[Special Feature: 30 Years of SFC] The End of the Beginning, the Beginning of the End

2020/10/05

Image: Taken by drone in 2019 (Provided by Keiji Takeda Laboratory)

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of SFC, I was asked to write on the theme of "SFC's Past, SFC's Future." As I digested this theme in my own way, the phrase "the end of the beginning, the beginning of the end" came to mind. As someone who is half-baked as both a scholar and an artist, I am hardly in a position to write a consistent treatise. However, since this is a rare opportunity, I have tried to put my thoughts into words, fully aware of my own shortcomings.

SFC is about to reach the "end of the beginning." Established in 1990, SFC changed Japanese education and research with overwhelming momentum. It introduced an information environment and multilingual education based on internet civilization and globalization, a 24-hour campus, cross-disciplinary research, course evaluation systems, class management through co-creation between faculty and students, and Admissions Office (AO) entrance exams. Many initiatives that are now taken for granted were born at SFC and spread throughout Japan.

Among these, the greatest contribution was the cultivation of human resources who create the future. Unfortunately, for a while after graduates began entering society in 1994, one often heard reputations such as "they quit their jobs immediately," "they don't adapt to organizations," or "they are difficult to use." However, about 25 years have passed since then, and it is now common knowledge that many SFC graduates occupy important positions in society. Looking back now, it was simply that old-fashioned companies could not effectively utilize young people with new visions and abilities, and it was only natural that graduates wanted to leave such fossil-like organizations (pardon the expression) immediately. The young people who jumped out started new companies in various places. Cookpad, Rakuten, Spiber, Sansan, Takram, Colopl, GREE, Kayac, and so on—the list is endless. Today, the presence of SFC graduates is overwhelming in fields such as information and communications, design, and biotechnology.

This is just one example, but through the activities of many graduates, the vision set forth by SFC has spread to society and permeated the interior of Keio University, and various systems are achieving computerization and globalization. Many SFC researchers and alumni are also involved in the core of promoting information policy, new industry development, national defense, and education policy. The challenge that once began in the countryside of Fujisawa City has now reached the point of moving the nation.

This is the "end of the beginning." One story is about to reach a happy ending. It is symbolic that Professor Jun Murai, known as the father of the internet in Japan, retired from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at the end of the last academic year (he is currently a professor at Keio University). The university reform that began under the leadership of former President Tadao Ishikawa has largely achieved its purpose after 30 years since the opening of SFC and is now coming to an end.

This content is written in many SFC-related books, so it can be called the story of SFC shared by the public. It is, so to speak, the identity of SFC, as those involved in SFC recognize their own existence in this way. However, when recognizing the current situation, it is insufficient and insincere to only take up the parts one recognizes oneself; the whole picture will not emerge. We must also shed light on the aspects we do not want to admit, and even the things we unconsciously avoid admitting and push deep into the depths of our threshold of consciousness.

That is where the recognition of the "beginning of the end" comes in. This phrase is very ambiguous and has a diversity of interpretations. Based on that ambiguity and polysemy, many scenarios for the future of SFC will be born.

The interpretation that immediately comes to mind is that it will slowly come to an end over the next 30 years. Over the past 30 years, SFC has stabilized. All systems, whether natural or man-made, tend toward stability. SFC is no exception. Making the maintenance of this state the goal—that is, making the stability of the system the goal—is the easiest way.

This signifies death for the spirit of SFC. SFC, which desires to be a leader of society, has always taken on challenges. Failure is inherent in challenges, and to varying degrees, it contradicts stable management. Finding and crushing small risks early. Swinging major decisions in a stable direction. If we continue to make stability-oriented decisions based on data, experience, and reason, before we know it, the water level of society will overtake SFC, we will no longer be able to differentiate ourselves from other universities, and we will become an ordinary university (I also think the current situation of our country is the result of an accumulation of such decisions).

The death of the SFC spirit means becoming an ordinary faculty. It means seeking to prolong its life as one of the faculties of Keio University and positioning itself as a standard in a computerized society. Whether faculty, students, or staff, members of SFC have always walked the path of the "away game" with the spirit of independence and self-respect and "Saiga Sakko" (creating one's own path). To live as the world's standard is to leave this spirit behind, rest on the laurels of our predecessors, and live out our remaining years.

What our predecessors have achieved is so great, and on top of that, they have created a system that stably produces innovative human resources, so we become desperate to protect it. We become conservative. We start to worry about words like reputation risk. By being involved in management as Dean, I have realized that this tendency is very strong.

To reiterate, it is natural for a flow toward stabilization to emerge, so even SFC cannot avoid that flow, and individuals with such an orientation are not bad. However, there are still many people who do not accept that flow—faculty, staff, and students filled with the SFC spirit. We can resist the great flow of stabilization with all our might. To what extent will we resist, and how will we resist?

