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From the Avant-Garde: Re-Conceptualizing Cultural Origins in the Digital Media Art of JapanAuthor(s): Jean M. IppolitoSource: Leonardo, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2007), pp. 142-151, 157-158Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20206376 .

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

From the Avant-Garde:

Re-Conceptualizing Cultural Originsin the Digital Media Art of Japan

JeanM. Ippolito

ABSTRACT

isconceptions concerning

digitalartists inJapanmake

themout to be mere followers,

sawy with technologybut not

necessarily the conceptual

originatorsof theirwork.

Examiningthe aesthetic and

philosophical content of their

work, however, reveals thattheir

attitudes toward the explorationof process, performance and

the inherent atureofmaterials

come from innovativend daring

avant-gardegroups of the

1960s and 1970s inJapan,

including he Gutai and Mono-ha

groups, whose ideas predatethose of theNew York avant

garde schools, even outside

of the technologicalmilieu.

M

T-JL-he point at which one stands while observing

a natural phenomenoncan have an effect on how it is per

ceived and catalogued in the memory. Similarly, from the

perspective of an art historian, I perceive the work of inter

nationally renowned digital media artists Yoichiro Kawaguchi,Masaki Fujihata and Naoko Tosa as an immense historical ac

cumulation of cultural and philosophical influences that well

up into apinnacle within each complete work of art. This at

titude toward the art object issues from a method of scholar

ship developed within the field of art history. When examininga work of art, the art historian sees itnot

simplyas the result

of asingle artist's conception but as a mirror that reflects the

currents of the era from which it comes. This critical approachis often in conflict with the artist's own ideas about his or her

work. It is a very personal thing to the artist, who is sometimes

hesitant to acknowledge a scope of influence broader than

that which comes from within, but if one looks at a work of

art from a broad, conceptual view, the object itself, when one

is produced, is aproduct of the time and place from which it

comes. One can think of the objectas a

product of society,

something

that

belongs

to and reflects

society

as a whole. In

this respect, the work of art is a conduit of both cultural and

societal influences.

Having been trained in the traditional methods of art his

tory, with specialization in Japanese art, I naturally look for

Japanese influences in the art of Japan. This sometimes pro

vokes fear in the minds of today's internationally active Japanese artists, since they certainly do not want to be associated

with clich?d stereotypes. It is not clich? imagery that is of im

portance inmy own assessment of digital art, however; it is the

fundamental approach to the medium that comes from deeprooted cultural immersion.

My perception of traditional Japanese influences in Japanese digital art comes not

only from an understanding of

traditional Japanese art and culture but also from knowledge

of the reactions of native Japanese artists to their own history and culture. An awareness of the struggles for recognition by the avant-garde groups of Japan in the 1950s throughthe 1980s, as well as

knowledge of similar struggles of Ameri

can and European artists, provides a unique perspective within

the international avant-gardearena.

From this vantage point, this article

reinterpretssome of the underlying

concepts and influences in the work

of Japan's early digital artists.

Re-conceptualization #1: The pio

neering computer graphic artists of

Japanare not simply emulators of

Western European and American

creativity; theyare

unique contrib

utors to the artistic innovations and

aesthetic thinking of their experimental art groups.

Re-conceptualization #2: Artists of Japan who draw onJapa

nese cultural influences are not limited to the incorporationof known images from traditional Japan.

Re-conceptualization #3: Although the content of Japanese

digital media art sometimes has no narrative, the meaning is

often profoundly complex and philosophical.These re-conceptualizations

are based onpopular assump

tions and

stereotypes widely expressed

on both sides of the

ocean. They sometimes appear asannoying hurdles that im

pedea

deeper philosophical understanding of the works of

art and artists. The standard audience that may be interested

in Japanese influences tends to look for readily recognizable

images such asgeisha and Mount Fuji

orimages from Edo

period ukiyo-e woodcut prints.

Fig. 1. Takamasa Kuniyasu, Return toSelf, bricks and logs,installation view atHara Museum ARC, Gunma Prefecture, 1990.

(? Takamasa Kuniyasu)

JeanM. Ippolito arthistorian), rtDepartment, niversityfHawaii atHilo,200W. KawiliStreet, ilo,HI 96720,U.S.A. E-mail:<[email protected]>.

