Syllabus

GEIKO Mid-term Studio Program 2026
- 臨海文化実験所 / Liminal Culture Lab

1. Outline

“A Hands-On Academy That Turns the Community Into a Studio”

The Port Town is Our Campus. The Landscape is Our Canvas.

The Liminal Culture Laboratory is a hands-on studio program that treats the entire port town of Tsuyazaki as its campus and the landscapes of the past, present, and future that unfold there as its canvas, spanning culture, tourism, art, design, architecture, music, food, nature, and the local community.

Since ancient times, port towns have been places where people, goods, cultures, and ideas intersect, giving birth to new cultures. “Rinkai (Liminal)” does not simply mean “seaside.” It refers to a “liminal” state—the “in-between” where people meet across different disciplines, cultures, generations, regions, and nations—and is a “Liminal Space” that evokes notions of blank space, oblivion, emptiness, and abandonment. In this program, within the liminal space of the port town, diverse regions, people, and knowledge intersect as we explore the conditions under which culture emerges through communal living, research, dialogue, creative production, and community-based practice. Rather than focusing on teaching knowledge or skills, and going beyond mere artistic production, the program centers its educational approach on designing the very environment in which culture can flourish.

The program is structured as a one-month hybrid format combining online and in-person components. It requires a minimum one-week on-site stay, with the option to extend this to a maximum of four weeks for those who wish to do so, ensuring flexibility to accommodate participants’ schedules. Using Tsuyazaki’s history, local culture, and relationships with its people as raw material, participants will develop their individual practices within the community.

Core Concepts:

Distributed Campus

Open Faculty

Emergent Curriculum

2. Learning Objectives

Participants aim to develop the ability to closely observe and interpret local culture; the ability to collaborate across disciplines; the ability to plan and implement cultural projects; field research skills; critical thinking skills; and the ability to bring ideas to fruition through collaboration with the local community.

Participants will develop concepts and prototypes for tourism and cultural content based on their research, and verify the feasibility and social value of their ideas through proof of concept (PoC).

The resulting work will be presented and exhibited to the local community and external audiences.

We view the entire process—from input to output—not as a series of individual activities, but as the co-creation of a shared learning environment through communal living, engagement with the local community, and collaboration with diverse faculty and participants. Rather than following a fixed curriculum or a simulated course, we aim to capture the rhythms of nature and the complexity of society, and—much like a jam session—repeatedly engage in observation, dialogue, experimentation, and creation to co-create the very environment in which culture emerges.

Graduates will be awarded the “GEIKO Program Certificate.” They will also be registered in “GEIKO Communitus,” a community open to all program participants, granting them eligibility to participate in future AIRs (paid and unpaid), mentoring opportunities, research projects, events, and more.

3. Studio Model & Schedule

We adopt a studio-based approach rather than a classroom-centered one. We do not hold traditional lectures, but incorporate case studies as needed. Faculty members do not simply impart knowledge in a one-way manner; instead, they participate as collaborative practitioners, mentors, and critics. The Program Director (PD) and Community Manager (CM) provide ongoing support for participants’ activities.

The program will be conducted in a hybrid format, combining online group and individual sessions with on-site residencies. The daily schedule during on-site residencies will be flexible, depending on the length of stay, and will consist of a cycle of fieldwork—exploring and observing the local area on foot—studio work involving collaborative creation, “commons” sessions for interaction through meals and dialogue, and reflection and documentation. The entire local area—including historic buildings, vacant houses, alleyways, the ocean, mountains, and conversations with residents—serves as the learning material.

4. Project Proposal & Impelementation

Participants will carry out one or more projects during their stay. Project proposals will be submitted either before or after participation, depending on each participant’s level of involvement. The outcomes may take any form, including exhibitions, live performances, installations, publications, zines, video, sound, tours, workshops, architectural experiments, and community projects. What matters is not only the finished product but also the dialogue with the local community and the process of trial and error itself. During the program, public programs (open studios) will be held to which local residents, students, and travelers can participate, allowing participants to share their outcomes.

While this program is primarily based on open recruitment, we will also invite participants in coordination with the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “Japan Expo” initiative. For both open-recruitment and invited participants, if they perform or exhibit as part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “Japan Expo” initiative, they will receive performance fees, production support funds, and travel expenses based on the project’s content and budget. Open-recruitment participants will collaborate on joint productions and research with invited participants in the same studio. Through this two-tiered structure, we will holistically achieve both talent development and cultural creation.

5. Oroganization & Faculty

Kyushu University Graduate School of Design and Engineering (GSDE): In addition to participating as core faculty members, they are responsible for design research, evaluating educational outcomes, conducting joint research, and accumulating academic knowledge.

Geiko LLC: Responsible for program planning and management, coordinating guest lecturers and local partners, and providing production support, they create a practical platform that connects the university, the local community, guest speakers, and participants.

6. Program Details

Description: Experimentally create new cultural and tourism content in collaboration with the local community

Deliverables: Development of tourism and cultural content, exhibition planning, proof of concept (PoC), events, etc.

Duration: 1 month (hybrid format; minimum 1-week stay)

Schedule and Number of Sessions:

Session 1: November 8, 2026 (Sun) – December 6, (Sun)* Core Week: November 22, 2026 (Sun) – November 29, 2026 (Sun)

Session 2: January 17, 2027 (Sun) – February 14, 2027 (Sun)* Core Week: January 31, 2027 (Sun) – February 7, 2027 (Sun)

2 sessions total

Organizational Structure: 1 Program Director, 1 Community Manager (shared across sessions), 1 Core Faculty Member, 1–2 Guest Faculty Members (per session)

Eligibility & Capacity: Artists, designers, architects, musicians, filmmakers, editors, researchers, entrepreneurs, etc., from Japan and abroad (individual applications accepted; team participation based on collaborative projects is encouraged). 20 participants per session (minimum of 10 participants required)

Participation Fee (tax included): 125,000 yen per week (includes lodging and dinner). Participants may extend their stay for up to 4 weeks for an additional fee.

2 weeks: 150,000 yen; 3 weeks: 175,000 yen; 4 weeks: 200,000 yen

Venues: Former Tamanoi Ryokan, Former Tanaka Pharmacy, etc.

Accommodations (Proposed): Accommodations within Tsuyazaki Town (e.g., Shoujokutei)