Japanese spell in Electronic Art

May 16, 2011

by Mauro Arrighi (Author), Prof Christa Sommerer Ph.D (Editor), Dorothée King (Editor)

From the Gutai group’s performances to the latest experiences in Interactive Art: this book sheds light on the origins of present-day aesthetic offshoots of Japan.

There is a relationship between Shinto, the indigenous spirituality of the Japanese people, and present day Japanese contemporary art. This paper is alive with sympathetic insight into Electronic Art with a particular focus on Hybrid Art and Device Art made in Japan.

The essay aims to test the hypothesis that religion influenced an avant-garde, to call into question if a form of belief is embedded in technology, and ultimately to describe how tradition and innovation are merging in contemporary Japan.

About the author:

Between 2001 and 2007, Mauro Arrighi was a Lecturer of Digital Art and Electronic Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, Italy. He has been featured, among other venues, at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria; the International Biennales of Art and Architecture in Venice, Italy; the Victory Media Network in Dallas, United States; the Pantaloon Art Gallery in Osaka, Japan; the New Media Fest in Cologne, Germany; the Pantheon Gallery in Nicosia, Cyprus; the Kurye Video Org in Istanbul, Turkey; the Video and New Media Art Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and the Netherlands Media Art Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Since 2010, Arrighi has been living in Japan where he is pursuing his academic and artistic career as a new-media artist, lecturer, and independent-curator.

To view a full account of his artistic production and academic research: visit his personal website at new-media-art-japan.jp

Summary by chapters

INTRODUCTION

In the introduction chapter, the author presented the central statement that is only because of Shinto, device art and hybrid art, in the forms that we experience from modern Japanese new media artists, came into existence. His theoretical investigation aims to outline the influence of ancient Shinto practices on the arts in Japan throughout the centuries, up to the Gutai Group in the 1950s, focusing then on contemporary artistic expressions such as device art and hybrid art.

The discussion begins with the definition of the terms “device art” and “hybrid art”, which are the two main art genres that are discussed in this thesis. Device art is a form of media art that groups together art, technology, design, entertainment, and popular culture. Device art generally possesses a positive attitude toward technology, has a playful nature, and is achieved with a cross-field and cross-disciplinary approach. Hybrid art is a new category for media art formulated at Prix Ars Electronica by its jury in 2007. The main characteristic is that the works which belong to this category cannot be identified as interactive tout court nor are they suitable for other categories such as net art, digital music, and computer animation, although these works can encompass all those categories.”

It then present a summary of some distinctive aspects of Shinto, the earliest form of religion known in Japan: Shinto is a polytheistic and animistic belief; natural forces, as well as natural manifestation such as waterfalls, the moon and the sun, mountains and rocks, are worshipped as deities, called “kami”; natural processes and abstract entities, such as fertility and the seasons’ cycle, are regarded as “kami”; notable figures, as well as ancestors, are worshipped as spirits, “kami”.

The author also commented that Shinto practices have been evolving through time, influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, for instance; nonetheless, the shift in Shinto is only apparent: the basic natural forces that are worshipped nowadays are still the same since the foundation of the belief.

 

CHAPTER 1 SHINTO

In this chapter, the author begins outlining the two prominent characteristics of Shinto, polytheistic and the presence of “kami”, which are influential in explaining the background of the contemporary productions of Japanese new media artists.

The author then goes on to present the relationship between Shinto and nature. The case study on Japanese garden is also provided to demonstrate that nature is held in respect for both high intellectual purpose and everyday practical needs. Further on, the chapter provides a preview of the different opinion the west and the east have towards nature: western world’s perception of Genesis has determined that man should strive to shape nature and make it serve us; while the Japanese believe that we were born from nature thus it’s impossible to distinguish us from it.

In the next part, the author states that the relationship between human beings and spirits has never been an abstraction for Shinto believers; instead, it has been a way to address everyday practical and material issues. Moreover, Shinto believers believe that magical properties are infused into objects, and such attitude is powerfully expressed in the creative fields.

