MEDIA CENTER at the HACHIOJI campus

Ito Toshiharu

The Flying Media- for the foundation of the MEDIA CENTER at TAMA ART UNIVERSITY A classroom turns into on- the- spot inspections, this is a phrase by Erich Kästner in his famous children's book, Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, The Flying Classroom. This sentence gives me an unforgettable impression, together with memories of the various characters in the book such as Beck; a hermit, non- smoking teacher; poor, proud and clever Martin; always- hungry Mathias; little Jury; sarcastic Sebastian; aspiring writer Johnny in a German high school. Being a liberal as well as a pacifist, Kästner was banned from publishing by the Nazis during the Hitler regime and his books and poetry were burnt in public except for his children books, including The Flying Classroom. In The Flying Classroom is an episode where the boys are rehearsing for a Christmas play at the school. In the play, the class flies to various places in the world by plane and the pupils learn geography, science, etc on the spot.For example, they receive a lecture on volcanic activity beside the crater of Vesuvio, learn about the architecture of Ra's graveyard near Giza's Pyramid, witness the leaning of the earth's axis at the North pole and transmit a photograph to a hometown newspaper. They see and experience movements, phenomena and events real- time, making the best use of vehicles and media. Amidst the troublesome and violent era, Kästner cast a possible prediction of how a school might be run in the future through Martin and the other boys' life and play at the school. The Flying Classroom may become a reality in a new form in the age of multimedia and networking. Furthermore, the challenge to schools at present is not only to give the opportunity of on- the- spot inspections but also to offer a new space for creativity and transformation of oneself.

The vision and direction for the foundation of the MEDIA CENTER at TAU should address such demands. The primary purpose of the MEDIA CENTER is to foster creative minds in students through artistic, technical and conceptual on site training using various media.For this purpose, the MEDIA CENTER at TAU needs to develop into a new venue for inspiring dialogue and imagination rather than spoon feeding students with one way teaching. The original meaning of the word media is things that transmit information.The function of media is to store information over time and to transport it in space. In this sense, human being's bodies and languages can also be recognized as media just like the internet or CD- ROM. First of all, we need to see ourselves, existing here and now as the minimum unit of media, and then to make the best use of our media capacities through creating, collecting, editing, and transmitting information repeatedly. With this perspective, we may need to relearn the idea of warp and woof in fabric weaving, using various other media surrounding us. The MEDIA CENTER of TAU has made its first step to provide such a venue.

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