Professional Documents
Culture Documents
________________________________________________________________________
Bachelor Thesis
Major: Humanities
Tilburg University
By:
Megan Phipps
ANR: 748361
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT 3
INTRODUCTION 4
CHAPTER
2:
CORPOREALITY,
GENDER
AND
THE
BODY
IN
JAPANESE
NEW
MEDIA
ART
31
GENDER
STEREOTYPES
IN
JAPANESE
ART
32
JAPANESE
FEMALE
NEW
MEDIA
ARTISTS
RESPONDING
TO
THE
DOMINANT
MALE
GAZE
39
THE
CYBORG
RETELLING
THE
STORIES
OF
NATURALIZED
IDENTITIES
46
THE
VIRTUAL
NATURE
OF
TECHNOLOGY
AND
NEW
MEDIA
VS.
THE
FEMALE
BODY
AS
FLESH
51
CONCLUSION 77
BIBLIOGRAPHY 78
2
ABSTRACT
Recent discussions of the relationship between humankind and technology have been
shaped by ideas about embodiment and corporeality. Social and technological advances
such as the availability of new media devices, urbanization, and globalization have led to
the constant reassessment of social values, including humankind’s place within nature,
the relationship between the organic and the artificial and the impact of technology upon
pertinence and availability, contemporary artists have used their art to express
This thesis discusses contemporary New Media artworks that express, challenge, or
media in art for the purpose of challenging stereotypes relating to gender identity, and c)
artworks that provide a fresh perspective on the connection between embodiment and
The thesis focuses solely on artworks by Japanese artists. It is argued that Japan’s
economic history combined with its high levels of urbanization and media-driven culture
offer a unique perspective on notions of embodiment and corporeality in the 21st century.
Furthermore, the thesis shows that the background influence of Shinto beliefs regarding
3
INTRODUCTION
communication and information platforms, virtual and interactive interfaces, and images.1
Throughout the development of New Media from the late twentieth century to the
present, concerns regarding the relationship of the human body to technology have grown
in scholarly and scientific debate. Contemporary artists have also examined these
anxieties by questioning the human body’s place in a virtual, globalized and interactive
realm, examining the role of technology in sustaining a Cartesian-based view of man vs.
machine, and exploring distinctions posed between the organic and the artificial.
Responses to these questions have influenced many collective cultural ideas about
central role in perception, cognition, action and nature to a way of living or inhabiting the
world through one’s accultured body.”2 Put broadly, embodiment relates to the body’s
role within culture and personal experience, or as Weiss and Haber phrase it, “the
1
Socha, Bailey & Eber-Schmid, Barbara. “Defining New Media Isn’t Easy.” What is
http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html
2
Weiss, Gail & Haber, Honi Fern. Perspectives on Embodiment: The Intersections of
4
The aim of this thesis is to examine the linked themes of embodiment and corporeality in
a selection of contemporary artworks that employ the resources of New Media. I contend
that the most optimal nation to look towards for the purpose of this study is Japan. I shall
argue that Japan’s cultural and technological history provides a unique assessment of the
influence of New Media upon a nation and its culture. More importantly, the background
Media artists has helped to shape a distinctive approach to the creative possibilities of
New Media. Consequently, the artworks I shall discuss offer an alternative perspective on
traditional “Western” ideas about embodiment. The primary question I will address is:
I will begin by giving a brief overview of the impact of technology, industrialization, and
New Media on Japanese culture. In chapter one, I will focus primarily on technological
ideas concerning national identity and cultural production. I will then discuss a range of
New Media artworks that exemplify and problematize these consequences. Firstly, I will
towards Japan as ‘information society’ I shall argue that Murakami is an artist who
within Japanese metropolitan society. I will then examine artists that have critically
responded to this portrayal and to the dense urban living environment, such as Arata
Isozaki and Eiko Ishioka, Dumb Type, Masato Nakamura, and Tatsuo Miyajima. Lastly, I
5
will examine the works and philosophy of Masaki Fujihata who uses (virtual)
physical space, Fujihata provides a fresh outlook on cultural embodiment and corporeal
values.
In chapter two, I will analyze the ways in which contemporary Japanese artists use New
Media for the purpose of reflecting on contemporary embodied gender identities within
Japanese society. I will first reference Slavoj Žižek’s theory of the “Digitilized Real”4 in
order to explain how contemporary gender roles are perpetuated virtually and artistically
in contemporary society. This will develop the discussion of chapter one, namely the
values associated with Murakami’s aesthetic, Japan as an ‘information society,’ and the
role of virtuality in (culturally) embodied identities. I will then discuss a selection of New
values that are attached to the body. In her Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway discusses
culturally predominant gender values and how they can be overcome with the use of new
technology. I will apply Haraway’s theory by arguing that certain Japanese female artists
are furthering her optimistic outlook through their use of New Media. The artists I will
4
Zizek, Slavoj. Cyberspace, Or The Virtuality of The Real. Journal for the Centre for
http://www.jcfar.org/past_papers/Cyberspace%20and%20the%20Virtuality%20of%20the
%20Real%20-%20Slavoj%20Zizek.pdf.
6
discuss in this context are Naoko Motoyoshi, Midori Kitagawa, Saki Satom, Naoko Tosa,
and Mariko Mori. The aim of this discussion is to show how New Media can have both
positive and negative effects upon shaping human corporeal values and cultural values
about embodiment. This will extend the theme of technology and cultural embodiment as
discussed in chapter one by linking the topic of human corporeality particularly to that of
gender.
In chapter three, I will discuss ways in which contemporary Japanese artists use
technology and a non-Cartesian approach to test human corporeal values in their works.
Firstly, I will examine artists who use computer algorithms in their works and will argue
that this offers an unprecedented approach towards preconceptions about the distinction
between the organic and the artificial. The artists on whom I will focus are Yoishiro
Kawaguchi and Ryoichiro Debuchi. I will explain how, by linking their geometric
naturalism to environmental embodiment and breaking free from a division between the
organic and the artificial, these artists provide liberation from the physical laws ruling
chapters, I will show how redefinitions of corporeality in Japanese New Media art
‘deep’ ecological sense of the immanent vitality of human and non-human cohabitation.”5
5
Jensen, Caspar Bruun & Blok, Anders. ‘Techno-animism in Japan: Shinto Cosmograms,
7
This discussion will include works by Masaki Fujihata, Yasushi Matoba and Hiroshi
Matoba, dNA, and Kawaguchi. By examining distinctions between the artificial and
organic in an unparadigmic way, corporeal values and our relationship with technology is
theories regarding New Media, corporeality, and embodiment, I shall show how Japanese
Culture, and Society. Sage Publications (2013), p. 101. DOI:
10.1177/0263276412456564.
8
CHAPTER 1: JAPANESE NATIONAL IDENTITY AMIDST HIGH-
Japanese technologically influenced cultural embodiment has had a long and complex
relationship with the West. Beginning at the turn of the seventeenth century, the
Tokugawa administration shifted its powerbase and closed Japan off from the outside
world. During the mid-nineteenth century, Commodore Perry initiated entry into the ports
of Tokyo after receiving demands for trade by the U.S. The West’s power was seeping
across the world in the form of industrialization, and Japan had greater exposure to the
technologies and lifestyles of societies beyond its borders. In order for Japan to succeed
economically and politically, it adopted and emulated many practices from other nations,
Japan’s recent history coincides with UNESCO’s definition of the origins and causes of
an ‘information society.’ UNESCO defines these origins and causes as being attributed to
economic, social and political life. This embrace of technology has profoundly influenced
6
Castile, Rand. “Tokyo and the West.” Tokyo: Form and Spirit. Japan: Walker Art
9
Japanese society and has resulted in many contemporary artists contributing to the
evolution of New Media art. As Jean Ippolito states in The Search for New Media: Late
20th Century Art and Technology in Japan: “Japan now has assimilated the term ‘New
Media’ for digital and electronic art, a by-product of the ‘information society’.”7 New
Media art has “become a catch-all phrase for any kind of artwork that utilizes electronic
media whether visual, audio, fine, commercial, conceptual or popular art.”8 Within the
New Media art arena, Lauren Herr argues that this had led contemporary Japanese artists
social and aesthetic forms has been balanced over the past 120 years by a
relentless quest for new ideas, fashions and techniques, computer graphics has
found favor because of its novelty, expressive power and futuristic look.9
The attempt to balance social and aesthetic forms, noted by Herr, involves juggling
Western and Japanese social and aesthetic forms, as well as traditional Japanese and new
‘high-tech’ Japanese forms. Japanese New Media artists continue to face these questions
of national identity in terms of medium, style, and content and have come to ask
7
Ippolito, Jean. The Search for New Media: Late 20th Century Art and Technology in
10
themselves: What is inherently Japanese versus inherently Western? What is technology
and industrialization for Japanese culture and how does it influence our values
break free from the cultured embodiment of an ‘information society’? Among these
questions concerning technology and cultural embodiment, includes the city that was the
center of the nineteenth century industrial change, and remains the core of Japan’s
After the bursting of the economic bubble in 1986, Japan’s economy was plummeting.