Article Frontispiece. Takamasa Kuniyasu, La Spirale duMidou,installation view, Le Mus?e Despiau-Wl?rick, Mont-de-Marsan,

France, 1997. (? Takamasa Kuniyasu)

?2007ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 142-151,2007 143







Fig. 2. Conceptual diagram of the building blocks used in Yoichiro Kawaguchi's growth

algorithm. (?Jean M. Ippolito)

Even in Japan, these misconceptionshave created roadblocks to my study of

the cultural roots of digital media artists.

Some Japanese artists that I interviewedheld back in fear of being associated with

stereotypical imagery and refused to have

anything to do with such research. Theywant to be a part of the international art

arena and do not want to be peggedas

Japanese artists. In Japan, to be associated

with such traditional imagery is to be

clich?d, and some artists are scorned for

capitalizingon stereotypes in order to

get the attention ofWestern enthusiasts.

Chuichi Fujii, a traditional-media artist

whose large sculptural pieces resemble

bonsai trees, admits to cultural influ

ences, but hesitates to focus on them for

fear of exploiting stereotypes:

Without saying thatwe are American or

Japanese, we carry our cultures within

us, and that emerges in a work. With

out being conscious of it, culture just

naturally is an influence. I don't like it

when artists use their culture as a sell

ing point. And I don't like art that is

based on images ofMount Fuji or geisha.

Although my work may have a certain

influence from Japanese traditional cul

ture or Buddhism, Idon't want this tobe

come a major issue [1].

Shigeo Chiba, an art historian and

critic in Tokyo, wrote an article for Art

Forum in 1984 that advises the casual art

observer from outside Japan: Althougha show of interest inJapanese particularities isdesired, dwelling

on the exoticism

of Mount Fuji and Geisha girls is intoler

able [2].

For myself, I certainly enjoy traditional

Japanese imagery in art; however, I have

found profound influences in digitalwork that may be of concern to the con

noisseurs of moreconceptual art in the

international arena. Some of the work of

these concept-based artists is often mis

understood because of the lack of nar

rative. The cultural influences of these

artists stem, not from the popularart of

Japan, but from the avant-garde move

ments of the 1960s and 1970s.

Early Avant-Garde Art

Groups inJapanOne of the earliest independent avant

garde groups in Japanwas the Gutai

group. The Gutai movement began in

1955 with a group of artists in Osaka

searching for newapproaches to art.

Some of the artists of this group were ex

perimenting with new materials and new

methods of painting. The leader of the

group was Jiro Yoshihara, and many of

the participantswere his students. They

attemptedto do away with the traditional

brush and canvas for painting. In the

exhibition Experimental Outdoor Exhi

bition of Modern Art to Challenge the

Mid-Summer's Sun, held in apublic park

in Osaka in 1955, the exhibited works

consisted of clear plastic tubes filled with

colored water suspended from trees,

paper plates lined up on the ground,

plastic ground cloth stretched with foot

prints leading the audience/participantsto a set location, etc. [3]. There were no

works of art in traditional media?no

painton canvas. The artists of the Gutai

group wereexploring

new materials with

which tomake art. This experimentationled to new processes and included per

formance art. The Gutai group staged

performances at theater spaces in Osaka

as well as

Tokyoin the late 1950s and

early1960s. Members of the group also ex

perimented with different approaches to

painting. Kazuo Shiraga,an ordained

Buddhist priest, would swing from a rope

and paint with his feet. Saburo Murakami

would runthrough successive canvases

made of paper on stretcher bars to cre

ate human-size holes through each [4].

Atsuko Tanaka is famous for her electric

piece Bell and the electric-light dresses

in which she would parade. Akira Kana

yama made drawings using a remote

controlled toy car [5].

Members of the Gutai group were not

acknowledged for their innovative workin the international arena until very re

cently. Even standard textbooks on 20th

century avant-garde art movements did

not include the Gutai group's contribu

tion until the publication of more recent

editions. The fourth revised edition of

Arneson's History ofModern Art (1998),

however, does recognize that the per

formance art of the Gutai group predatesthat of Allen Kaprow and others of the

early 1970s [6]. High Red Center, a coali

tion of three artists from Tokyo, also

staged performances, some of which

were reenacted by members of the inter

national Fluxus artists in New York [7].

The desires of the Gutai group to find

new processes and materials for makingart in the late 1950s and 1960s grew in

parallel with the Abstract Expressionistmovement of New York in the early 1950s.

The Gutai artists were fascinated byac

tion painters such as Jackson Pollock.

