Authentic creative activities that will remain with us into the distant future are about facing ourselves and expressing what is in our hearts.
We work a lot in this confusing era, not only being employed by companies but also belonging to various social platforms and being evaluated by others in those platforms.
But are these authentic creative activities that will last far into the future?
I believe that if people in the future try to find out what kind of people we were, the only thing that will do it will be the things we made for ourselves.
My self-introduction manga comic.
Title: Search…Who Was He
Why did I draw the self-introduction manga comic?
When I decided that I wanted to draw manga comics, Reiji Yamada, a Japanese manga comic artist, opened an online manga comic school.
In the school, Master Reiji teaches us the skills to become a manga comic artist, which he has been teaching his assistants.
I joined his school, the Reiji Yamada Manga Academy, to learn practical techniques and to find a group of friends to work with.
The first assignment at the Manga Academy was a self-introduction manga.
Everyone has a story unique to them. So everyone can draw a manga comic about themselves, thought Master Reiji.
My idea was to see how people in the distant future would know who I am when they try to know me.
I thought that what would be left in the distant future would probably be authentic.
And so I drew the above manga comic.
Probably in the distant future, there will be no record of the kind of work I did, the kind of company I worked for, or the kind of presence I had on social networks.
Not only does that mean that it won't be recorded or documented, it also means that it won't be of value in the distant future.
Sometimes I listen back to my music that I made more than ten years ago.
The music is a vivid representation of who I was at that time.
Of course, the resolution will be lost on others, but it can reproduce the personality to the extent that they can imagine what I was looking at and thinking about.
I believe that representational objects have the function of storing the authenticity of such existence.
How I achieved my self-introduction manga comic.
I have loved to draw and read manga comics since I was a child, but I have never been able to finish a manga comic.
A manga comic artist is an integrated artist who has to handle the scenario, stage settings, camera work, direction, and drawing all by himself.
When I was a child, there was no way to learn all these things in a comprehensive way.
But now I can learn scenario and stage settings from my social experiences and interests, camera work and direction from photography and videography production, and drawing from various online resources.
And from Reiji Yamada Manga Academy, I was able to learn various tips specific to manga comics and maintain my motivation through friendly competition with my fellow students.
I'm ready to start drawing manga comics.
I don't start out with a drawing on paper, as many cartoonists do.
First, I think about the purpose of what I am going to draw, and what Issue it is going to solve.
Then I think about who will read it and what emotions I want it to evoke in them.
Then formulate a hypothesis and think about how to test the hypothesis.
These steps are the same as those for creating a business or academic document.
So, experience in business is helpful.
Once I have an idea of what I want to portray, I create a scenario in text.
I think about what characters will appear in the manga comics, and what the stage setting will be.
Then I think about what ideas I want to include in my manga comic.
Once I am able to create a scenario, I draw a storyboard in my case.
At this point, I think about how the characters are placed on the stage, what lenses are used, and from what positions they are shot. This will determine their placement in the frame.
Once the storyboard is done, I think about the layout on the page.
Japanese manga comics, American comics, French bande dessinée, and Korean webtoons all have their own style of layout on the page.
I am familiar with Japanese manga comics, but their panel layout is unique internationally and not always easy to read for everyone.
So I came up with various layout patterns.
In the end, I ended up with a panel layout somewhere between a webtoon and a Japanese manga comics.
Once the storyboard is done, I think about the layout on the page.
Japanese manga comics, American comics, French bande dessinée, and Korean webtoons all have their own style of layout on the page.
I am familiar with Japanese manga comics, but their panel layout is unique internationally and not always easy to read for everyone.
So I came up with various layout patterns.
In the end, I ended up with a panel layout somewhere between webtoons and a Japanese manga comics.
Will our jobs, titles, and social presence remain in the distant future?
One of the things I thought about when I created my self-introduction comic was not to let myself talk about myself, but to let someone else talk about me.
How would it be possible for someone other than me, and a resident of the distant future, to talk about me?
If you search my name on Google, you will find a lot of information.
But can they be authentic information about myself?
Unless you have worked on a major project that will change the social infrastructure, it is unlikely that the work you have been involved in will remain with you far into the future.
Also, there is not much chance that the company we belong to now will still be around in 100 years.
The social network presence that is having such a big impact on your life now may not be around in 100 years, as the service itself will have ended.
Sometimes I listen back to the music I made more than ten years ago and confront myself with it.
I sometimes listen back to the music I made more than 10 years ago.
At that time, the platforms and tools for homemade music were much poorer than they are now, and I can't say that my work is of a high standard among them.
However, when I listen back to the music that I created by maximizing my creativity and the resources available to me, I can see myself as I was then.
Of course, for others, the resolution will be significantly lower, but when we look at someone else's work, we can imagine what the artist was thinking when he or she created it.
The work that they expressed by facing themselves leaves behind the spirit of the artist that transcends time.
Thinking of the artist means that the artist exists in the viewer.
To think of myself, the creator of the work, is to look at the unchanging authenticity within myself.
We try to keep ourselves in people and in ourselves through our corporate affiliations and social networking platforms.
But you don't have to belong to anything, and you don't have to use any platform to do it.
Don't be swayed by non-authentic things that won't last in the future, but express yourself.
When you create something on your own, your title in society, the amount of money you receive from a company, the number of followers or likes you have on social networks will not affect how good or bad your work is.
Nor will they remain in your work for posterity.
What you create with your own hands will remain your authentic yourself, not swayed by the reputation of others.
From their point of view in the future, it is never too late for you to start doing something now.
For example, from the point of view of people 100 years in the future, there is not much difference between what you started 10 years ago and what you start now.
The work you will complete tomorrow will have been created tomorrow, regardless of when you started the activity.
It is never too late for you to start something.
If you feel the need to face yourself now, express something.
No technique or experience is necessary. There are many ways to shortcut.
The only thing that matters is the authentic activity of creating something with your own hands.
I haven't drawn my manga comic yet, so my future world is full of blank spaces.
You and I can both start drawing it now.
Manga to NFT
I minted my manga work on OpenSea!
Thank you for reading.
August 28, 2021, written by Masa - Focus on the interaction.
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