Japan had been seen as a technologically booming nation since the 1950s, but this
perception had changed by the 1980s. In turn, Japan remained eager to maintain its
sustain this image Japan looked towards its export industry. In Before and After
What [politicians] talked about, as the economy remained stagnant and Japan’s
influence on the world declined, was culture: how to rebrand and repackage
Japan’s international image. And so they put manga and anime on official
11
brochures. Video games and toy character stars replaced cars and computers as
In the 21st century, this tendency has bled into the contemporary art world and has led to
Japan has become an “electronically mesmerized society,” and “the new generation of
artists of the 21st century have discovered a way to market their art in a tangible form.
The curious technological objects are purchased by consumers because they have popular
appeal.”11
Takashi Murakami is an artist who hones this artistic philosophy and states that his
primary artistic goal is to “merge high art and culture with popular consumerist
society.”12 He deliberately places his art within the commercial industry by collaborating
with luxury-brands such as Louis Vuitton and Kanye West. He then introduces
commercialism directly into the art industry – for example by featuring a Louis Vuitton
sales kiosk at his exhibitions.12 In using this approach, he has become extremely
successful. In 2008, Murakami was the only artist listed among the 100 most influential
persons of the year in Time magazine. In 2009, Art Review ranked him as no.17 of the
100 most important persons in the global art world. Among the three Asian names that
10
Favell, Adrian. Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary
12
appeared on the Art Review list, he was the only Japanese artist.13 Consequently,
In Giant Magical Princess! She’s Walking Down The Streets of Akihabara! (2009),
Murakami depicts a ‘rebranded’ version of Akihabara, Tokyo in a fun and positive light.
As described by the Akihabara official website: “It is absolute that Akihabara is the
largest town collection all kinds of electronic appliances and devices in the world. The
products at the very top of technology are always abundantly available here.” Within
Murakami’s work, the commoditization of art and high-technology are idealized in the
14
Fig. 1. Murakami, Takashi & Louis Vuitton. Cherry Blossom [Textile].
13
Favell, 8-9.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/achimh/3301145074/
13
15
Fig. 2. Murakami, Takashi. Giant Magical Princess! She’s Walking Down the Streets of Akihabara!
In the Vice documentary ‘Schoolgirls for Sale,’ however, is it shown that the Akihabara
district is also known for the selling of schoolgirls, sometimes only for a conversation,
yet also for sexual acts. As Murakami positioned the ‘giant magical princess’ with her
legs spread open for the district’s consumers to pass through, a reference to the district’s
15
Giant Magical Princess! She’s Walking Down the Streets of Akihabara! [Wall Print].
14
commoditization of sex can be inferred. Furthermore, as this sexualized, kawaii , anime Α
girl is depicted as ‘giant,’ she is portrayed as the dominant trait of the district. Yet, the
‘giant magical princess’ raises her arm up high in a pleased and proud manner, once
again symbolizing Murakami’s joyful idealization of her and her district’s culture, a
culture that combines the selling of electronics and the selling of sex in an ‘information
society.’ Together, the princess and the abundance of advertisements symbolizes the
seduction of images and the seduction of the Akihabara district, a combination that links
popular culture.
While economic and commercial interests are interwoven and thematized in Murakami’s
artworks, what does this entail for the embodied culture of Japan? In Japan Style, Gian
Carlo Calza argues that this combination of ideas risks blinding society to the danger of
foster personal growth.”16 Some Japanese New Media artists have expressed similar
views, and they have responded critically to this commercial prioritization in art, the
Α
“Kawaii” is a term used in contemporary popular Japanese culture to describe an entity
16 Calza, Gian Carlo. Japan Style. Phaidon Press Limited (2007), p. 15.
15
The Critics
In 1986, Prime Minister Nakasone addressed Japan as a “high-level information society”
in his party speech, a society that was “agitated” and “dense.”17 As explained, the
Japanese government and certain mainstream media artists have embraced this high-
Tokyo. Yet, others express the agitation that Prime Minister Nakasone addressed, such as
Masato Nakamura, Arata Isozaki, Eiko Ishioka, Dumb Type, and Tatsuo Miyajima.
Nakamura circulates in the same art-world as Murakami, yet his philosophy is drastically
1997, Nakamura exhibited an installation at SCAI The Bathhouse with 3331 Arts
convenience store companies to allow him to borrow the neon strip lights hung at the
front of their shop. These colors are known to be the most visible urban iconography of
Japanese cities, including Japanese convenience stores in cities all around Asia.
TRAUMATRAUMA also has the alternative title "Consumer Identities,” which seems to
17
Ippolito, 75.
16
to a national image structured by technology and consumerism. In this case, the
18
Fig. 3. Nakamura, Masato. TRAUMATRAUMA [Installation]. (1996).
‘information society’ continue to appear as a fear or frustration for New Media artists
https://books.google.com/books?id=L6ta_zRaVP8C&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=Masato+Nakamura+trau
matrauma
17
[…] At an eye-opening speed, high technology entwines the underground and the
skies of this megalopolis with its ever-growing branches and leaves… The
system, but it has not worked at all upon the individual space of the people.19
The exhibition Tokyo: Form and Spirit took place the same year of Prime Minister
Nakasone’s party speech, and included the same focal theme: Japan as an agitated, dense,
high-level information society. In 1986, Paul Goldberger wrote an article in The New
York Times describing the Tokyo: Form and Spirit as a movement analyzing Japanese
culture, with Tokyo being the most visible element.20 In the exhibition’s title, and
Goldberger’s summary, the urban space of Tokyo became a metaphor for cultural identity
Martin Friedman, assembled a book containing articles on the exhibition and its
philosophy, in which he states: “[t]his publication, Tokyo: Form and Spirit, and the
artistic activity to various aspects of urban existence and to stress the durability of
Japanese artistic attitudes from historical times to the present.”21 In turn, the exhibition
included New Media artworks revolving around Japanese culture, the relationship of
19
Choh, Ikuro. Statement for FaxArt Event ’89.
20
Goldberger, Paul. Architecture: Tokyo Show at I.B.M. The New York Times (1986).
21
Friedman, Martin. ‘A View Outside.’ Tokyo: Form and Spirit. Walker Art Center
(1986), p. 7.
18
technology to man, the sprawling urbanization of Tokyo, the influx of media and
Arata Isozaki and Eiko Ishioka, graphic designer and art director, collaborated on an
installation for Tokyo: Form and Spirit entitled Performing Space (1986). Andrew
Blauvelt, of Walker Art Center, describes the piece: “Performing Space featured 60 video
monitors displaying Japanese television ads.”22 This installation represented some of the
major themes of the entire exhibition, such as consumerism, the physical and
psychological claustrophobia citizens feel that arises out of the density of Tokyo, and the
overwhelming nature of advertisements within the city. The impact of this was shown
wittily as the artists placed the advertisements in one of most common symbols of pre-
packaged Tokyo consumption, a bento box. The exhibition and the themes of Performing
Space exemplified many of the frustrations and anxieties of contemporary New Media
22
Blauvelt, Andrew. Metamuseum. Tumblr (2013). Retrieved from:
http://metamuseum.tumblr.com/post/48611823487/performing-space-designed-by-arata-
isozaki-and
19
23
Fig. 4. Isozaki, Arata & Ishioka, Eiko. Performing Space [Mixed Media Installation]. (1986)
Another group of “frustrated artists”24 that focus on Japan as a high-technology and high-
level ‘information society’ is the artists’ collective known as Dumb Type (1984). In their
catalogue they explain that they came together to mirror their understanding of new
Japan, “an ancestral yet technologically sophisticated society immersed in competing bits
emotional distances within human relationships. They responded to these issues in their
23
Performing Space [Mixed Media Installation]. (1986). Retrieved from:
http://metamuseum.tumblr.com/post/48611823487/performing-space-designed-by-arata-
isozaki-and
24
Ippolito, 109.
