2018 DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion Research Grants for Academic Studies Relating to Graphic Design and Graphic Art: Selected Research Topics
Screening Process and Results
In 2018, the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion research grants program attracted a total of 58 applications. This number demonstrates that research scholars are steadily becoming aware of the program's existence-a development that pleases us greatly.
As in previous years, the grant winners for 2018 were decided in a two-part screening process: the first part consisting of evaluation of the application documents, and the second part a final evaluation session attended by the complete judging panel. After lengthy discussions of the merits of the finalists, ultimately the judges selected a total of 13 research topics to receive new grant awards in Category A, which encompasses research on graphic design or graphic art in general. In addition, 11 of the grant winners of 2017 had requested continuation of support for a second year, and after a review of these grantees’ interim reports the judges approved ongoing assistance for 10 of those applicants. Concerning Category B, which calls for research relating to graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, unfortunately this year no applications were received.
In evaluating the submitted applications, the judges carefully considered their respective merits from a variety of perspectives including novelty, originality, social or scholastic significance, and appropriateness as a research project. This year, only a few of the applications stood out in terms of novelty or originality, so in choosing the grant recipients relatively greater weight was placed on each topic’s significance and appropriateness as a research project. As a result, I think the applications selected this year tended to be those that involve solid, well-planned projects to be executed using sound research methods. I wish to add that this year not a few applications proposed use of oral history as their research method, and some members of the judging panel expressed misgivings toward relying too easily on oral history in the absence of strictly scholastic research methods.
We wish the newly selected grant winners the greatest success in carrying out their research, and we look forward to learning of their significant results.
Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Screening Committee Chairman
DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Application Overview
Application Period: May 1 through July 17, 2018
Number of Applications
| Subtotal | Breakdown | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic | Overseas | ||
| Category A | 58 | 55 | 3 |
| Category B | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 58 | 55 | 3 |
2018 Selected Research Topics
| Category | Research Topic | Applicant Affiliated Institution |
Grant Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
A |
Image, typography and ideology: constructivism in Korea in colonial era (1920-30s) |
Suna JEONG Doctoral Course, Seoul National University |
400,000 JPY |
A |
A Study on Appearance of Biology and Biomedia in Visual Culture Studies: Through Analysis of Graphics Created by Microorganisms |
Shiho HASEGAWA Part-time Researcher of Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University |
500,000 JPY |
A |
A Study on the Ancient Mediterranean Graphic Art as a Mediator of Planar and Spatial Expressions: A Focus on the Ancient Egyptian Design Method |
Yoshifumi YASUOKA Superlative Postdoctoral Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, The University of Tokyo |
500,000 JPY |
A |
The protection of design including a graphic image : consideration of the necessity for enhanced protection by Design Act |
Tsukasa ASO Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Grasp of custom color name recognition by experimental psychology method and evaluation of adaptation to color systems |
Yosuke YOSHIZAWA Associate Professor, National Institute of Technology, Kisarazu College |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Phototypesetting and Optics-based Design in Japan: A Historical Study on the Development of Typesetting and Book Design (from late 1950s to early 1990s) |
Takuya ABE Associate Professor, Faculty of Creation and Representation, Aichi Shukutoku University |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Function and Decoration of Books: a Study on the Legal Manuscripts of the Early Middle Ages |
Sayaka ANDO Research Assistant, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts |
250,000 JPY |
A |
Aodo Denzen and his Study of Western Prints |
Atsushi SAKAMOTO Associate Curator, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Transition of Media from Magazines to Original photographs in Modern Japanese Photography: Through Archiving the letters to Gallerist Etsuro Ishihara |
Yumi AOTA Etsuro Ishihara and ZEIT-FOTO SALON Archives |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Japonisme in the German-Speaking World: Focusing on the Color Woodcut by Walther Klemm and Carl Thiemann |
Kanae AOKI Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Images of Japan in the Prints of Meiji Period Missionaries |
Eri SHIRAISHI Assistant Professor, International Research Center for Japanese Studies |
400,000 JPY |
A |
A Study of the Expression Technique Present in Ladakh's Buddhism Wall Paintings from a Graphic Viewpoint, Based on the Archives of Takao Inoue's Photographic Materials |
Kohei YAMASHITA Adjunct Lecturer, Kyoto City University of Arts |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Paul Schuitema's Graphic Design Method: The Unity of Text and Image in the Magazine "De 8 en Opbouw" |
Munenori INOUE Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Building Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University |
300,000 JPY |
2018 Continuation Grants (2017 Selected Research Topics)
| Category | Research Topic | Applicant Affiliated Institution |
Grant Amount 2017 Grant Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
A |
Words Form Language: On Eugen Gomringer, Typography and Concrete Poetry |
Simon MAGER Teaching and research assistant, ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne |
300,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Legal Protection on Graphic Design: Focusing on Protection under Design Act |
Tatsuyuki SUEMUNE Research Associate/Ph.D. Candidate, Waseda University |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
The Protection of Graphical User Interfaces |
Etsuko YOSHIDA Specially Appointed Fellow, Intellectual Property Center, Osaka University |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Visual Representation of Colonial Modernity: Advertising and Graphic Design in Korea Under Japanese Rule (1910-1945) |
Yongkeun CHUN PhD candidate, Royal College of Art, London |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Generation, Extinction and Revival of the Paper-cut Forms: Comparative Cultural Study between Japan and the World |
Tomoko NIWA Lecturer, Faculty of International Fashion, Professional Institute of International Fashion |
250,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Influence of the emblem books upon the Christian art in Central and South America |
Hiroaki ITO Professor, School of Letters, Senshu University |
300,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
The Development of British Avant-Garde Art and Printed Media in the early 20th Century - In Reference to Vorticist's Drawings |
Mariko KANAME Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Atomi University |
300,000 JPY 300,000 JPY |
A |
The correlation between Caricature, Literary newspaper and Magazine in Estonia of before independence |
Akira ARIMOCHI Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts, Hiroshima City University |
500,000 JPY 300,000 JPY |
A |
Serizawa Keisuke's Ehon Don Kihôte and the Mingei Movement |
Ana TRUJILLO DENNIS Lecturer, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid |
500,000 JPY 300,000 JPY |
A |
Study on Images of "Technology" in Digital Textbooks for Elementary and Lower Secondary School Science |
Yoshiyuki GUNJI Associate Professor, Shizuoka University |
500,000 JPY 250,000 JPY |