They wanted to further the experimental ideas of the New York art movements,

which also influenced European artists

such as Yves Klein. They saw in the ex

144 Ippolito, rom theAvant-Garde







periments of the action painters a de

sire to tap the inner rhythms of the sub

conscious mind through automatic tech

niques (automatism). Although some

parallels can be found between auto

matism and traditional Buddhist use of

repetitive activities to tap resources within

the subconscious mind, these were not

evident on the surface of the group's

work and theories, and certainly not ob

vious to contemporary international art

circles [8].

An avant-garde movement that beganin the early 1970s in Japan, known as

Mono-ha (School of Things), was pro

pelled byan

altogether different motive.

Itwas founded by the Korean-born U-Fan

Lee, who soughta

uniquelynew art that

drew from Asian philosophy and culture

[9]. The Mono-ha artists had a refresh

ing newapproach to the raw materials

from which they produced their artwork.

They usually used natural materials such

as wood,clay,

charcoal, earth, air, metals,

etc. Janet Koplos,a

specialist in contem

porary Japanese art theory and criticism,

explains that the Mono-ha artists had

a direct approach to ordinary materials,which were considered to have an inher

ent character and value; the actual real

ity of space, bound into works which

interacted with their settings, and a rela

tional, relative emphasis in which the

sculptor, the sculpture, and the worldwere seen as one continuum, inwhich

creation was not possible, and the ex

pression of ego was not desirable [10].

They would juxtapose and contrast

these materials to reveal the materials'inner essence and changing characteris

tics when confronted by the variables of

space and time. Artists of the Mono-ha

movement included Kishio Suga and

Nobuo Sekine [11], known for simplebut profound installations that used

nothing but a few pieces of wood or stone

to prop up windows and change the na

ture of agallery space or show contrast

between natural and artificial surfaces

over time. Toshio Hara, of the Hara Mu

seum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo,ex

plains: Generally, their art is a direct

response to natural processes of growth

and decay [12]. Although the Mono-haartists were active in the galleries of Japanin the early 1970s, their legacy continued

onthrough the 1980s in the work of art

ists dubbed post-Mono-ha by critics and

historians. These artists include Taka

masaKuniyasu and Tadashi Kawamata,

who areinternationally renowned today

for their installations using logs, bricks

and scrap lumber.

Kuniyasu created a number of instal

lations by stacking the standard building

blocks of baked clay bricks and cut logsthat have since become the signature of

his work. The artist claims to begin with

out a preconceived plan and stacks the

materials in a repetitive rhythm until he

nolonger needs to think about what he

is doing [13]. Thus the installation takes

on a life of its own as it grows to fill

the gallery space, sometimes spilling out

through the doorway and windows so

that it appears to flow down the street

(Fig. 1 and Article Frontispiece).Kawamata uses scrap lumber that has

been discarded or set aside to build his

installation structures. He gathers up

the materials and hammers the wood

together to change the space inside the

galleryor outside the building. His work

sometimes has the appearance of scaf

folding,as if itwere holding up the build

ra^^K? 'I?HhB H^H^^? 'KmHb/^^^S^>^?^p^^^^^^^^^WSrfli^^^^^^^^l^^^^l

Fig. 3. Yoichiro Kawaguchi, still image from ?ggy, computer-generated animation, 1990.

(? Yoichiro Kawaguchi)

Ippolito, rom theAvant-Garde 145







Fig. 4. Yoichiro Kawaguchi, Gemotion Dance, interactive installation with performance, 2002. (? Yoichiro Kawaguchi)

ingor

providing footing for the generalmaintenance of a structure. Kawamata's

structures become walls and corridors;

thus they affect how people move throughthe building's space. Although his work

is occasionally misinterpreted as apoliti

cal statement about war ordecay [14],

from apost-Mono-ha perspective it is

about transformation and change [15].

One additional example of the postMono-ha approach tomaterials is found

in the work and attitude of Chuichi Fu

jii. Fujii works with large cut logs that

he tapers gradually by wrapping copper

wire around them and adjusting the work

in stages to form uncanny shapes and

precariously balanced structures. He ex

plains:

Wood is wood, and it should be ap

proached simply; the point of departureshould be the A of ABC_There seems

to be a lot of art inwhich itmakes no dif

ference what material it ismade from.Myattitude is that one should start from an

understanding ofwhat amaterial can do,whatever thematerial is [16].