25
Ippolito, 110.
20
performance entitled Pleasure Life (1988), which attempted to specifically reflect “high-
26
Fig. 5. Dumb Type. Pleasure Life [Mixed Media Performance]. (1988)
Pleasure Life “consisted of a custom designed performance area with rounded pedestals
within a grid-like pattern on the floor. The pedestals supported an assortment of modern
day media devices, as well as various other mundane household items.”24 The assortment
advancement in Japan. Yet the grid-like pattern and balanced organization of the
26
Pleasure Life [Mixed Media Performance]. (1988). Retrieved from
http://www.epidemic.net/en/photos/dumbtype/pleasure_life/photo1.html
21
urbanism, and the rise of an ‘information society’ as things that are psychologically
detrimental to the individual. Dumb Type see Japan as the scientific term “ph7”, which
conventionally means a balanced center; but to them this also symbolizes a destructive
limbo, reaching neither heaven nor hell.27 The composed grid-like pattern and organized
pedestals convey this structure and balance, but in fact these consumer items and
Tatsuo Miyajima’s use of technology in art attempts to provide a space away from the
mentally claustrophobic metropolitan environment. His work focuses on the use of digital
light-emitting diode (LED) counters. C. A. Xuan Mai Ardia describes his piece life
A chamber, covered in red leather on the outside, hosts one visitor at a time into a
attained.28
27
Cooper, Bridget. Furuhashi Teiji: Dumb Type. KYOTO Journal. Retrieved from:
http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/culture-arts/furuhashi-teiji-dumb-type/
28
Ardia, C.A. Xuan Mai. These 10 Japanese Artists Are Changing the Meaning of Art.
japanese-contemporary-artists-who-are-revolutionising-art/
22
Miyajima ascribes ‘Three Concepts’ to all of his artworks, those being ‘Keep Changing,’
‘Connect With Everything,’ and ‘Continue Forever.’ Within the concept ‘Connect With
Everything’, he writes, “[a]rt has long been isolated from the real world, and spoiled
within a framework of the ‘art world.”29 While the Superflat art of Murakami portrays
Tokyo-living through happy 2-D figures, this is countered by portrayals of the stressful
artists.
30
Fig. 6. Miyajima, Tatsuo. Life palace (tea room) [Mixed Media]. (2013)
29
Miyajima, Tatsuo. Concepts. Retrieved from: http://tatsuomiyajima.com/concepts/
http://www.designboom.com/art/tatsuo-miyajima-exhibits-hypnotic-digital-installations-
23
The Virtual Realm: ‘Anti-Japanese’ New Media as ‘Japanese’ Identity
versus ‘Western’ are abandoned altogether by some New Media Japanese artists. These
artists feel that using commoditization and defining a national artistic style clouds the
artistic process and creates distorted interpretations of Japan in the eyes of non-domestic
In turn, certain Japanese artists have attempted to create a “nationless” world through
New Media art. Masaki Fujihata, for example, attempted to create a virtual technological
sculpture defying the boundaries of nationality in the work Global Interior Project
(1996). As Juan Downey has termed it, the artist utilized the concept of ‘invisible
31
Fox, Howard N. A Primal Spirit: Ten Contemporary Japanese Sculptors. Los Angeles
24
regarding cultural embodiment, commoditization, and materiality thus differ drastically
from Murakami’s apparent celebration of capitalism within and beyond Japanese society.
In Global Interior Project, Fujihata tried to connect virtual and physical realities through
the use of a “Matrix-Cube” kinetic sculpture. Fujihata describes the technical and
metaphoric map of the virtual world. It represents the real world because it is a
that can be explored at each Cubical-Terminal. In short, while you are in a virtual
room X, the door of room X of the Matrix-Cube opens. Usually, several doors of
the Matrix-Cube are open simultaneously, since each participant explores the
The physical installation alongside the metaphoric map of the virtual world enables users
33
Fujihata, Masaki. Statement for “Global Interior Project: Networked Multi-User
Virtual Environment Project” in “The Bridge: SIGGRAPH ’96 Art Show,” edit. Jean M.
25
34
Fig. 7. Fujihata, Masaki. Global Interiors Project [Matrix-Cube]. (1996)
35
Fig. 8. Fujihata, Masaki. Design for Global Interiors Project. [Developed using the “InterSpace”
34
Global Interiors Project [Matrix-Cube]. (1996). Retrieved from
http://235media.de/1997/09/masaki-fujihata-2/?lang=en
26
Through the use of personal avatars, users can travel through the virtual space and engage
in visual and verbal communication with other users in the same virtual room. 36 Thus,
within the virtual sphere of Matrix-Cube, it does not matter who you are or where you are
from, each individual’s action is entirely democratic. The room’s parameters are
indicated by a particular object, such as a door knob, an apple, or a hat. There are no
nationalities in the Global Interior Project, and thus no nationalistic values or culturally
Feenberg states:
can shorten the feedback loops from damaged human lives and nature and guide a
35
Design for Global Interiors Project. [Developed using the “InterSpace” platform by
http://www.ntticc.or.jp/Archive/1995/The_Museum_Inside_The_Network/revival/fujihat
a/index-e.html
36
Ippolito, 131-2.
37
Feenberg, Andrew. “Critical Theory of Technology: An Overview.” Tailoring
https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/books/critbio.pdf
27
Taking up Feenberg’s ideas, Fujihata’s democratic virtual world could be understood as
could enable individuals to dispense with stereotypes associated with their nation’s
prominence of cultural embodiment and the nature of their body’s role through their
In fostering this democratic and cultureless approach, and playing with the nature of
cultural embodiment and physical space, Fujihata worked with GPS Technology and
Geographically Based Profiles in order to map out location and record time cumulatively.
shortened video clips taken at specific locations. He then pieced them together according
between Fujihata’s desire to establish a tangible reality for a virtual space and the desire
record and convey the character of that place and its unique inhabitants regardless
between physical place and virtual space is that one that is intangible has the
38
Ippolito, 134-5.
28
potential for endless interpretations whether philosophical, spiritual or fantasy-
filled.”38
39
Fig. 8. Fujihata, Masaki. Field_Works@Alasce [Interactive Installation & Mixed Media]. (2005-2007)
Murakami’s, the familiar signs of a national identity are replaced by innovation and the
showcases the innovative potential that technology and art can have when divorced from
marketable art object, Fujihata’s intangible works may redefine the basis for culturally
39
Field_Works@Alasce [Interactive Installation & Mixed Media]. (2005-2007).
29
In summary, the extension of economic trade relations with the West at the turn of the
technology in Japan. In the twentieth century, this led to the production of culturally
embodied stereotypes, dense urban living, and the rise of an ‘information society.’
