yet, in its most simplified form, it is an everyday occurrence in which we are all participants -washing. cleaning, making, serving, organizing, seeing, interacting, etc. We generally make such ordinary actions unconsciously. But through its ritualization, establishment of process and form, and philosophical recognition and implications these common everyday actions through the Way of Tea are elevated into an art form. Through single-mindedness of practice and understanding, and by surpassing the conscious effort to have perfect form. Chado enters a realm in which art becomes a way of life. The study of tea focuses on the development of the human spirit. This is something that we can naturally strive for on a daily basis, however this is rarely the case. We are often forced to amass information and knowledge and simply store it in our minds. The study of the Way of Tea, as everything else in life, also obligates us to acquire new knowledge and information; however the central focus does not remain that accumulation. Rather, the attention is on the process of knowledge accretion as it relates to our emotions and our spirit. The process is not only inclusive of the intellect, but embodies and requires the very elements that provide us with human interaction.

In the Way of Tea, a person is confronted with the awareness of Space- the physical space (architecture), the mental space (metaphysical) and the spatial relationships between objects, elements and ideas (frame of mind | way of thinking). The architectural structure or setting of tea is often referred to as, "sukiya." Sukiya becomes a space in which one experiences the ephemeral, recognizes its fleeting nature and accepts its true concept as "nothingness." Ultimately, the idea ukin becomes the manifestation of non-spatial space. It is no longer the physical space on which we place emphasis, but the idea of the space. The actualization of the space is fully dependent on the means of its use by human beings. Sen Rikyu, tea master of the 1500's, "brought together the tea ceremony and the aiim"an element in a new and simple form of space in which the person was the central theme rather than the style ,of,art, This space creates an atmosphere soothing to humans and has been preserved in the tradition of sukiya architecture."' Rikyu also established the "roji" or pathway to the teahouse, which further perpetuated the idea of isolating the physical space from the everyday world. The physical act of walking on the roji is the mental act of detaching oneself from the outside world of current concerns and obligation. In reflection; one could perceive the act of entering the World Wide Web as a similar notion. The teahouse was specifically established to be a physical space in which tea was practiced. Moreover, the sukiya was established as a metaphysical space in which people could seemingly escape the everyday world into a space or setting, which was carefully orchestrated through selection of objects, elements and messages, to form the "total experience" for the participants.

Early Japanese sense of space was viewed as "system of places, i.e. spatial and temporal events, separated by homogeneous non-place."' Interestingly, this same ideology can be passed on to the reflection of cyberspace and how people relate to that space. Cyberspace only truly exists when humans visit that space. The tearoom may physically exist with no Vo participants, but to exist as it is truly intended, it can do so only with the vhf participation of humans. Furthermore, this idea re-emphasizes that existence in cyberspace is more about a holistic experience than a surface glance. It is a mental immersion of our senses in virtualization. It is thus the utmost challenge of the designer to utilize their understanding of how to create a physical atmosphere in relation to a cyber atmosphere. As in cyberspace, there is no true sense of past or future, but the ultimate focus is the immediate. The Way of Tea continually emphasizes the ephemeral qualities of life. It views life as a fleeting coming together of interactions, elements, thoughts and chances. By doing so, the exchange between the receiver and the creator (guest and host) becomes all the more fulfilling. As designers of new media, we should consider embracing these ideas in hope to create experiences that affect the receivers consciousness and enables them to become immersed as participants rather than mere spectators.

Students of design must learn by the physical act of doing and thus. learn to question and inquire appropriately. It is not only through presentation of theories and philosophies. but only through physical practice that students will learn to ask the questions that they need to define. They learn to feel the questions that should be asked. They question because they conclude that they need to know the answer. They questions because they have intuitively learned what questions to ask. They begin to make the relationships on their own through inquiry and find suitable ways to further develop designs conceptually.

Japanese aesthetic teaching methods also nurture intuitive creation. Intuition relies on the compr>ension of each element and how they interrelate not only outwardly but also inwardly. The outward manifestation is only a result of developed inward reflection and understanding of one's own expression. It is this reflection that enables us to give new meaning to form. Creation becomes the mental and emotional unfolding of one's personality and understanding. The process becomes a part of who one is.

Understanding self, enables one to see others in a different light. We create because we develop an understanding as to how this design relates to an individual as a person rather than as an external and isolated entity.

These teaching methods transcend the simple imparting of information and skills. They engage students in seeing such studies as a compr>ensive attitude to life, which embraces their soul and spirit. These methods expose students to a way of thinking, seeing, understanding and experiencing that possess spiritual, artistic, moral, philosophical, disciplinary and social significance. This teaching presents to students a way of conducting life. The significant aspiration of these methods becomes the reve,oq of one's sincere and pure heart, mind and spirit. It is not the perfection or m__ tering of technical skills or producti; but it is the process focus itself. The result is the productive and thoughtful communication or interconnection that can be made between the creator and the receiver. Through the single-mindedness of that purpose, this study becomes the study of the way of life rather than concentrating only on to art or design. It becomes away of conducting human b>avior and relationships. In this viewpoint, it becomes a manifestation of all that is universal.

There is much more study and exploration that can be done with regard to this way of thinking and its application to teaching. The relationship is there. Acknowledging its existence is the first step. A different way of recognizing relationships between seemingly disconnected elements and ideas and how to present those findings in the v>icle of teaching is the goal. There is no solution or formula, but merely ideas and thoughts that can guide students of design to see, think, feel and experience learning in a way that may not have been introduced or recognized, This method cultivates inner awareness through respect to process, form and practice. Exposure to these ideas enables students to heighten their sensitivities through experience. Through such teaching, the goal of design education is not to train students, but to enable students to make aesthetic judgements guided by their own convictions and realizations of life and how they view it. Through this awareness, an individual can achieve a new way of seeing, understanding and giving sense and order to her/his life.

Endnotes

See www.experience.aiga.org/expdesign/index.html

I See www-rri.meijo-u.ac.jp/a/semi/mshimizu/index2.html

I NU T E. K Ey i N. Relativity, Cyberspace, and the Suk.a. Chanoyu Quarterly, 87, 45.

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Biography

Jennifer Gunji is a design educator who is currently and instructor in the graphic design program and the narrative media program at the University of Illinois. Her focus encompasses the various facets of design, which examine both traditional and new media. Her teaching integrates study of Japanese aesthetics in the study and practices of design. She is currently studying to become a tea master under the Urasenke Tradition of Chado. Gunji's web and design work has been highlighted in several international and national publications. Her design work for @art an Arts and Humanities Portal was recently shown at the Computers in Art and Design Education Conference (CADE) in Scotland.

New Media, Experience and Japanese Way of Tea (Chado) Jennifer Gunji

University of Illinois School of Art and Design 408 East Peabody Champaign, Illinois 61828 gunji@uiuc.edu

Visible Language, 35.3 Gunji, 278-291

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