Howard N. Fox sums up the traditional

Japanese influences that he sees appar

ent in the work of these artists in his

somewhat controversialessay

for the ex

hibition A Primal Spirit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

Their art draws upon ideas and aesthet

ics that are not only traditional but dom

inant inJapanese art, including Shinto

attitudes?that man isequivalent to and

involved with nature and the spirits and

life force embodied therein, that the art

object is the locus of the individual's spiritual encounter with nature, that the

artist works with thematerials to dis

cover their inner being, rather than

against them to impose his technical vir

tuosity?and Buddhist concepts?thatman isnot at the center of the universe,that the art object represents a micro

cosm ofthat universe, and that the function of art is fundamentally meditative

[17].

Early Digital MediaArtists inJapanParallels can be found in this unique ap

proach tomaterials and awareness of the

transitory nature of time and space in the

attitude of the Mono-ha artists and that

of the digital media pioneers of Japan.

Let us consider, for instance, the work of

YoichiroKawaguchi,

aninternationally

acknowledged digital media pioneer. On

the surface, Kawaguchi's work appearsto be a simulation of nature's organic

growth and evolutionary processes. The

artist himself often presents his work as

springing from his own childhood ob

servations of evolutionary growth and

change during his upbringingon Tane

gashima, atropical island teeming with

land and sea creatures [18]. This rela

tionship to growth and change is often

found in the concerns of the post-Monoha artists. Kawaguchi's work is stimulat

ing and visuallyawe

inspiring, but, for

international avant-garde art circles, not

necessarily concept laden. There is no

story line to his animated pieces, and his

themes are not instrumental in nature.

The standard interpretation of Kawa

guchi's work is that the computer is used

as a tool to produce images that are beau

tiful to behold on the surface. The art

ist uses high-definition resolution and

Implicit Surface modeling techniques to

enhance these images [19]. When we ex

amine the fundamental building blocks,








however, we can find parallels with post

Mono-ha artists' use of basic materials

and processes over time to reveal the

transitory nature of art. Kawaguchi uses

virtual cones and cylinders in agrowth

algorithm that recursively fills the vir

tual space [20] (Fig. 2). The cones and

cylinders are the equivalent of Kuni

yasu's bricks and logs. Furthermore, the

random element programmed into the

computer algorithm and its recursive po

tential is the equivalent of the intuitive

stacking performed by Kuniyasu and

other Mono-ha followers. Kawaguchi's

use of computer technique, however, H

does not simply mimic the actions of H

avant-garde artists; itexplores the nature H

of the algorithm and the computer as H

process. Although Kawaguchi's work con- H

tains broader concepts of birth, growth H

and decay froma visual and philosophi- Hi

Fig. 5. Masaki Fujihata, M?ndala, computer-generated animation, 1983. (? Masaki Fujihata)

Ippolito,From theAvant-Garde 147







Fig. 6. Masaki Fujihata, Owan no Fune niHashi noKai 1984, digital still image from Geometric Love, 1987. (? Masaki Fujihata)

Fig. 7.Masaki Fujihata, FieldJVorks @ Alsace, digital GPS project, 2005. (? Masaki Fujihata)

cal perspective, when we look deeper, at

the algorithm itself,we find that the artist

also explores the nature of the material,

the computer's abstract space.

Kawaguchi also utilizes the random ca

pabilitiesof his

computer programto

simulate the unpredictability of nature's

momentum. These are aspects of his art

that he has built upon since his first piecewas exhibited in the 1983 SIGGRAPHElectronic Theater. International artists

participating in the early computer

graphics movement were astounded bythe organic quality and liquid-like

sur

faces of Kawaguchi's work (Color Plate E

and Fig. 3), but few looked beyond thetechnical finesse. When we look be

yond the images,or within the algo

rithmic space, we can find a conceptual

exploration of the computer's ability to

simulate natural evolution and change

through artificial processing. Although

Kawaguchi continues towork with growth

algorithms, he has more recently be

gun experimenting with the presenta

tion format for his work by combining

projected images with dance performance (Fig. 4). Also, daringly, he had a

piece in the format of a byobu, a tradi

tional Japanese folding screen, ondisplay

at the SIGGRAPH 2005 Art Gallery inLos Angeles [21].

