From Space to Environment: The Origins of Kankyō and the Emergence of Intermedia Art in Japan

In November of 1966, thirty-eight multidisciplinary artists in Tokyo gathered under the group name of Environment Society (Enbairamento no Kai) to hold From Space to Environment (Kūkan kara kankyō e), a two-part exhibition and event program that would have considerable repercussions in the areas of architecture, design, visual art, and music in Japan. While From Space to Environment is commonly mentioned as a benchmark in the history of post-1945 Japanese art, its actual contents and impact have rarely been examined. Because of the overlap of participants between this exhibition and the 1970 Japan World Exposition in Osaka (hereafter Expo '70), From Space to Environment has often been reduced to the mere starting point of a linear development toward the technological spectacles which dominated Expo '70. In fact, the notion of kankyō (environment) put forth by the Environment Society was later conflated with technology and kankyō geijutsu (environment art) and took on curiously technological connotations in Japan. In the process, intermedia art became synonymous with technological art, adding to the existing confusion of terms. Through the close examination of From Space to Environment in its contents and origins, this essay illuminates the emergence of intermedia art in Japan while sorting out the confusion that has obscured its reception.