- Nina Horisaki-Christens2021-2023
Nina Horisaki-Christens received her Ph.D. from the Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Institute for Comparative Literature in Society at Columbia University in 2021. Her research focuses on the intersection of art, media, urbanism, translation, and social engagement in Japan, Asia, and the Asian diaspora. Horisaki-Christens' dissertation, "VIDEO HIROBA: Contingent Publics and Video Communication in Japan, 1966-1981," took up the birth of the term bideo (video) in Japanese art discourse of the early 1970s through the work of the Tokyo-based collective Video Hiroba. Using the lens of critical translation theory, the project examined how a rejection of "expression" in favor of "communication" evoked new images of community, positioning Video Hiroba at the intersection of local and transnational discussions of video's possibilities for addressing intersecting crises in urban, media, environmental, and art institutional landscapes.