Afterwards, a series of Japanese words that are considered having magical powers are explained, such as Tama and Renga, which reflected how the Japanese Shinto believe would induce art creation that is informed by the literal elements.

At the end of the chapter, the author interviewed two Shinto priests in order to further understand the way Shinto is practiced nowadays and the way it is related to technology. Florian Wiltschko, one of the priests, explained how nature is perceived as the dwelling of spirits; and he gave an account about how the system of rituals seen nowadays in the form of refined and elegant ceremonies has a long heritage predating the domestic urban scenario rooted in the rural culture of the countryside. N.T in the interview claims that he reckons Shinto can be seen as an operative system which is two thousand and five hundred years old and that on the top other beliefs run as applications.

 

CHAPTER 2 BASIC CONCEPTS OF TRADITION AND THE AVANT-GARDE

In this chapter, the author goes on to examine how tradition and avant-garde are being perceived differently in Japan and in the western countries. By referring to the studies of Giangiorgio Pasqualotto, Italian Philosopher, the author states that often in the west, tradition is perceived as a dimension that stands for what is old and outdated, while avant-garde represents novelty and originality. Moreover, in a Western context, the word “repetition” connotes a negative meaning. However, in Japanese aesthetics, repetition is not a problem for giving meaning to ritual, according to Yohji Yamamoto, the influential Japanese master fashion designer.

Thus the author believes that in the East, human handiwork has been considered as perfect artwork, only when innovation and repetition, tradition and experimentation have been interlaced and joined without lack of balance. However, because of how “originality,” “creativity,” and “ingenuity” are being perceived in the west, and the degree of freedom that the Japanese authors and artist enjoys, the way traditional elements are re-interpreted and re-used inside the new works in Japan give rise to accusations, concerning copyright issues.

Afterwards, the author adds that after WWII Japanese artists took a position against modernism while embracing Zen Buddhism, giving birth to the Gutai movement. By reviewing several exhibitions of the group and evaluating the technique and approach, the author analyzes the relationship between Gutai and the nature, and is informed that the structure of the Gutai exhibitions is deeply rooted in the Japanese matsuri, which is Shinto purification festivals. Additionally, the author acclaims that Gutai artists, the avant-garde of contemporary Japanese art, were eager to seem cynical, non-serious; they embraced both dramatic and funny ways of expressing their ideas and feelings. Playfulness in device art may have originated from the same attitude that influenced the Gutai Group so far.

 

CHAPTER 3 AN ACCOUNT ON DIFFUSE AESTHETIC

In order to grasp the peculiar attitude of Japanese people toward art production and art consumption, the author in this chapter discusses the unique aesthetics that Japanese culture holds

The author articulates that scholars from both cultures point out that historically both western and eastern art systems have developed following two different paths. In the west, there exists the dualistic thoughts between nature and culture, feelings and intellect, object and subject, and moreover the bipolar couples such as inside/outside, signifier and significant, as in visual art known as form (shape, appearance) and content, while in the East, such interplay doesn’t exist, or at least not so dramatically discussed academically.

The author goes on to introduce two traditional Japanese aesthetic ideals: “iki”, which is an expression of being simplicity, sophistication, spontaneity, and originality; and “miabi”, a more refined and aristocratic form of iki that proposes a deeper practice of detachment from the straightforward realisation of desire. Further on, the author writes that in Japan the aesthetic desire is satisfied by everyday phenomena, and that is to say the process of appreciation weights more than the creative process. Thus it is believed that a true work of art, from a Japanese point of view, should not need to be explained by words.

In the next part, the author makes a point about art no longer reserves a social or intellectual value in present-day Japan since the 90s, like in many “developed” societies that art seems to have been neatly institutionalized and to have lost the transgressive, critical power it used to have. In the end, that author shares a few predictions made by various scholars and artists, both utopian ones and positive ones, on how new media art will evolve in Japan.