Japanese New Media artists have both capitalized and critiqued this cultural development
and its impact on embodiment. Hence, Japan’s economic past has played a vital role in
Fujihata’s use of virtual space as a means of liberating artists and art content from
physically embodied values derived from their nationality is one way in which
shall show in Chapter 2, the virtual realm has also been used as a space for reflecting on
30
CHAPTER 2: CORPOREALITY, GENDER AND THE BODY IN
As illustrated by Giant Magical Princess! She’s Walking Down The Streets of Akihabara!
and pop-cultural media art, including Superflat, Micropop!, anime, and manga. It has
been argued that male hegemony is exercised in these fields due to the use of stereotypes
Japanese New Media artists have fostered this stereotypical role, while others have
challenged it. Whether one is depicting or opposing these gender stereotypes, what
remains the same is the embodiment of corporeal content: content concerning the nature
of the human body. Also, since many of these depictions are done in the virtual realm,
corporeality is increasingly essential in regards to the virtual body opposed to the body as
flesh. Thus, within these contrasting views and methods, questions concerning
Donna Haraway’s influential Cyborg Manifesto (first published in The Berkeley Socialist
Review Collective [1985]) analyses themes of control and domination within the realm of
science and technology. Throughout her analysis she examines existing and possible uses
of technology that have contributed to male hegemonic biases within society. However,
Haraway maintains that with technology and the cyborg, nature and culture can be
reworked in a way that “the one can no longer be the resource for appropriated or
31
incorporation by the other.”40 These opportunities derive from the fact that the Cyborg is
genderless and sexless. This epicene nature further provides the possibility of disbanding
the rigid distinctions separating “human” from “animal” and “human” from “machine.”
I will now examine some contrasting reactions to depictions of Japanese women in New
Media Art and will also consider works by female Japanese New Media Artists in which
technology and/or the cyborg are used as a means of claiming physical, intellectual, and
creative power. I shall link such works to ideas discussed in Haraway’s essay. However,
before doing so, I shall briefly provide some historical background to gender stereotypes
in Japanese art.
The visual idealization of the Japanese woman can be traced to ukiyo-e woodblock prints,
popular from the 17th to the 19th century. One translation of ukiyo-e is ‘to escape into the
‘floating world’6: to leave all troubles behind and surrender to the fantasy, sin, and
pleasures of the Red Light District of Yoshiwara. Many Japanese artists immersed
themselves in this culture and, as a matter of course, the central content of their work was
eroticized Japanese women. These women were commonly illustrated as young and
40
Haraway, Donna. “Cyborg Manifesto.” The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge (2000),
p. 298.
32
ukiyo-e prints, these illustrations were unrealistic. The models for these works typically
lived in poor conditions and, after undergoing years of physical and emotional stress,
they and their bodies were far older than illustrated.41 Calza describes these
circumstances within the influential artist Kitagawa Utamaro’s life and his idealization of
sex work:
Utamaro… also depicted prostitutes of the lowest class. In this he departed from
artistic convention (which had in any case been revolutionized in the ukiyo-e –
pictures of the floating world – and, like his French successors, he discovered in
these women a rich vein of humanity to portray. But he still almost always
idealizes them, and even in the case of the most wretched prostitutes, the teppō,
this idealization is achieved by giving them youthful bodies that they would
Thus, it was during the Edo period (1615-1868), the time of the development and
flourishing of ukiyo-e, that Japanese visual art made fantasy worlds, deviance, and the
sexually idealized Japanese woman harmonious variables. Yet within this combination of
youthful glamour and impoverished prostitution exists another paradox: the contradictory
roles of femininity. Calza points out that a central focus of the Western interest in Japan
has arisen from these highly contradictory roles of femininity: “[m]ythical and historical,
heroic and domestic, professional and aristocratic, coquettish and grave, naïve and
41
Calza, 51.
42
Calza, 49.
33
mysterious.”42 Kuki Shūzō (1888–1941) claims that “the meaning, the magic, the
fascination of Japanese femininity […] depend specifically on both separation from the
object and the impulse attraction towards it.”41 Calza develops Shūzō’s argument by
describing one of the ukiyo-e print Series of the Twelve Hours in the Green Houses
The orian seems lost in thought, absorbed in a world of her own which no one
else is allowed to enter. Her height and the exaggerated slenderness of her body
turn her into an other-worldly being. An aspect of her seductiveness is the way
she appears to belong to a different sphere from the one inhabited by common
mortals, including those who will meet her and possess her, and the background
In Cyberspace, or The Virtuality of the Real, Žižek states that in the virtual realm “we
concrete, sensual thought is often portrayed as the working out of male, heterosexual
fantasies. There is, I would argue, a recurrence of this pensée sauvage and an overlap
between such portrayals of women in artworks in traditional media, those in New Media,
and in popular Japanese culture. In many cases the “other-wordly,”divine, and idealized
Sauvage’ (1962), it is used to describe collective human thought in its ‘untamed’ state
34
43
Fig. 10. Utmaro, Kitagawa. Series of the Twelve Hours in the Green Houses [Woodblock Print]. (1795)
As discussed above, Murakami became the face of Japanese art on a global scale and, in
turn, Superflat art became a leading art style for an entire country. Superflat fashioned an
anime (cartoons), kawaii (cute), and moé (a term meaning an otaku nerd’s obsession of a
young cute girl).44 Consequently, Favell claims that Japan, “was a land which during the
43
Series of the Twelve Hours in the Green Houses [Woodblock Print]. (1795). Retrieved
from http://www.wikiart.org/en/kitagawa-utamaro/the-hour-of-the-snake
35
with weird fetishes, and a warped decadent pop culture.”44 Along with anime and manga
The otaku mentality referenced by Superflat artists channeled above all the idea of
hopeless, ageing, obsessive dame (loser) guys longing day and night for their
Developing Calza’s description of Series of the Twelve Hours in the Green Houses, the
obsessive attraction to the young women depicted as anime in Superflat becomes clearer.
The anime girl belongs to a different intellectual and physical sphere to the ‘common
mortals’ who look upon her, and who want to posses her; she becomes the contemporary
Moreover, the common features of women depicted in anime and manga film are “that
the heroines are all young girls, they are cute-looking, but they have a sophisticated
giant magical princess discussed in Chapter 1 exemplifies this ‘other-wordly’ being that
is (physically) above the common mortals who also yearn to ‘possess’ or ‘consume’ her.
44
Favell, 10.
45
Lloyd, Fran. Consuming Bodies: Sex and Contemporary Japanese Art. Reakin Books
(2002), p.136.
36
Thus, the “introverted fantasy escape” of idealized women in the ukiyo-e ‘floating world’
Although women in anime and manga are shown as sensual, powerful or magical forces,
they are also commonly portrayed as victims of brutal violence, thus their power is
stripped away. As Napier states in ‘From Akira to Princess Mononoke’, “[f]requently, the
female body is indeed an object to viewed, violated, and tortured.”46 As the body was
also an object to be viewed and violated in the era of ukiyo-e prints, we are, in effect,
contemporary anime and manga. Žižek goes on to explain how one could enact these
…cyberspace, with its capacity to externalize our innermost fantasies in all their
masochistic” fantasy that can never be subjectivized. We are thus invited to risk
the most radical experience imaginable: the encounter with the Other scene that
stages the foreclosed hard core of the subject’s Being … it enables us to treat
[these fantasies] in a playful way and this adopt towards them a minimum of
distance.4
46
Napier, Susan J. Anime From Akira to Princess Mononoke. Palgrave Macmillian
(2001), p. 65.
37
The negativity associated with virtuality echoes Dumb Type’s philosophy: namely, that
and dominated. The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment.”47
the operator one the one hand and the object on the other. However, he continues, that
when the operator and object are both human beings, “the technical action is an exercise
of power.”48 In this light, since the operator (man) and the object (woman) are both
humans, these predominantly male technical actions are an exercise of power over
Japanese women. Arguably, this sexual power structure prevails not only in traditional
Japanese art, Japanese commercial media art, or other forms of Japanese New Media, but
also extends to values in everyday Japanese society. These patriarchal societal and artistic
circumstances have received mixed responses by female Japanese New Media artists and
47
Haraway, 313.
48
Feenberg, 49.
38
Japanese Female New Media Artists Responding to the Dominant Male
Gaze
In 1991, an article from the series “Women Caught in the Wave of Computerization” in
Computer and Management (Tokyo, 1991) promoted the idea of women striving towards
computer graphics designer.49 Not only did this occupation facilitate financial and social
independence but, by being successful in computer graphics, one could also reshape the
‘other-wordly’ anime female stereotype. As described by author Akikio Miki in her essay
‘Toward Eternity,’ “manga artists of the 1970s, who established escapist environments
and created their own sanctuaries, created networks of salvation to rescue teenage girls
reconstructing these alternate realities and thereby reinterpreting the visual medium and
stereotype.
