An art experiment bringing to life treasured community histories in virtual space!
Lots of people come to the neighborhood for food, shopping, or cultural events. But did you know that San Jose Japantown used to be called “Chinatown” and that its past includes a bustling Filipino business and social community on 6th Street?
Hidden Histories is a live experience that connects you to the underlying beauty and historic riches of this remarkable neighborhood. Through Augmented Reality (AR) technology, your mobile device becomes a gateway to visions inspired by the milestones that shaped Japantown. You will see and interact with the art, which is overlaid on current-day Japantown.
Hidden Histories will debut in Spring 2021 — nine AR art installations produced by artists selected by our advisory panel of scholars, historians, and activists. In the meantime, please visit this website for regular updates on the project developments, the artists involved in the project, and the evolving technology of AR art.
Hidden Histories is a community project, initiated by Susan Hayase and Tom Izu, using AR technology to engage the public with art inspired by the events and stories that have been a part of San Jose Japantown. Throughout its more than 130 year history, San Jose Japantown has developed from an extension of San Jose Chinatown (Heinlenville) to a thriving neighborhood that became the home to several immigrant communities including the Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino. With a changing Japantown of the 21st century, many of the stories, images, and sounds of the hard work, play, family life, struggle, and conflict—the life pulse of the community—are often buried, hidden. Hidden Histories hopes to bring these riches to the fore and perpetuate an awareness of this community’s importance.
Hidden Histories is inspired by the work of Tamiko Thiel, an internationally-acclaimed artist known for her digital pieces that interact with specific locations. Her friendship with Susan Hayase, led to the creation of the project.
Susan and Tamiko have known each other for many years, since their studies at Stanford and then as young engineers at HP. Eventually, Tamiko took off to pursue an advanced degree at MIT and then for fine arts training in Germany. When Tamiko started delving into virtual and augmented reality digital media art works, Susan noticed how ripe for augmented reality that San Jose Japantown was – so many unknown, “hidden” stories – and she put a bug in Tamiko’s ear about it.
Years later, everything fell into place to set the stage for Hidden Histories. Tamiko came to the Bay Area to headline “A Taste of History,” a joint fundraiser of the California History Center (organized by Tom Izu) and the Euphrat Museum at DeAnza College, and installed “Brush the Sky” in Japantown, an augmented reality artwork created by Tamiko and her mother, master calligrapher, Midori Kono Thiel.
Aware of funding opportunities from various sources, Tamiko encouraged Tom to apply for an Immersive Technology in the Arts grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in collaboration with Microsoft on behalf of JAMsj. Tom’s application was for funding an AR project in Japantown. As a result, his application was among only five from a nationwide pool of applicants to receive the grant. Thus, was Hidden Histories of San Jose Japantown born.
The first San Jose “Pinoytown” walking tour in 2019
Prior to receiving the grant, Susan and Tom (as volunteers with JAMsj) had been looking for ways to place local Japanese American history and the story of San Jose Japantown into a broader, more inclusive context. This could include connections between Japanese Americans and other groups who have have a shared historical experience facing exclusionary policies and violations of civil liberties. They were also concerned about the future of Japantown and saw the need for finding ways to connect to other communities who have historically shared Japantown, most notably Heinlenville (San Jose Chinatown) and the 6th Street Pinoytown. This Knight Foundation grant became the opportunity to explore these less known and “hidden histories” using art and technology and gave us the chance to reconnect and renew the historic relationships between our communities.
Tom and Susan see Hidden Histories as a demonstration project that can inspire future history and art projects of all kinds, including the stories of other groups that have been a part of the neighborhood that is now known as San Jose Japantown.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a mobile app technology that overlays computer-generated information (sounds, images, text) on the camera view of the real world around you. Using the ARpoise app (developed by Tamiko Thiel and Peter Graf), your smartphone is transformed into an “ARt- scope” that reveals hidden geolocative (place-based) AR artworks placed at various locations around Japantown.
Due to the ongoing situation with COVID-19, the Japanese American Museum of San Jose is currently closed. Even though this exhibit may be viewed outdoors, please do not go out to view it until the current Shelter In Place orders are lifted.
JAMsj is taking the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus to our community, visitors and volunteers, and will continue to follow our Santa Clara County policies. For the latest information, please visit the Santa Clara County Directives regarding COVID-19.