 

CHAPTER 4 THE SUBJECT IN ART REPRESENTATION, AUTHORSHIP, AND AUDIENCE

In this chapter, the author starts by talking about the different ways western and eastern perspective treat subjects in art, providing the example of ukiyo-e being seen as an entertaining tool in Japan for very long and was first exhibited as an art form in the U.S..

The author also declares that it can be considered a fact that, from a Japanese point of view, human beings, animals, machines all deserve the same attention and sentimental attachment because they share the very same “nature.”

The author goes on to examine electronic art, stresses that unlike the western aesthetic branch, who cannot admit an artwork that modifies itself under the gaze of the viewer as “high art”, electronic art has a metamorphic attitude that are “sensible” to touch of human beings, or could be activated to change.

Subsequently, the author presents the idea that it is likely for the Japanese to become successful in electronic art. Because on one hand, Japanese culture tradition puts less importance on the personal right, allowing more freedom for collaboration. Japanese view self differently as subjectivity is seen as a form of collaborative dependency on others. Thus there’s an absence of the concept of privacy, which word doesn’t exist in the traditional Japanese language. On the other hand, it is necessary to take into consideration the nature of these electronic art projects often requests collaboration of various members.

At the end of the chapter, the author used several examples to illustrate how Japan, as opposed to the western cultures, treats robot friendlier. He argues that in the west if the artificial life would become more valuable and respectable as a higher form of “thing-ness”, that is because its development to rise to a more human-like behavior. However in Japan, artificial life is valued because the underlying thought (or feeling) is that an energy (tama) is present ab ovo in all the essences; in another word, due to the Shinto belief as already mentioned: natural elements (earth, fire, air, water) present in technological products grants them reverence or at least respect.

 

CHAPTER 5 ART, NON-ART, AND ANTI-ART.

In the beginning of the chapter, the author stated avant-garde in Japan was finished with the Anti-Art movement, which centered in and around 1958 to 1963. Anti-art, as a form of art that challenges the very nature of art, marks the ending of Modern as a historical paradigm. It is also addressed by western observers as the marking of the turning point of contemporary Japanese authors’ “political disengagement”.

The chapter goes on to present that in the west, a part of everyday life includes art, but the whole of everyday life is not art. Art is an attempt to differentiate a part of everyday life in order to make it more than everyday life. Japan, however, has a rather blurry distinction between art and everyday aesthetics. Especially when iki was practiced, the distinction between “art” and “everyday aesthetic” as everydayness was not present, thus in pre-modern Japan there was no distinction between “art in general” and “fine art” in a western sense.

The author goes on to explain the process that leads from objects to ideas is common both to eastern and western cultures, and this dematerialization of art is induced by the emergence of art forms like conceptual art in the west, and “Ma”, “space” in Japanese.

The author also mentions that experiencing is the main subject of the artistic experience, while since the political disengagement in the 70s, political topics are not encouraged to be touched in Japanese art institution, unlike in their western counterparts. Thus a framed work of art cannot be perceived in a positive way or, at least, cannot be perceived in the same way a western audience would perceive it. Moreover, the importance of the creative act relies on in the overall atmosphere that the author is able to enact. Talking about aesthetic in contemporary Japanese art means dealing with the procedures by which the psychophysical state of the audience can be stimulated, especially in the context of electronic art.

 

CHAPTER 6 JAPANNESS, NIHONJINRON, AND PLAYFULNESS

In this chapter, the author talks about the various factors that set Japan, Japanese people, and Japanese contemporary art apart from their western counterparts.

First of all, the author agrees with Machiko Kusahara, a renown Japanese new media art scholar, that the two main points that establish “Japanness” are: the artwork is playful instead of being dramatic (as it is for artists like Seiko Mikami and Toshio Iwai among others); there is no edge between art, entertainment, and applied arts. Moreover, the author believes that the distinction between so-called “High Art” and “Low Art,” which has its preeminence in the intellectual discourse between western scholars, has less and less value in Japanese culture, if not any value at all. The author provides the example of the trans-disciplinal and multi-contextual approach of Toshio Iwai, Nobumichi Tosa, and Kazuhiko Hachiya, which is well regarded by Japanese intellectuals while Europeans curators and art critics look at them suspiciously. Again with regard to playfulness: these artists can freely create video games, toys, and gadgets as well as being exhibited in an art gallery in Japan. For example, digital pets are more popular and welcomed in Japan.

