Ryoko and Joseph Goguen visited Tokyo from 7 to 22 December 2003, sponsored by Keio University, where Ryoko was a Special Lecturer for the academic year 2003-2004, and where Joseph visited the new Center for Integrated Research on the Mind, hosted by Prof. Mitsu Okada.

1. On 9 December, Ryoko and Joseph gave a Concert/Lecture at Keio University entitled "Improvisation, Situatedness and Embodiment in Music," a special lecture for the Faculty of Literature, organized by Prof. Mitsu Okada; here is an abstrarct:

   Nearly all listeners assign prime importance to subjective aspects of music, such as emotional tone. But many philosophers downplay, ignore, or even deny such aspects of experience. Moreover, traditional philosophies of music try to decontextualize it, or, what is almost as bad, to reify the notion of context. We give musical examples exploring the structure of qualitative experience, showing for example that it is multi-layered, non-compositional, situation dependent, and involves non-linear time. Using improvisation as an example, we show that embodiment and social context are especially important aspects of situatedness. Our examples disconfirm various philosophical theories, and our explanations draw on recent work from cognitive science, including blending, image schemas, and sensory memory

   Here are some photos taken during this event:
   1. Ryoko performing;
   2. Joseph lecturing;
   3. both;
   4. both.
   
   
2. On 10 December, Joseph gave a talk at Keio University entitled "Interdisciplinarity in Consciousness Studies," at a Symposium on Consciousness Research, sponsored by the Center for the Integrated Study of Mind, and organized by Prof. Mitsu Okada.
    
3. On 11 December, Joseph gave a lecture at the University of Tokyo, Dept of Electrical Engineering, entitled "Computational Narrative and Structural Blending," an abstract for which is below. It was hosted by Prof Toyoaki Nishida.

   Multimedia display technology is advancing rapidly, and already supports powerful forms of interactive narrative, art, and entertainment. However, adequate conceptual and computational support for content is comparatively primitive. To address this gap, we consider computational models for narrative, with an eye towards narrative-based gaming, art, and entertainment. The approach applies research from socio-linguistics on how humans understand and construct narratives, and recent research from cognitive linguistics on metaphors and images, to suggest algorithms for producing narrative structure and content. Our current work is focused on an algorithm for computing structural blends, intended for the interactive production of rich displays with variable content, building on prior work on formal representations for user interface design.

   Following the lecture, Prof Nishida took Ryoko and Joseph to a lovely fish restaurant in Tsukuji. Here are some photos taken by Prof Nishida:
   1. in Prof Nishida's office;
   2. close up in Prof Nishida's office;
   3. on campus at night;
   4. outside fish restaurant.
   
   
4. On 15 December, Joseph and Ryoko had diner with Mario Tokoro, President of Sony Computer Science at a magnificent tempura restaurant, with a ride back to the hotel in the largest car in Tokyo.
    
5. On 16 December, Joseph and Ryoko had diner with Prof Masako Hiraga and her husband at a wonderful sushi restaurant, Midori Zushi. Masaki is a linguist who applies blending to poetry and the evolution of language, and her husband Montant is an innovative architect.
    
6. On 19 December, Joseph and Ryoko had lunch with Tashitada Doi (designer of the Sony Aibo robot dog) and Dr Ken Mogi of Sony, and visited the Sony Computer Science Lab.
    
7. On 19 December, Ryoko performed at the Red Hot Pepper Club with Tashitada Doi and others.
    
8. On 19 December, Joseph gave a lecture on "Consciousness and Music" with a performance by Ryoko, at the Research Center for the Arts and Art Administration at Keio Univeristy, hosted by Prof. Keizo Miyasaka. The audience included several people associated with butoh dancing.
    
9. On 20 December, Ryoko performed and Joseph talked a little, at the Qualia Manifesto 2003 end of year party in at a jazz club in Shibuya, hosted by Dr Ken Mogi of Sony and Prof Takashi Ikegami of the University of Tokyo. A number of arts professionals were present, and there were several other performances and informal talks at the event. Here are some photos taken at the party by Michie Iwatsuki, a designer in the Miyaki Studio:
   1. Ryoko at piano
   2. Joseph listening
   3. adjusting the mike
   4. with Ken Mogi
   
   
10. On 21 December, Joseph met with Profs Mitsu Okada and Masahiro Hamano of JAIST, to discuss some problems in the theory of term rewriting modulo equations.