To say something a bit radical, if SFC had ended in its 20s instead of surviving for 30 years, it might have become a legend. The analogy might be a bit biased, but many legendary musicians ended their lives at the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and so on. There are more and more rock musicians who become healthy and celebrate their 60th or 70th birthdays with mineral water in hand, but that has no charm at all, does it?

Graduates probably wouldn't want to see such an SFC either, and if the soul were to die, it might have been better to act radically enough to perish and become a legend. Since this has become a bit of a radical talk, let me take a breath here and consider an interpretation of the "beginning of the end" from another angle.

The second interpretation emerges by taking a short differential value. Rather than an interpretation that it will slowly end over the next 30 years, since the flow of the past 30 years is like a rocket and cannot be stopped suddenly, we bring it to an end over the next few years and start something new. This is the interpretation that the withdrawal work for that has begun. It is the second founding of SFC.

In the case of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, we have covered technology, science, and design until now, but art was left wide open (there was a time when talented artists taught here, but they all moved to other universities). The art I want to discuss here is, of course, art in a broad sense, meaning an approach to society that goes beyond mere works themselves and emphasizes thought, attitude, and the insight and singularity of the individual researcher.

Joseph Beuys created the concept of social sculpture, and the artists he spoke of were people who thought for themselves, decided for themselves, and acted for themselves. Beuys sought to expand the concept of art. He called all activities involving society social sculpture. The perspective that anyone can sculpt society toward the future is full of hope. To what extent is it possible to re-envision SFC as a social sculpture group?

This way of thinking is by no means eccentric; it inherits the way SFC has been for the past 30 years and develops it further. Until now, SFC has emphasized "problem discovery and problem solving," but I feel that the emphasis was placed more on providing solutions using technology, design, and policy as tools. We have emphasized problem solving. Within that, problem discovery was merely positioned as a small realization, and it is hard to say that its meaning and possibilities have been deeply pursued.

The scenario that SFC will go with art from now on is also about carefully facing the neglected "problem discovery." When looking at the world from the singularity of an individual, a unique perspective is born there. When that uniqueness is turned into a project and thrown into society, new possibilities are born there. That may be what the now-mature SFC needs most.

In an unpredictable society, SFC feels suitable as a place to cultivate people who can point out new directions using artist-like thinking, and people who can proactively create the future themselves rather than a future decided by the state. If we re-envision SFC as a group of artists who shape society in the Beuysian sense, various possibilities will emerge.

A school called Black Mountain College existed in North Carolina, USA, for only 25 years starting in 1933. It is known for the experimental art education conducted by Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, and others, based on John Dewey's theories. Fuller's first geodesic dome was made here, and Cage's first happening performance was also held here. There are many similarities with SFC, such as a culture that actively recognizes different fields and encourages cross-disciplinarity, holistic liberal arts education, and the coexistence of education and experimental activities. It closed in 1957 due to financial difficulties, much to everyone's regret, but it is still talked about today as a legend.

I feel it wouldn't be bad to withdraw from the "past" state in another five years and live experimentally like Black Mountain College for the remaining 25 years. Yukichi Fukuzawa said, "living two lives in one body," and shouldn't a university be allowed to exist in such a way?

The third interpretation is a bit elusive, so please bear with me. For example, this kind of interpretation is also possible. "The end of the beginning" and "the beginning of the end" are not continuous. They may exist inseparably. One places oneself in the ambiguous sense of whether it is the "end of the beginning" or the "beginning of the end."

A rewinding future. A rewinding system. If we can create such a way of being, SFC will be able to continue living in an SFC-like way. Coincidentally, we are now in an era where the future has become invisible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an era where the future has disappeared into the past. Is it possible to self-generate a system that rewinds the future? Or is it possible to create a space-time within SFC where the past and future repeatedly branch and merge in complex ways?

To what extent can we liberate our spirits and look at ourselves as beings in a state of flow?

"It is perception that transforms this world. Listen, nothing else changes the world. Only perception transforms the world while leaving it unchanged, just as it is. From the eyes of perception, the world is eternally unchanging, and thus eternally transformed." (Yukio Mishima, "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")

It is perception that can keep the world universal while continuing to change the world forever.

Can we become free from the concepts of objective time and space without being trapped by past contexts? Can we liberate our spirits and become free from our own specialties? Can we become free from the concept of a scholar and the concept of a university?

Those who understand will understand, but for those who don't, this will make no sense at all. However, I feel that the members who established SFC were thinking about such things.

Above, from the position of someone who studied at SFC as a student in the 1990s and is now managing the university at SFC as the Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies in the 2020s, I have stated my personal views on the theme of "SFC's Past, SFC's Future." There are parts that could be taken as a young man in his 40s criticizing from a high-handed perspective, but I apologize for that here and would appreciate it if readers could forgive the author's immaturity.