Mako Kikuchi will discuss and share excerpts from a collection of community-donated acetate recordings that have recently been digitized at the Northwest Nikkei Museum in Seattle, WA. Kikuchi, who is the lead advisor and sound engineer for the project, will speak about Japanese American history and community through the lens of select recordings from the collection. He will also share about future phases of the project, and the impact that the preservation of this sound archive, and others like it, can have on the Japanese American community and beyond. Lastly, Kikuchi will present his creative work, examining how archives can be better understood and "activated" through art and music. 

Mako Kikuchi is a musician, faculty at South Seattle College, and lead advisor for the community donated music collections at the Northwest Nikkei Museum (JCCCW). His current project is based in the preservation and digitization of home recorded acetate discs dating from the 1930s - 1950s, some of which were recorded inside Japanese American incarceration camps during WWII. His work has been supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, Chamber Music America, and New Music USA, among others.

Organized by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music and cosponsored by Ethnomusicology Forum, East Asia Center, Library Special Collections and Sounding Transpacific Asia Research Focus Group.