This is the abstract of the article (the link to the abstract on the MIT Press webpage).
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A Documentation of Sound Art in Japan
Sound Garden (1987–1994)
and the Sound Art Exhibitions of 1980s Japan
KAtSuShi NAKAgAwA and tomotAro KANeKo
This article examines the exhibition series Sound Garden (1987–1994) as a first step toward analyzing the sound-based artwork exhibitions of late-1980s Japan. The article begins with an outline of the series and the types of artworks exhibited therein, followed by an examination
of the context in which Sound Garden was created by considering prototypes that predate the exhibition series. Finally, the authors discuss related exhibitions and highlight the educational context that inspired these presentations.
How and when did the exhibition of sound-based artworks begin in Japan? In the West, works of this genre were first created in the 1950s, with the movement continuing through the 1960s and 1970s before enjoying rapid expansion dur- ing the 1980s [1,2]. However, the developmental history of this genre in Japan remains largely unclear [3]. Various types of avant-garde art and music were imported into the coun- try in the period immediately following World War II, and Cagean experimental music and sound-based artworks began to appear after 1960. Creators of the latter include Group Ongaku (Takehisa Kosugi and Yasunao Tone), from the 1960s; the Taj Mahal Travelers, founded by Kosugi, from the 1970s; Ryoji Ikeda of Dumb Type, from the 1990s; and others—but no comprehensive history of this genre in Japan currently exists. In this article, we aim to fill this gap by ex- amining the exhibition series Sound Garden (SG), which was held on six occasions between 1987 and 1994 at the Striped House Museum of Art. The SG series was neither the first nor the largest sound art exhibition in Japan; however, it is notable for its continuity, for the large amount of archival ma- terial available from it and for the exceptionally large number of artists who participated in it.