Surrealism and Kabuki

Why-

My thesis try to explore how can we preserve the intangible culture heritage by using new means of architectural devices. Under globalization and political reasons, Tokyo has faced various cultural invasions from its neighbor South Korea and “big brother” America. The traditional Kabuki, the singing and dancing performance that originated in Edo period(1600-1868), has been vanishing in the contemporary society of Tokyo. The Kabuki is a listed UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. In 2010,a traditional kabuki theatre in Ginza, Kabukiza, has been torn down and replaced by a 49-storey office building.  Not to mention there is an urgent call for architecture to intervene spatially to revive this lost traditions, it is also important that architecture has to retrieve its role as a criticism or reflections to prompt people to rethink about their culture, traditions and city.

My thesis tries to challenge the notion of surrealism in architecture and its modern application in the cultural and society context in Japan. Architecture nowadays has lost its criticality. It is a global phenomenon that architecture has been rendered similar, rational, mundane and come as expected in terms of programs and forms under the capitalistic society. Architecture has gradually lost its power to criticize the society.

When built projects are optimized to last and function for decades, architecture is often underestimated as a super slow media as a social critic to an ever-changing city like Tokyo.

Dressed in black and white formal codes, office worker commuting in metros in Tokyo look like robots delivered by cargos. Under the education of Japanese cultural and societal values, Japanese are taught in the primary rule of manner to not to disturb others in public. Japanese behaviors in public are mannered, rational and highly restrictive and suppressive. When the city and people inside it are so rational and boring, I see this as an opportunity for architecture to create surprising and surreal scenarios in public to provoke critical thinking.

What-

My thesis will try to explore the use of surrealism as propaganda to arouse interest, controversies and rethinking of the society. In the 18th century, artist Piransei presented his fantasies of the dark Prisons with the overlay of real architectural Roman carcasses. The art theory of architectural capriccio played an important role in influencing the Surrealist movement in the 1920s. The Surrealists aim to resolve the contradictory conditions between dreams and reality. Aforementioned, when the architecture and people of Tokyo are considered as rational buildings and programmed robots, capriccio drawings or surrealist art appreciate autonomous imagination, irrationality and unexpected juxtapositions with the reality. What if the notion of surrealism is manifested in architecture and the most traditional kabuki Japanese culture to be used as a form of criticism to the restrictive structures, rules, traditions and social norms of the contemporary society of Tokyo?

To revive the lost Kabuki culture under the notion of surrealism, my thesis will investigate the design approach of unexpected programmatic layering and juxtaposition in a seemingly irrational way. Pop-up kabuki devices are proposed at extraordinary places to create surreal scenarios. (Say, kabuki at back staircase of office building / go-around sushi fast consumer stores / the busy crossroad of Shibuya / one metro car) A typical play in theatre, which composed of the acting of performers and the viewing of audience, portray the surreal and fictional scenarios in itself. The Japanese theatre, kabuki, comes from the term kabuku (out of the ordinary) even implies an eccentric and bizarre theatre. When kabuki has the nature of surreal in itself, over layering it on top of other unexpected programs and places will intensify the power of surreal in terms of multi and contradictory meanings, spatial settings, programs, users e.t.c. With the synergistic surreal effect by kabuki in various contradictory spatial settings, my thesis will explore the use of instantaneous and mobile architectural devices to arouse interest and prompt the rethinking of people.

How-

To carry out the background research, my thesis will begin with the following research:

1. Form of surrealism and how they are manifested in art and architecture (The Imaginary Prisons by Piranesi, 1750, Exodus / The Voluntary Prisonsers of Architecture by Rem Koolhaas)
2. How kabuki become a lost tradition in Japan(mapping of existing kabuki theatres vs places that the Japanese recently visited, statistics of the age and origins of audience)
3. Cultural and society values of Japan

To proceed to design research, I will suggest my thesis can go on with the following research:

1. The spatial setting and historical revolution of Kabuki
2. Possible spots of sites for interventions inside Tokyo
3. Typologies of pop-up theatrical devices

Bibliography

1. Clarke, Desmond (2006). Descartes: A biography
2. Lola Kantor-Kazovsky(2006). Piranesi as interpreter of Roman architecture and the origins of his intellectual world
3. Takei Naoki (2001). Japanese Culture
4. John Wilton-Ely(1978). Piranesi: Catalogue
5. Bernard Tschumi (2012). Red is not a color.