Naoko Motoyoshi became a role model for Japanese women after she rose from being a
Akira. Motoyoshi was introduced to the world of computer graphics by first focusing on
49
Ippolito, 85.
50
Miki, Akikio. Toward Eternity. Perrotin. Retrieved from:
https://www.perrotin.com/artiste_text.php?id=15&nom_=Aya+TAKANO&dossier=Aya_
Takano&photo_=ayatakano_15.jpg
39
virtual corporeality by technically representing the portrayal of the human body. In 1987
and 1988 the National Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a series entitled The Universe
Within: The Human Body, which consisted of educational segments detailing the inner
workings of the human form. Motoyoshi and Ryoichiro Debuchi contributed by working
on several scenes for the series, illustrating inner workings of the human body such as the
movement of bacteria, the generation of blood vessels, and the destruction of skin cells.
During this time, Motoyoshi was working at High Tech Lab Japan where she had full
access to the Digital Dynamation System (DDS) animation software used for in-house 3-
D modeling that was created by Debuchi, as well as Wavefront and other commercial
software. In those years, she also began to work on her own animations.51
Motoyoshi responded to the Japanese female archetype throughout her computer graphics
career. One of her first works was entitled Mermaids (1986), which introduced the
principal characteristics of her work to follow: girls who were cute, pretty, and
“idealistic, fantasy creatures.”52 In 1989 and 1990, she released two animation videos
animation, A Moonlit Spring Night and The Robe of an Angel. Ippolito describes the
Both of Motoyoshi’s animated works from 1989 and 1990 incorporated symmetry
and balance in the compositions, and both has highly idealized figures. A Moonlit
51
Ippolito, 86.
52
Ippolito, 87.
40
Spring Night showed five young girls in kimono standing in a circle, shown from
focused on a single female figure in the center facing forward with her multiple
arms extending outwards on both sides. All of these figures had finely chiseled
Motoyoshi thus embraced the typical ‘virtual female’ in her solo work, but although she
illustrated the idealization of woman, she executed works of a “technical virtuoso, and
the subject matter that of a young girl’s romantic fantasy.”51 Thus, adding to Ippolito’s
description, one could argue Motoyoshi reclaimed the gaze of the fantasy: the fantasy of
a young girl as opposed to that of a man. While Motoyoshi felt she found creative
freedom in Japan and expanded on the idealistic, other-worldly image of woman, artists
such as Saki Satom, Mariko Mori, and Midori Kitagawa have rejected these values and
stereotypes.
While Kitagawa parallels Motoyoshi in two ways: (a) the meticulous planning of their
animation sequences, and (b) the empowerment offered by a career in computer graphics,
the content in their work and views on Japanese society are markedly different. Kitagawa
was born and raised in Japan but chose to move to the United States. She attended the
Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACAD) at O.S.U, during which
she received a master’s degree in computer graphics and a Phd from Texas A & M
University. Kitagawa made the decision to leave Japan in order to receive her education
53
Ippolito, 89-90.
41
because she felt an immense amount of social pressure and creative restrictions when
living as a woman within Japanese society. In 1990, she described her reasons for moving
to United States:
I find it difficult to tolerate some things, which Japanese society has accepted,
such as collectivism, sexual inequality, and seniority. Here in the United States, I
have been studying what I want to study, saying frank opinions to my boss, and
sharing housework with my husband. I do not have to look like others. I do not
have to share the same ideas with others. I do not have to pretend to be anything
other than myself. I can be what I am. I am more of what I am here than when I
was in Japan.53
Kitagawa undermines the Japanese female stereotype in her art. Her works include
style to Pixar. One exemption to her commonly portrayed style, but not an exception to
her exclusion of the Japanese female stereotype, is her work about my name. The
animation sequence explains the origin of her name and the desolate feelings her name
invokes in her mother, feelings arising from the memories of her mother’s deceased
sister. The visual portrayal of the young girls in the animation resembles that of a
42
54
Fig. 11. Kitagawa, Midori. about my name [Animation]. (2015)
55
Fig. 12. Satom, Saki. A Space of One’s Own [Mixed Media Installation]. (2011)
54
about my name [Animation]. (2015). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOgSOwj-Ors
http://www.43inverness-street.com/exhibitions/saki-satom/
43
Resonating to Kitagawa with regards to the suffocation of creative freedom felt by
Japanese women is Saki Satom’s A Space of One’s Own 2011. The work consists of a
video of a woman kicking, struggling, and turning within a stainless steel tub, while
played through an inaudible single video monitor. This use of medium creates the illusion
that the women is embedded inside the monitor itself, struggling to escape.56 Gregory
Burke, Director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, describes the work as, “[a] tension
between extremely tight physical space and the seemingly unlimited virtual space offered
by the digital screen.”57 A Space of One’s Own symbolizes that however limitless virtual
space might be, women are still restricted by cultural norms and traditions.
computer graphic careers and their methods of opposing the restrictions of embodied
Cyborg. Both of their methods and reactions respond to the predominantly heterosexual
male perspective of Japanese mainstream media and social values. Yet, these female
56
“Saki Satom.” Past Exhibitions. (2015). Retrieved from: http://www.43inverness-
street.com/exhibitions/saki-satom/
57
Burke, Gregory. “Inside Mediarena: contemporary art from Japan in context.” New
Zealand Journal of Media Studies Vol. 9:1: ‘Asian’ Media Arts Practice In/And Aotearoa
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Sch091JMS-t1-g1-t9.html
44
artists look towards science and technology as a means of producing “fresh sources of
and practice addressed to the social relations of science and technology, including
crucially the systems of myth and meanings structuring out imaginations. The
personal self.59
In contrast to the fantasy of the divine, ‘other-worldly’ young woman, the cyborg
symbolizes women’s creation of new personal and collective selves. While Japanese
society and (commercial) New Media art can be said to have perpetuated sexualized,
stereotypical portrayals of Japanese women, simply placing the blame on Japanese values
would be unfair and naïve. Many of these commercial characteristics in art and
mainstream media have been fashioned out of Japan’s desire to exploit markets in the
West. Murakami has even stated, that he crafted the Superflat image because the West
craved a “soy sauce” culture of Japan.60 He stated that this was “knowing your own
identity”: about recognizing the Western gaze at Japan and playing it for all its worth.”61
Therefore, the corporeal values exercised within New Media incorporate both Western
58
Haraway, 304.
59
Haraway, 202.
60
Favell, 43.
61
Favell, 51.
45
and Japanese perspectives, and the work of many female artists has been to examine and
In the growing of urbanization and information society within Japan, Mariko Mori aims
to utilize New Media art in an attempt to balance Western and Eastern aesthetic, social,
and philosophical values. Mori worked as a fashion model in London and New York. She
applied her knowledge of clothing, modeling, and the West in her successive self-images,
which were combined with digital collage, interactivity, and video. While she analyzed
Western culture, she was also forced to look upon her own. She has argued that this has
led her to appreciate her culture for what it is, but also to recognize the prevalent
embodied, naturalized Japanese identities. In turn, Mori utilizes New Media in order to
reshape stigmas and biases, while at the same time, to find appreciation for the ‘other’ in
Mori analyses modes of reproduction of ‘Western’ identity through her Japanese identity
and values, and in doing so she brings up issues of gender through the notion of the
Cyborg in Tea Ceremony III (1994). In Tea Ceremony III, Mori hands out tea to Japanese
46
62
Fig. 13. Mori, Mariko. Tea Ceremony III [Interactive Performance]. (1994)
Through the symbolic nature of the Japanese tradition of the tea ceremony, Mori attempts
to retell the story of Japanese woman in their cultural identity and amidst ‘Western-
based’ technological advancement. Mori’s costume of Cyborg and use of mixed media
regarding the use of new technologies and gender coincides with Haraway’s in her
Cyborg Manifesto:
Cyborg writing is about the power to survive, not on the basis of original
innocence, but on the basis of seizing the tools to mark the world that marked
62
Tea Ceremony III [Interactive Performance]. (1994). Retrieved from
http://museemagazine.com/art-2/features/interview-with-mariko-mori-space-is-the-place/
63
Ippolito, 128.