The work of Masaki Fujihata, another

pioneer in the field, is different from

Kawaguchi's, both superficially and con

ceptually. Fujihata treats the computer it

self as a material to be explored, much

as theearly

Mono-ha artistsexplorednatural materials such as wood or earth.

For Fujihata, the nature of the computeras amedium is found in the abstract con

ception of universal space that the com

puter represents. On the surface it is

difficult to infer stylistic similarities be

tween one

bodyof

Fujihata's earlywork

and the next, since each is anexploration








Fig. 8. Naoko Tosa, Neuro-baby, 1993, installation atMachine Culture, SIGGRAPH 1993. (? Naoko Tosa)

of a different aspect of the computer'sabstract realm. M?ndala (1983) (Fig. 5),

recognized at the SIGGRAPH Elec

tronic Theater for its

high-resolution

ren

dering using the Cray supercomputer

[22], is conceptually much more inter

esting than its simple surface visuals re

veal. M?ndala represents the computeras a simulation of the universe, just as a

Buddhist m?ndala is a diagram of the

spiritual universe. Fujihata began this

piece with the image of a historically significant painting of Shingon Buddhism

dating from the Heian period (794

1185) in Japan. The Womb-World M?n

dala (a type of M?ndala usually pairedwith the Diamond-World M?ndala) is a

diagrammatic representation of the Bud

dhist theological universe. Fujihata useda

computer-generated sphere to represent each of the central manifestations

of Buddha in the painting. Althoughcomputer-generated spheres rendered in

high resolution were not at all uniquein 1983, the concept of the computer as

a microcosm of the virtual universe was a

revelation.

Fujihata's further exploration of the

conceptual material of the computer is

found in a body of work that he created

in 1987called Geometricove [23].The ob

jects produced are a result of his exploration of how the computer algorithmcan abstract common utilitarian

objectsinto objects of art (non-utilitarian objectsof beauty). Fujihata would begin with a

simple lacquer rice bowl of the kind used

at everyday meals in Japan. By writing a

program that would slice and dice the vir

tual material and rearrange it into a new

aesthetic whole, he would produce an art

object, no longer useful, but solely of aes

thetic value (Fig. 6). There are parallelsbetween this concept and that of earlyMono-ha artists, who would change the

nature of agallery's space by subtly

ma

nipulating the relationship of the mate

rials to that space. In 1990, in abody of

work entitled Forbidden ruits [24], Fujihata experimented with the weightless

space of the computer and the idea of

natural selection (Color Plate F). The

Forbidden Fruits areobjects with organic

form and surfaces, similar to those found

in the work of Yoichiro Kawaguchi. In

fact, Fujihata goes to the point of paro

dying thework ofKawaguchi [25] in orbidden Fruits, as these organic shapesare a natural result of working within the

virtual space of the computer, a space

that lacks the gravitational pull of the real

world.

In 1996, Fujihata created some of his

earliest

internationally

renowned

digital installations, exploring the interactive

potential of the computer realm; these

included the Beyond Pages and Global In

teriorprojects. Beyond Pages explored the

potential of books of the future by al

lowing people to interact with the virtual

images and content of a visual represen

tation of a book; Global Interior Project al

lowed people to meet by avatar when

traveling through virtually created inte

rior space from distant locations [26].

The latter technological concept has been

incorporated into numerous on-line video

games since then, so itmay not seem

unique to current audiences, but in 1996itwas a

surprisinglynew idea. Fujihata is

currently working on a series of projectsthat re-create the character of a geo

graphic place through time using video

clips and interviews combined with GPS

technology [27] (Fig. 7). Each of Fujihata's separate creations is an

exploration of the characteristics of the

computer as a virtual material and how

it relates to our actual environment.

Naoko Tosa is younger than Kawa








Fig. 9. Naoko Tosa, installation view ofNeuro-baby II, 1993. (? Naoko Tosa. Photo: Jean Ippolito.)

