On A Critical History of Media Art in Japan (2014)

Abstract

This article is based on the author’s recent publication, A Critical History of Media Art in Japan (Artes Publishing, Tokyo, 2014). The book examines continuity and/or discontinuity in the history of media art focusing artistic experiments and their social implications since the postwar period. Japan has always been the unique site of research and practices in media art, science and technology evolved outside of the predominant spheres of Europe and North America. The book points out that artists, especially those who manipulate technology in their works, got highly conscious of their national identity during the high economic growth of Japan under the slogan of ‘scientific and technological nation’. In the presentation, the author will also briefly introduce several on­going archive projects that she has been working on, including Nagoya International Biennale ARTEC from 1989 to 1997.