47
them as the other. The tools are often stories, retold stories, versions that reverse
stories, cyborg authors subvert the central myths of origin in Western culture.64
Barbara Lynne Rowland researched and discussed the tea ceremony’s role in the lives of
Japanese women. By concluding that most tea ceremony practitioners are wives and
mothers without a full-time profession, she infers a link between the practice of the tea
ceremony and the subordinate role of women in Japanese society. Furthermore, Rowland
Most of my informants are women who do not question the values of society in
which they live. They accept their society’s hierarchal order and the idea that
there is a proper place for everyone and everything. These women seek to fulfill
as best they can the roles assigned to them in Japanese society, while finding
As such, Haraway’s theory regarding male hegemony prevails in regards to the history of
64
Haraway, 311.
65
Kato, Etsuko. The Tea Ceremony and Woman’s Empowerment in Modern Japan:
48
Rowland also found that many of these women do not know much about the traditional
meanings of the tea ceremony and its long symbolic history within Japan. Calza describes
distance ourselves from our actions and allowing us to contemplate them from a
more rarefied dimension where we can grasp the general significance of an act
Based on Calza’s description, the act of Mori handing out tea symbolizes a break from
routine in practical terms (i.e. a break from the recipient’s work) as well as a break in the
routine of gender roles. Yet, more importantly, the significance of the act in Tea
Ceremony III may be an indication of the gendered values promoted in Japan at the turn
of the twentieth century. During this time of economic development, specific jobs were
set aside for women, such as ‘elevator girls’ or ‘mannequin girls,’ Successively,
“Japanese used the English word ‘girl’ (“gāru”) to describe women working in these new
service sector jobs and, as indicated by the word, they tended to be young and unmarried
and often wore uniforms in Western style as a sign of their, and their country’s,
66
Calza, 14.
67 Skov, Lise & Moeran, Brian. Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan. Routledge
(2013), p. 16.
49
historical use of gārus in promoting a ‘Western’ modernized image. Thus, Mori uses
New Media in order to connect tradition and past narratives, whether the tea ceremony or
Moreover, Calza has stated, “[t]he tea ceremony is the symbol, and at the same time, the
vehicle for the man,” or in this case, woman, “who rises above the frenetic struggle for
“evidence that he is approaching his ideal world, or conversely, regressing to the brute
state.”66 Mori is then attempting to rise above the frenetic cosmopolitan struggle by
placing herself outside of it as a Cyborg tea server. In doing so, she asks those she serves
machine or Cyborg (i.e. ‘elevator girl,’ virtual pornography, sex robots). She does so in
her ideal world as Cyborg, or regressing to Cyborg as her brute state. As I have
explained, women’s past role as Cyborg in Japanese media has often entailed violence,
and brutality. Yet, within the context of Haraway, the sexless Cyborg also has the
prospect of overcoming this violence and hegemony, thus approaching an ideal world.
As such, Mori’s use of the tea ceremony in her work refers to a) the women’s hierarchal
placement and past narratives within this tradition and economic history and b) her
ceremonial tradition and economic history. Mori thus uses New Media to comment on
women’s placement within male hegemony, to question embodied gender roles, and to
50
examine the future of corporeality. In examining corporeal values, she uses the haptic
nature of the tea ceremony and the costume of Cyborg to address the possible future of
woman as a technical-machine, and asks her audience to further question whether this is a
The Virtual Nature of Technology and New Media vs. The Female Body
as Flesh
In Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway claims that the opportunities given by technology and the
Cyborg derive from the fact that Cyborgs are genderless and sexless. Two years before
Haraway published these ideas, the tech-artist Naoko Tosa began her career by
collaborating with other artists and scientists to create highly technological works of art.
Ironically, by 1995, she created the genderless and sexless technological installation
Neuro Baby II. The installation was innovative in its blurring of the line between human
and machine.
Tosa’s artistic interests began in Surrealism and video. From 1985 to 1988, she worked in
Tokyo at the Gakken Computer Graphics Study Research Center during which she
learned about basic programming and computers. In 1988, she began lecturing on
Musashino Fine Arts University’s Image Department. At that time, she began to give her
Keio University in Tokyo. Tosa was particularly interested in creating work that could
51
stimulate unexpected sensory responses in viewers, and Surrealism provided her with the
inspiration to pursue “visualizing things our eyes cannot see.”68 After Tosa had acquired
both the technical skills and the conceptual depth needed for her art, she began
experimenting with performance art, computer graphics effects for the performances,
experimental film, photographic animation and video. After she exhibited her final video
work Gush! (1989), she decided to explore interactive media. By so doing, Tosa aimed to
materialize the ideas of mind and thus redefine the Cartesian-based ‘facts’ or ‘truths’
69
Fig. 14. Tosa, Naoko. Gush! [Mixed Media]. (1989)
68
Ippolito, 70.
http://www.naokotosa.com/1989/02/343/
52
Tosa aimed to create an interface uniting emotional output and sensory input and in order
This collaboration gave rise to Neuro Baby (1993). Tosa summarizes, “[t]he name Neuro
Baby implies the ‘birth’ of a virtual creature made possible by the recent developments of
architecture were due to the neural network’s relationship with computer processing
system. The lowest level of the established computer programming system previously
the human brain’s neurons, the established basic functions now became unpredictable and
Through sound input, various nodes filter and measure the length and size of the sound
waves. The nodes then assign variables to it and designate a location on the “emotional
mapping plane,”71 which has already been plotted with various possible outputs. Neuro
Baby can then respond visually with either a happy, angry, sad, or cheerful face, as well
as respond audibly by cooing, laughing, yawning, hiccupping, and crying. “If the baby is
ignored, it passes time by whistling, and responds with a cheerful ‘Hi’ once spoken to.”70
background and then exhibiting them on a black monitor, the monitors were then
70
Ippolito,
72.
71 Ippolito, 71.
53
72
Fig. 15. Tosa, Naoko. Neuro
Software]. (1993/2011)
73
Fig. 16. Tosa, Naoko. Neuro Baby
72
Neuro Baby [Emotional Recognition Software]. (1993/2011). Retrieved from
https://www.digitalartarchive.at/database/general/work/neuro-baby.html
https://www.digitalartarchive.at/database/general/work/neuro-baby.html
54
In Neuro Baby 2, the monitor was now set inside a plastic sculptural form of a woman’s
torso. Neuro Baby 2 also responded to sound output, but instead it “responded by
though suspended in amniotic fluid.”74 Ippolito states, “Tosa said that the form she chose
for Neuro Baby 2 is conceptual. It is almost adult like, but it is neither male nor female. It
is a symbol with a surrealistic quality.”74 She has stated that the conscious intention for
Neuro Baby 2 was to be the birth of a new life form, but she has acknowledged that
subconsciously it may represent her mixed feelings about abortion due to a Catholic
upbringing.74 Tosa’s Neuro Baby 2 poses corporeal questions concerning the nature of
Haraway’s rejection of the boundaries separating human from machine and human from
animal coincides with the ‘birth’ of a technological creature in Tosa’s art. Furthermore,
Haraway has stated that “[c]ommunications technologies and biotechnologies are the
crucial tools in recrafting our bodies,”75 and that “[l]iberation rests on the construction of
Through years of dissecting the notion of the consciousness and the maternal body, Tosa
through both biotechnology and communicative technology. In doing so, she created a
74
Ippolito, 73.
75
Haraway, 302.
76
Haraway, 291.