guchi and Fujihata, and her earliest work

wasproducing computer graphics effects

for video and film.However,

her 1993 in

teractive piece Neuro-Baby shows concep

tual parallels between the computer

algorithm and the workings of the hu

man brain. Just as Fujihata found parallels between the macrocosm of the

universe and the microcosm of the com

puter's interior abstract space, Tosa finds

parallels between the algorithmic think

ing of a computer and the neuron trans

fers of the brain. Like Fujihata, Tosa

explores the nature of the computer's ab

straction, the algorithm and its virtual

realm. Neuro-Baby deals with neural net

works, a kind of artificial intelligence that

simulates the unpredictable emotional

responses of the human mind. Tosa's first

version of the work was an interactive vir

tual baby that responded to voice input

throughamicrophone. Different voices

and pitches affected the expressionon

the baby's computer-generated face in

various ways (Fig. 8). The neural network

utilizes artificial intelligence with a ran

dom component, as nature's changescan

be surprisingly npredictable [28]. Thesecond version o? Neuro-Baby (Fig. 9) was

adigital representation of the fetus float

ing within the womb. Tosa created this

piece by embedding computermonitors

in the abdomen of cast fiberglass models

of the female torso. A later piece, entitled

Unconscious Flow, continued Tosa's work

with human emotional input and digital

responses, and was displayed for audi

ence participation in the TechnoOasis

Gallery of SIGGRAPH 1999 [29]. Re

cently, she presented the Inspiration Com

puting Robot, an interactive piece that

explores random connections in lan

guage, at the Emerging Technologiesvenue of SIGGRAPH 2005 [30]. Her

2006 Leonardo article ZENetic Computer:

Exploring Japanese Culture examined

Japanese cultural concepts through interactive design [31].

ConclusionTo compare the work of a group of artists

who use current computer technology to

another group who use primarily natural

materials such as wood and clay may seem

a stretch of the imagination. It is not the

artists' material, however, that is significant. It is the approach to the material

?experimenting with its nature, discov

ering its inherent uniqueness through

processesand

juxtaposition?thatis of

interest. This approach is not so appar

ent on the surface but is found in the

artists' attitudes toward their media and

in their discoveries about the nature of

the simulated space and the random el

ement that is somuch a part of the digitalrealm. This attitude stems from the avant

garde traditions of Japan and is carried

over to the new-media experiments of

the pioneers in technology and art. Justas artists of the Gutai group experimentedwith nontraditional materials and pro

cesses, some of which included tech

nological media?electric bells, lights,

remote-control devices, etc.?the digitalmedia pioneers explored new devices

and processes through algorithmic pro

gramming. In addition, the Gutai artists

often performed their art in theaters

with noresulting

art object created,

placing the emphasison the process

rather than the result. Early computer

graphic artists such as Kawaguchi pro

duced short animated film clips that

showed the results of the idea and process but did not carry a plot

or narrative.

150 Ippolito,From theAvant-Garde







The Mono-ha group focused their efforts

on the exploration of the nature ofma

terials. Although the former used more

traditional natural materials such as

wood and clay, the Japanese digitalme

dia artists of the late 1970s and early

1980s carried this exploration of the in

herent nature of the medium over to the

digitalrealm in

utilizingthe

computer'svirtual space and the random and repet

itive qualities of the algorithm.

This research supports the speculationthat cross-cultural currents in the inter

national art-and-technology movements

were not a one-way street, that the con

ceptual nature of the avant-gardemove

ments did not simply spring fromNew

York, but rather that each culture devel

oped its ownavant-garde experimental

groups in parallel with others interna

tionally, and as ideas and attitudes de

veloped they were shared through such

international groups as Fluxus. The in

ternational art-and-technology move

ment of today isnot best viewed as a result

ofthat development, but rather as its on

going evolution.

24. Masaki Fujihata, ForbiddenFruits (Tokyo: Libro

Port, 1991).

25. Interview, 1993.

26. Masaki Fujihata, artist's statement, inJean Ip

polito, ed., The Bridge Art Show, VisualProceedings:The Art and Interdisciplinaryrograms ofSIGGRAPH96(NewYork: ACM SIGGRAPH, 1996) pp. 24-26.

27. Interview,27June 2005.

28. Naoko Tosa, artist's statement, inSimonPenny,ed., Machine Culture, Visual Proceedings: The Art

and Interdisciplinaryrograms of IGGRAPH93 (NewYork: ACM SIGGRAPH, 1993) p. 167.

29. Naoko Tosa, artist's statement, in Maria

Schweppe, ed., ArtGallery: Techno Oasis, inMaria

Schweppe, ed., SIGGRAPH 1999Electronic rt andAnimationCatalog (NewYork: ACM SIGGRAPH, 1999)

p. 11.

30. Kawaguchi [21] p. 154.

31. Naoko Tosa and SeigowMatsuoka, ZENeticCom

puter: Exploringjapanese Culture, Leonardo^, No.

