The Social Tool of Japanese Wabi-Sabi: A Cross-Cultural Practice through Mobile Photographs

This in-person workshop explores the Japanese concept of wabi sabi — "beauty in imperfection” — as a social tool to challenge “imperfections” and prioritize repair in our relationships and communities. Students will take a visual journey through wabi sabi’s cultural origins in 16th century Japan, learn how wabi sabi expanded globally, and explore wabi sabi in the Pacific Northwest. Through the students’ photographs interpreting wabi sabi, the group will learn how their work encourages improved human relation. Students come away with a curated body of work that has defined social meaning and purpose. They leave with an understanding of wabi sabi’s reframing of social connections that can bring hope and new tolerance for diversity.

OBJECTIVES

• Understand wabi sabi as an outlook that invites change
• Enhance visual literacy for small, subtle subjects
• Curate a meaningful visual story
• Apply wabi sabi values to social interactions and communities

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Claire Cuccio is an intercultural arts educator, writer, curator and translator settled in Seattle after two decades in East and South Asia. She completed a PhD in Japanese literature at Stanford University where she first encountered wabi sabi in aesthetics, poetry and tea ceremony. Her interest evolved into creative programing in the arts for wellbeing, most recently through an experiential learning seminar at a Tibetan heritage school in Nepal, an international arts residency “Tools for the Crater” exploring depression during the Covid 19 pandemic and guided visual explorations for Ikigai Lab and other social enterprises in Seattle.

Images © Claire Cuccio