In the next part, the author presents that as a matter of fact the Japanese artists, as well as the entire population, perceive technology as a positive factor. Industrial revolution came only after 1871 and was better developed, not causing as much trouble as in Europe.

Another peculiar aspect of Japanese culture is the way in which the figure of the robot is addressed. For a Japanese user, entities are animated by a soul, better to say a spirit: the kami; thus these robotic devices are regarded not as inanimate or as the machine.

Additionally, the author presents a loose fact that generally speaking, contemporary Japanese artists, especially the ones involved in electronic art, are not as engaged in social and political issues as their western counterparts. However, due to time restraint, it remains an issue that demands deeper research.

 

CHAPTER 7 SOULS ON STAGE AND SOULS IN BOXES

In the beginning, the author defines electronic art in Japan, which comprises of a larger field than in the west, that is art and science or art and technology with virtual reality between science and art. The performative actions are referred to as “souls on stage” and device art as “souls in boxes.”

The author goes on to argue that some performances done by present-day Japanese artists involved in electronic art have traits common with ancient rituals, as exemplified by works of Haco, Stereo Bugscrope, revealing during her performances the voice that is hidden in the technological objects as manifestation of the kami’s presence, as well as works of AEO that present similarities with the procedures of fire rituals as well as with other peculiar activities enacted during religious festivals that take place in Japan.

Afterwards, the author explained the detailed process of Matsuri, a festival during which kami (Shinto deity) is carried through the town. The many elements in the ritual possession show the affiliation of Gutai Group performances with Shinto rituals.

At the end of the chapter, the author analyzed the works of two prominent Japanese electronic artists, Michihito Mizutani and Hideaki Ogawa in case studies alongside interviews. It is worth mentioning that when being asked if there is an interrelation between Shinto and the creative production in general, Hideaki Ogawa answers that normally he doesn’t feel anything when creating artwork; however, when he explains his ideas, he notices that he is indeed inspired by it.

 

CONCLUSION

In the conclusion, the author announces that Shinto is a shaping vector of all the aspects of Japanese life. The aim of the research was to answer the following question: “Are device art and hybrid art (done by Japanese artists) a contemporary blossom of ancient Shinto belief?” From the data the authored gained, the answer is affirmative. Some of its modus operandi can be spotted in performance arts more easily than in other areas, but still, its heritage works behind the scenes as an unconscious engine; an engine that propels not solely creative offspring but moves Japanese society as a whole.

The author also presents a brief summary of some of the previously mentioned topics, bringing them into a wider context. Starting with the religious issue, the author shows that some of the contemporary Japanese artists have religious influences in the way they refer to Shinto. Shinto also has influenced the aesthetic of both European and Japanese intellectuals from the past until now. As a consequence of Shinto procedures into the world of aesthetic, a form of “diffuse aesthetic” permeates Japan. Due to the way in which technology is perceived, the unique character of Japanese aesthetic has descended into electronic art. Furthermore, the artist admits that regarding positioning Japan as a culture operating within modern or post-modern tendencies the answer is not clear: on both the western and eastern side the debate between defining Japan on one position or on the other is still lively.

The author points out, that quite importantly, from a Japanese perspective, an author can call the kami to be present in his/her works or use his/her creativity to dialogue with the kami. An artwork could be the dwelling of a kami just as a mountain is perceived as such. The artists mentioned in the book have been influenced by ancient traditions, in some cases directly by Shinto, and from various extents by the aesthetic ideal iki; this can be addressed as the main reason why Japanese artists involved in electronic art look so unique to a westerner’s eye.