Pietro Toccaceli
Hi! I’m Pietro, a student in Media Studies: Digital Cultures (2024/2025). After completing my bachelor’s in communication in Milan, my hometown, I moved to the Netherlands to pursue my master’s studies and further develop my creativity. I’ve always been passionate about animation and Japanese culture, and in 2023, I had the opportunity to live and work in Japan for just over two months. That’s why I was excited from the start about the idea of working on a plush from one of my childhood favorite films. The fact that it was also connected to Chinese culture made it even more stimulating and interesting to analyze. After a lot of work, I’m really pleased with the result, and I owe a huge thanks to my work partner Viky for all her contributions and for the incredible support she gave me throughout the project. I hope you enjoyed our project and that you were able to travel with Totoro from Japan to the forests of Yunnan, all the way to your screen!
Viky Wu
Hello, I am Viky, a student of Media Studies: Digital Cultures (2024/2025). I graduated from my undergraduate years ago, then spent five years employed by the media. I then decided to leave my work behind and go back to university, as I knew the significance of freshening up my knowledge and opening up my horizons. Studying here in the Netherlands has been a really satisfying experience, and I particularly like this course because it combines technology with theory, allowing us to see actual results from what we're learning. Seeing our final Voyager project come together is the source of great pride. I would especially like to thank my partner Pietro, his work and capability made this experience worthwhile and created a strong bond of camaraderie. I am also grateful for the expertise, encouragement, and advice of our tutors, Costas and Kelly, during the project. A good team smooths everything out and is more fun, and I hope you enjoy our project as much as we did.
Time moves quickly, and as we conclude this project, reluctance takes hold. Through this project, we become more attuned to the opportunities and costs of digitization. Digitization brings convenience and visualization but always at the cost of something—material presence, tactile experience, or cultural nuance. In spite of our best efforts at objectivity, some subjectivity was unavoidable. However, we are happy with our work and are excited to continue to explore these complexities.