Japanese computer graphics (Panel Session): Challenges and opportunities

In a country as media-saturated as Japan, where the preservation of traditional social and aesthetic forms has been balanced over the past 120 years by a relentless quest for new ideas, fashions and techniques, computer graphics has found favor because of its novelty, expressive power and futuristic look. It fits nicely with the high-tech products and corporate images of many of Japan's largest advertisers. It is consistent with the national movement to enthusiastically embrace the "information age". And, it seems to offer significant productivity gains in several areas of commercial production. Finally, computer graphics has been the subject of extraordinary scrutiny simply because it is widely perceived in Japan to be the image-making system of the future. The past eighteen months have witnessed the beginning of a computer graphics boom within the world of Japanese commercial production and media. There have been many reports in books, magazines, newspapers and on television. Computer graphics conferences and events have been organized. The large advertising agencies have begun to show wideranging interest in the field. And several new computer graphics production companies have established facilities in Tokyo. This panel will introduce developments in the Japanese computer graphics world that could have impact on the international commercial production industry. The panelists were selected to represent a wide range of viewpoints: agency producer, industry observer, artist/educator and engineer. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions. Laurin Herr graduated from Cornell University in 1972 with a B.A. degree in Government. He is currently the Director of Pacific Interface, a private New Yorkbased firm founded in 1980 which specializes in computer graphics and Japanese/American interaction. His first trip to Japan was in 1973 and he has returned many times, both to continue his studies of the language and culture and to work as an interpreter/coordinator on a variety of international projects. Mr. Herr became involved in computer graphics in 1979 when he was international staff liaison for the production of the "Mind of the Universe Electro-Opera". He has authored a comprehensive report on "Siggraph'81 and trends in the Computer Graphics Industry" for a Japanese client, coauthored a six-part series of articles about computer graphics published in the Japanese magazine ASCII and produced the American segments of several lengthy Japanese television reports about the field. Most recently, he has served as the North American Coordinator for the Micrograph'82 Conference and as the Program Coordinator for the Intergraphics'83 Conference, both held in Tokyo. He currently resides in Tokyo where he serves as Siggraph's volunteer representative in Japan.