3, 205-211 (2006); see also Naoko Tosa and SeigowMatsuoka, artist's statement in Lauro-Lazin [21] p.154.

Artists'Web Links

Fujihata,M., <www.fujihatajp/>.

Kawaguchi, Y, University of Tokyo, <www.iii.u

tokyo.acjp/~yoichiro/>.

Tosa, N., Kyoto University, <www.tosa.media.kyotou.acjpx

Manuscript received 5January 2006.

Jean M. Ippolito is an art historian and as

sistant professor at theUniversity ofHawai'iat Hilo. She is a contemporary Japanese art

specialist who studied at theAdvanced Com

puting Center for the Arts and Design

(1989-1994) at Ohio StateUniversity ndwas the recipient of

aFulbright Dissertation

Research Grant (1992-1993) for research attheUniversity of Tsukuba, Japan. Ippolito's1994 dissertation focused

on computer

graphic artists who are now considered pioneers in the digital media field.

References

1. Chuichi Fujii, artist's statement inHoward N. Fox

and Toshio Hara, A Primal Spirit:Ten Contemporaryfap??ese Sculptors, xh. cat., exhibition organized bytheHara Museum ofContemporary Art,Tokyo, and

theLos Angeles County Museum ofArt (NewYork:

Harry N. Abrams, 1990) p. 63.

2. Shigeo Chiba, Modern Art fromajapanese View

point, ArtForumV? (October 1984) pp. 56-61; p. 58.

3.Alexandra Munroe, ToChallenge theMid-Sum

mer Sun: The Gutai Group and Morphology of Revenge: The Yomiuri Independent Artists and Social

Protest Tendencies in the 1960s, inA. Munroe et al.,

Japanese Art after1945: Scream against theSky (NewYork:Harry N. Abrams, Inc., inAssociation with theYokohama Museum ofArt, theJapan Foundation,

theGuggenheim Museum and San Francisco Museum ofModern Art, 1994) pp. 83-100, 149-163.

4. Patrick Frank, Prebles'ArtForms,8th Ed. (UpperSaddle River,NJ: Pearson Education, Prentice Hall,

2006) p. 448.

5.Munroe [3] p. 92.

6.H.H. Arnason, M.F. Prather and D. Wheeler, His

tory f odern Art, 4th Ed. (Upper Saddle River,NJ:Prentice Hall; and Harry N. Abrams, 1998) p. 515.

7. Munroe [3] p. 159.

8.Munroe [3] p. 84.

9.JanetKoplos, Contemporaryapanese Sculpture NewYork:Abbeville Press, 1991) p. 41.

10.JanetKoplos, Mono-ha and thePower ofMate

rials, New Art Examiner (29-30 June 1988) p. 30.

11. T.Minemura, MeasuringUp to theMono-ha?and Beyond, in .Minemura et al.,Mono-ha andPost

Mono-ha: Art inJapan since 1969 (Tokyo: Seibu ArtMuseum and Tama Fine Arts University, 1987) pp.190-194; p. 191.

12.FoxandHara[l] p. 7.

13.Takamasa Kuniyasu, artist's statement, inFox and

Hara[l]p.81.

14. R. Rhodes, Tadashi Kawamata, ArtForum 28(November 1989) p. 162.

15.Koplos [9] p. 209.

16.Koplos [9] p. 50.

17.FoxandHara[l]p. 26.



20. Jean Ippolito, ACritical Analysis of the Com

puter Graphic Art ofJapan Using Six Case Studies,

unpublished dissertation (Ohio State University,1994) p. 82.

21. Yoichiro Kawaguchi, artist's statement, in Linda

Lauro-Lazin, ed., ArtGallery: Threading Time, in

Linda Lauro-Lazin, ed., SIGGRAPH2005ElectronicArt

and Animation Catalog (NewYork:ACM SIGGRAPH,

2005) p. 90.

22. Masaki Fujihata, Geometric ove (Tokyo: Parco,

1987) p. 92.

23. Fujihata [22].








Color Plate E

Yoichiro Kawaguchi, still image fromMorphogenesis, computer-generated animation, 1984. (? Yoichiro Kawaguchi)See article by Jean M. Ippolito.

157







Color Plate F

Masaki Fujihata, Forbidden Fruits, digital photograph of stereolithographic objects, 1990. (? Masaki Fujihata)See article by Jean M. Ippolito.

158

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