55
genderless and sexless life form and gave voice to universal feminist questions regarding
In conclusion, embodied gender roles are based on the corporeal values shaped by the
culture, physical or virtual environment, and power structure. Past forms of Japanese art
have exemplified and exercised male hegemony, both in artistic content and
technological, economic career prospects. This artistic, political, and economic male
hegemony has further shaped Japanese gendered corporeal values. In the case of
violence towards women and/or female characters becomes easier to enact, yet the
inherent genderlessness of New Media and the Cyborg provide Japanese women the
opportunity to redefine cultural corporeal values and embodied gender roles. In their New
Media art, Kitigawa, Motoyoshi, Mori, and Tosa have exploited both the potentialities
56
CHAPTER 3: NATURE AND THE ECOLOGY OF NEW MEDIA
As has been discussed, cultural values shape the thoughts, anxieties, and fears associated
with corporeality and embodiment. I have examined many of the anxieties explored by
Japanese New Media artists within the context of an ‘information society.’ Still, there is
one other approach within Japanese New Media art that provides relief from such
anxieties, particularly in regards to the distinction between the organic and the artificial:
Japanese cultural tradition sees the universe’s beginnings based “on a state of unity
between the material and the spiritual, making it almost impossible to distinguish
between them.”77 This close connection is rooted in Shintō religious beliefs, which pose
no great divide between ‘the natural’ and ‘the artificial.’ These views have influenced
another influential entity with its own autonomous meaning. This extension of Shintō
animism encompasses all material practices, “whether oriented towards ritual, towards
rejects Cartesian dualism in such a way that all material is thought to have a soul of its
own: thus there is no distinction between the human and the nonhuman or between the
77
Calza, 137.
78
Jensen & Blok, 97.
57
Within this Shintō-animistic worldview is a background notion of techno-scientific
ecological sense of the immanent vitality of human and non-human cohabitation.”5 This
human being technology, animals, plants, ecosystems, etc. Within this discussion of
are of equal importance: co-habitation takes place within shared space and a shared
environment.
influenced some New Media artists, primarily in the field of evolutionary computation, a
New Media art and examine the way in which artworks use this form of programming to
animistic lens. Then, I will explain the prevalence and significance of techno-scientific
science and technology. “This research becomes even more important as the world
more in the organic world.”79 Japan’s approach towards technology can provide a
79
Wilson, Steven. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. MIT
58
perspective that has the potential to ease anxieties associated with the body’s place in a
algorithms, which are defined as adaptive heuristic searches “based on the evolutionary
ideas of natural selection and genetics. As such, they represent an intelligent exploitation
of random search.”80 The artificial computer is looked upon as possessing the inherent
life. It comes as no surprise Japanese New Media artists make use of genetic algorithms
a small plant. This aspect – geometry within naturalism – is one of the keys to
discovering and interpreting avant-garde art in Japan, and the roots that bind it
80
Genetic Algorithms. Retrieved from:
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_96/journal/vol1/hmw/article1.html#introduction
59
(and will continue to do so to the cultural and aesthetic values of the country’s
won tradition.”81
Yoishiro Kawaguchi, a computer graphics artist, does in fact continue to do so. It was the
algorithms found within nature that first inspired him and, furthering Favell’s claim,
evolution of nature, and that his way of seeing the relationships of things in nature
an interconnected whole.82
In turn, through the inspiration of geometry in nature, evolution, and Asian philosophy
Kawaguchi formed his own growth algorithm and his own organic universes.83 In using
this approach, Kawaguchi comprised research and presented it within a collection entitled
“The Growth Model” at SIGGRAPH ’82. During this year, 1982, he also attended a
Osaka University’s Faculty of Engineering. Along with his group engineers at Osaka
sixteen-bit microprocessors and custom developed software for parallel processing,” and
81
Favell, 111.
82
Ippolito, 56.
83
Ippolito, 53-54.
60
Meta-ball, “a modeling and ray-tracing software based on curved surface algorithms”84
used with LINKS-1. Kawaguchi and Omura began to collaborate after they met in ’82
and, through combining “The Growth Model” and Meta-ball, the software required to
This work consists of imaginary planetary surfaces pulsating with life, while complex
structures evolve out of bubbling masses.85 Kawaguchi explains the method behind this
creation:
[I] utilize some formative principle in order to create an ambiguous direction for
the organism to take to develop its own formation. These methods along a time-
Elements of the film, such as an enormous foetus floating in space, parodied Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet, Kawaguchi chose to show the foetus “from the beginning of
mitosis, a single computer generated egg dividing one cell at a time to become a fetus
with arms, legs, and a beating heart.”85 Including these additional steps of corporeal
evolution symbolizes analogies between human and nonhuman life forms, specifically
expressing “the idea that all things near and far are subject to principles of natural
84
Ippolito, 51.
85
Ippolito, 52.
61
images, or within the algorithms space, we can find a conceptual exploration of the
characteristics of the computer’s ability to simulate natural evolution and change through
Maturana and Francisco Varela have coined “to similarly describe cells as self-generating
Galaxy.
In using his growth algorithms and 3-D animation, Kawaguchi created another evolution-
inspired work entitled Mutation (1992). Mutation consists of organic and liquid-like
forms, which “visualize the fluidity of changing, artificial, biomorphic shapes and
creatures that exist at the interstices of microbiology and computer code.”87 As such,
applies to the computer algorithm, such as the organic randomness and repetition inherent
in growth algorithms.
86
Ippolito, 121.
http://enculturation.net/3_1/kafala/
62
88
Fig. 17. Kawaguchi, Yoichiro. Mutation [Animation]. (1992)
However, rather than being based solely on the nature of the human brain, Kawaguchi
adheres to that which every animal, plant, body part, cell, etc. is subject to: the over-
the rigid distinctions demarcating “human” from “machine.” In turn, Kawaguchi’s use of
computer algorithms and software make comparisons between the inherent randomness,
fluidity, and evolutionary character of cells and other living beings and the computer
processing system. By perceiving the distinction between the artificial and the organic
flexibly, similarities between the two can be found and developed. Through this
approach, the nature of corporeality goes through the process of redefinition and the
88
Mutation [Animation]. (1992). Retrieved from http://enculturation.net/3_1/kafala/
63
Cartesian-based question of man vs. machine resurfaces: what is the difference between
man and machine if they both have similarly organic and evolutionary characteristics?
Both Kawaguchi’s genetic algorithm approach and the Surrealist movement inspired
computer graphics artist Ryoichiro Debuchi. These inspirations were based on his interest
provided the ideal way of bringing forth the inherent gunzensei within in nature,
considering they both depend on the intelligent exploitation of randomness. Like Tosa,
Debuchi is inspired by Surrealism, randomness in nature, and the desire to create a virtual
terms:
Debuchi’s work has the element of chance (randomness). There are battles with
things attacking one another, bullets fly and some things pursue them and some
flee from them. That sort of drive is, of course, similar to the randomness of
Kawaguchi’s algorithm. The images are not created by the artist himself, but
One example of this style of work produced by Debuchi is VioMechaWars. The one-
minute film consists of fanciful creatures interacting with one another in destructive and
89
Ippolito, 93.
90
Ippolito, 87.
64
violent ways. This interaction was created by Debuchi programming a “will” in each of
the characters through a Dynamic Environment Particle System. This system enabled
Debuchi to program in each the individual characters to hunt other objects and assault
them. “His means of expression through the algorithm gave his creatures a will to attack
92
Fig. 18. Debuchi, Ryoichiro. VioMechaWars [Animation]. (1989)
91
Ippolito, 95.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtF49FI3RIQ
65
In VioMechaWars, sequential artificial intelligence and groups in motion, such as a flock
of birds, inspired Debuchi. He saw machines as the connection between human beings
and nature, and regarded the random character of the computer as able to access nature’s
…the super powers that are hidden behind nature essentially, and that are above
is successful in pulling out natural power than can make objects float in the air,
and it uses this power. Electricity is also the power essentially inherent in
nature.93
explains, “when I began research on shells, however, I came to understand the principles
that are part of the rules hidden within forms of the natural world.”94 The two accounts
are important for the development of New Media philosophy. In New Philosophy for New
Media, Mark Hansan argues that the digital is the epitome of Henri Bergson’s account of
arguing that there is “no such thing as a pure, punctual visuality,” and “if there was such
93
Ippolito, 99.
94
Ippolito, 50,
95
Hansan, Mark B. N. New Philosophy for New Media. The MIT Press (2004).