Last year, the Brush the Sky project opened in Japantown as a prototype for Hidden Histories, demonstrating the use of AR art in the community. Brush the Sky can be viewed on your mobile device by installing the free ARpoise app. Once installed, you can walk around Japantown and view AR art created for specific locations. A brochure with the map of the locations is available at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj), 535 North 5th Street, San Jose, CA 95112.
These artists were selected through a competitive process to participate in the Hidden Histories Artist Pool. Over the next few months, they will be learning more about the history and culture of Heinlenville/Pinoytown/Japantown and experimenting with AR technology and how it might be used in their creations. At the end of the exploration period, they will present sketch concept ideas to Hidden Histories Community Advisory Panel.
Lauren Chun is a local Bay Area artist pursuing her BFA in Digital Media Art at SJSU. She expresses her art practice in the virtual and real realms with 3D digital artwork. She specializes in Augmented and Virtual Reality as well as 3D sculpture with new technologies.
Tamaki Fujino was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. After she graduated from high school, she moved to the Bay Area to study Digital Media Art. She is interested in AR installation using projection mapping with sensors to explore psychological ideas: what human emotions are and where they come from.
Rochelle is a Filipina-American artist and designer raised in San Jose working mainly in sculpture and wearables. Through her involvement in the project she hopes to connect with her Ilocano roots, increase Fil-Am representation in academia as well as art, and aide in the preservation of her culture and history.
I am a Sansei artist, a third generation Japanese American. I am interested in art that can give voice and vision to our communities. I feel a responsibility to tell our unique stories. I have shown my art in many venues in the Asian as well as broader community.
Sabrina Kwong is an artist, dancer, and lover of life and stories. A Digital Media Arts major at San Jose State, she creates works of art that center around self identity, cultural upbringing, wellness, and the spaces between bodies with her never-ending learning of technology and traditional mediums.
I'm a part-time illustrator, perpetual over-thinker, and lover of avocado toast. My biggest passions in life are art and food (and finding ways to combine the two together!).
Takeshi Moro was born in Fukaya, Japan and spent most of his childhood in the UK. He is Associate Professor of Studio Art at Santa Clara University. Moro's work utilizes lens-based media, such as photography and video. His work focuses on communities and the collaborative process of art making.
Fine art filmmaker and animator Sean Morijiro Sunada O'Gara's 35mm motion pictures and installations have been official selections at international Asian American film festivals since 1994. O'Gara created the first hand-painted and handprinted 70mm IMAX film, "Ayamori," in 1989. His recent digital works have focused on the Topaz incarceration camp.
Kelly is a fourth generation Japanese-American from Sunnyvale, California. While she is an emerging professional in the urban design field, Kelly has a growing passion for environmental psychology and digital storytelling that highlights unseen narratives and emotions. Her other interests include mental health, basketball, and biking.
Carole Rast is a 4th generation San Jose native who grew up in Japantown. Roy's Station is her family's coffee shop and community gathering spot. Her family converted the corner and building from what had been a gas/service station her father's family purchased after being released from internment camp.
Maylea Saito is a jade-of-all-trades visual artist from San Jose, CA. She draws, designs, but more recently, you can find her on a screenprinting press. Through her work, Maylea explores the themes of identity, intimacy, and cultural memory, creating pieces that evoke a sense of shared experience.
My exhibitions include Triton and Euphrat Museums of Art, Springfield College, Santa Fe Art Institute, Presidio Trust. I am the curator for the Tanforan Assembly Center permanent exhibition at the San Bruno BART station. I earned my BS in Graphic Design at SJSU and MA in Transformative Art at JFKU.
Designer by trade but artist at heart, Karen is a graphic designer who enjoys the process of creation both in the digital and printmaking realm. She currently works as a graphic designer and printmaker in San Jose, California.
Patricia Miye Wakida is a yonsei artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She maintains a linoleum block and letterpress business under the wasabi press imprint, cranking out prints on 100 year old equipment. For the past twenty years, she has worked as a literary and community historian.
Anna Wong is a digital artist born in San Francisco, California who enjoys bringing ideas to life by getting ideas from the real world and online. She studied and received her BFA in Digital Media Art at SJSU in 2020.
Kiki Wu is a digital media artist whose practices focus on altering the behavioral patterns of human-technology interaction through video art, sound design, and creative programming. Her research interests include the national identity crisis, modern mythology, and internet culture.
