Abstract n.a.

• Itsuo Sakane [1930 – 2024], Japan
  From meigh-andrews.com:
  “As far as I know, the person who used the Sony pack was Nam June Paik and at that time he already left Japan. He studied in Japan, in Tokyo University, in the same class as me, but I didn’t know him, because I was two years older than him. I was sick for two years and couldn’t go to school. That was the reason why I stayed for two years. But anyway I knew of his activities since 1968 or 1969, because I was a journalist. At that time I was a science writer. I studied architecture at university, but for the first few years I stayed as part of the local office for training. Three years later in 1960, I came back to the Tokyo office and covered the World Design Conference in 1960. At that time so many great designers, artists like Charles Eames and many persons from Japan, Hungary and many other famous artists and architects came over. I covered all three years about design. Because in Japan, the architecture was in the Department of Engineering at Tokyo University. I was also invited in 1964 to the Scientific Department. I covered the science department and I was the science writer for 10 years from 1965 to 1975. I had to cover the new movement of Art and Technology that appeared from the end of the 50’s and the beginning of the 60’s. I covered those activities like E.A.T. and many other artists. And in 1967, I had a chance to visit the Montreal Expo. So I followed that. I came back at the time before Expo 1970 in Osaka. In Japan there were some activities in the Art and Technology movement. In 1969, there were two big exhibitions in Tokyo. One was the Electro Magical exhibition in the Sony building. There were many artists working not only in video, but also making computer artworks. That same year, 1969, there was another big show called Crosstalk Intermedia. That was one year before the 1970 Expo. So many like John Cage, and other famous artists and musicians came. Both of these were in Tokyo. And then in 1970, the Osaka Expo started. So before the Expo in 1970 I started a weekly column about the Expo in the newspaper which covered topics on the relationship between art and science. (…) Then in the middle of 1970, of course I covered the Expo 1970, including the US pavilion. (…) There was a big Art and Technology show, which was organized by the E.A.T. (Experiments in Art & Technology) I covered that. AI stayed one year at Harvard University, on a journalist fellowship. (Itsuo Sakane was Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, 1970-1971.) I also visited the MIT, CAVS (Center for Advanced Visual Studies), and met many artists from the Art and Technology movement. After coming back, in the summer of 1971, I was appointed to a sort of desk position on the newspaper (Asahi Shimbun). In 1975, I got the chance to move to the culture page and the home section page. I [also] organized a series of travelling exhibitions. (…) All together I was so busy until 1984. Then after that I worked more in the field between art and technology. So I covered computers, and I had many chances to organize Science Exhibitions like Art and Illusion and also Light Art. Also I had the chance to organize an interactive art exhibition because MIT’s media person, Nicholas Negroponte, compared it to the normal traditional art, the audience should participate in the art itself.”
  https://www.meigh-andrews.com/writings/interviews/interview-with-itsuo-sakane