66
a thing, it would be available only as a nonhuman form of perception.”96 Here, we see
New Media providing the pure visuality on the ‘hidden’ forms or power of nature. Or as
Patti Smith says, “nature has patterns even if they seem random,”97 and New Media
allows us to find those patterns purely and punctually. The computer and nonhuman
natural objects thus provide a ‘pure’ perspective on the ‘hidden’ forms or powers of the
natural universe. Another New Media artist, Masaki Fujihata, similarly describes the
computer as allowing us to “see things that were not visible to the naked eye,” and deems
In response to Kawaguchi’s work, Fujihata has claimed, “it was natural to create organic
invertebrate-like objects in a computer’s 3-D space, because there is no gravity, and this
objects directly from computer data in Forbidden Fruits. Fujihata entitled his work
96
Hansan, 26.
97 q on cbc. (2015, October 15). Patti Smith Says “M Train” Is The Roadmap To Her
98
Ippolito, 65.
99
Ippolito, 62-3.
67
Forbidden Fruits due to the fact that these “new forms were once ‘forbidden’ from being
removed from the computer’s virtual space due to limitations of earlier technology. They
were previously untouchable forms, only existing within the intangible computer
environment.”99 The choice of the word ‘fruit’ stems from the Japanese folk tale Saiyuki,
in which Fujihata compared his “voyage into the computer” to the journey of Priest
Sanzo who came upon a baby fruit tree.100 He further describes the computer as “the
garden of mathematics.”101
102
Fig. 19. Fujihata, Masaki. Forbidden Fruits [Sculpture]. (1990)
100
Ippolito, 64.
101
Ippolito, 60.
http://www.ntticc.or.jp/Archive/2005/PossibleFutures/Works/
68
In Forbidden Fruits, there is a surface with a collection of photosensitive liquid resin that
the computer directs laser beams upon from the data it receives. The resin then hardens
and rises to form a three-dimensional object. The inspiration of Kawaguchi derives from
the notion that the Forbidden Fruits “were the abstract products of a weightless
environment,” appearing to “defy gravity,” and “had the look and feel of biological
Haraway’s rejection of the boundaries separating human from machine and human from
animal and Tosa’s creation of a virtual creature resonate in Forbidden Fruits. Fujihata
created organic life forms from artificial computer systems for us physically to co-habit
with in order to “give birth to a new reality.”98 More specifically, he explicitly parodied
In this context, if the computer algorithm can bring forth the organic growth of virtual life
forms, and technology can then enable the physical “birth” of those life forms, what
becomes of the Cartesian-based distinction between man and machine? Fujihata and
Kawaguchi exemplify the lowering of the threshold of this distinction and, in doing so,
learn to co-habit harmoniously and provide relief to fears and anxieties associated with
the thought of ‘man as machine.’ This egalitarian, harmonious approach towards co-
69
Yasushi Matoba and Hiroshi Matoba materialize their own digital organism in order to
it regrettable that we have either a negative relationship with insects, other than viewing
these nonhuman beings, the two brothers created an installation entitled Micro Friendship
(1999).
stage with small insects upon the stage, a table, a flat display monitor, and a rod fixed
between the table and the monitor. “Movements on the large rod are mechanically
converted into micro-sized movement on the small rod.”103 The size of the large rod is
scaled to be the same as the movements of the insect projected on the display screen. This
allows the participant to be immersed within the virtual environment visually and
haptically as an insect. There is also a joystick available which allows the participant to
move the insect around the virtual world, creating the opportunity to meet other insects
Hansan discusses the past phenomenological theories and empirical research done in
terms of embodiment and perception. He explains that based on these past critical
103
Micro Friendship: Interactive Installation. Siggraph: 2000 Art Gallery. Retrieved
from: https://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S00/interactive/thumbnail14.html
70
the capacity of the “embodied mind” to adapt quickly to the new virtual realities
demonstrates the plasticity of the nervous system and the operative role of bodily
In terms of the haptic element of virtual reality as opposed to the immobile nature of
perceptual processes and the experience of visual images: putting the body to
work (even in quite minimal ways) has the effect of conferring reality of an
Applying this theory to Micro Friendship, the physical movements enable the viewer to
confer reality of the experience as an insect. Furthermore, the scaling of the rods to the
image on the screen develops this in terms of realistic affective transposition of human-
104
Hansan, 39.
105
Hansan, 37.
71
Descartes regarded animals and machines the same and Micro Friendship expands on this
similarity. However, this similarity does not necessarily imply that both are soulless but
rather, as the work was done through a Shintō-animistic lens it implies the opposite.
In turn, Micro Friendship exemplifies how the Japanese perspective on the nonhuman
influences their relationship with New Media and vice versa: the non-human
the human. Accordingly, the Matoba Brother’s New Media approach furthers techno-
Techno-Scientific Universalism
and evolutionary nature of the computer and other nonhuman forms. Kawaguchi explains
The living organism, which is soft and malleable, continues to grow while linking
Hence, sensitivity to the environment is a core requisite for the inherent organic and
72
Kawaguchi’s statement, the environment is also inherently organic and evolutionary. So
evolutionary growth are explored through the organic movement of an oily, metallic
liquid. Ippolito describes the formations of Metropolis as being like “organic buildings in
a dark, but futuristic city.”82 The city is envisaged as a living being that goes through
processes of evolution, growth, and decay, suggesting that the metropolitan and
industrialized city is just as much a part of nature as human beings, hence a Shintō-
co-habiting naturally and harmoniously within the industrialized metropolis, and as such
environments into computer-based codes that are presented through various forms
106
Ascott, Roy. Art, Technology, Consciousness. Intellect Books (2000), p. 40.
73
As explained with Micro Friendship, this haptic ‘palpable experience’ is what enables
107
Fig. 20. Kawaguchi, Yoichiro. Artificial Life Metropolis: Cell [Animation]. (1993)
integrating New Media with architecture. In the piece Corpora in Si(gh)te (2007-2008),
weather and environmental conditions are detected by sensors. The data is then, “utilized
to create a virtual architectural construction that is computer generated and changes as the
data is processed. In this way, the architectural construct acts like a living breathing
107
Artificial Life Metropolis: Cell [Animation]. (1993). Retrieved from
http://archive.aec.at/prix/#28981
74
organism, growing up and out, and contracting over time.”108 Thus, dNA approaches
architecture, nature, and technology similarly to Kawaguchi: each has organic and
artificial qualities and should be viewed in such a way that the embodiment of techno-
regarding technology being the connection between humans and nature: the technology
of the data sensors works as a communicator between the “mood” of the weather and
human-appreciated aestheticism.
109
Fig. 21. doubleNegatives Architecture. Corpora in Si(gh)te [Media Architecture Installation]. (2007)
108
Ippolito, 142.
http://materializing.org/13_dna/
75
The similarities of Kawaguchi and Debuchi to Tosa imply the interconnectivity of
exploited and examined through technology we may be able to discover nature’s hidden
or unknown truths. The discovery of these truths may bring forth a paradigm shift to
corporeal values and collective notions regarding embodiment. If done with a techno-
76
CONCLUSION
The foregoing discussion has drawn upon images of Japan’s media-based culture and has
examined many of the anxieties associated with the country’s rapid technological
advancement in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I have examined ways in which
Japanese New Media artists have expressed concerns about such developments, but have
also shown how technology has been used in art as a means of offering alternative and
optimistic views of embodiment and the relation of humans to the natural world.
Having regard to the traditions of Shintō belief, I have explored the ways in which
within an industrialized and virtual realm. This has entailed an examination of works that
critique embodied nationalist and gender roles and that blur distinctions between the
organic and the artificial. Throughout this discussion, I have explained how notions of
embodiment connect these topics and how spatiality, the environment, and social culture
the environment as ‘information society,’ primarily within Tokyo, and in terms of the
haptic element of New Media have been important. The combination of Japan’s religious,
scientific, and economic history and New Media’s inherent characteristics offer a fresh
perspective on the power of technology. The artworks I have discussed explore a creative
space between “nature” and “culture”, “human” and “artificial” in ways that both
illuminate and provide relief from fears attaching to the impact of technology on society.
77
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