Fujiko Nakaya is one of Japan’s most important contemporary artists. Participating in the 1960s performances of the New York-based collective Experiments in Arts and Technology (E.A.T.), she became internationally renowned for her immersive fog artworks. First created for the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka they defy traditional conventions of sculpture by generating temporary, atmospheric transformations that physically engage with the public. Driven by early ecological concerns, Nakaya’s ground-breaking work is based purely on water and air—elements that have particular significance in light of the climate crisis. From the artist’s early paintings to her fog sculptures, single-channel videos, installations and documentation that reveal Nakaya’s cultural and social references, this in-depth survey offers a comprehensive overview of the distinguished artist’s work.

"Sounding New Media" examines the long-neglected role of sound and audio in the development of new media theory and practice, including new technologies and performance art events, with particular emphasis on sound, embodiment, art, and technological interactions. Frances Dyson takes an historical approach, focusing on technologies that became available in the mid-twentieth century-electronics, imaging, and digital and computer processing-and analyzing the work of such artists as John Cage, Edgard Varese, Antonin Artaud, and Char Davies. She utilizes sound's intangibility to study ideas about embodiment (or its lack) in art and technology as well as fears about technology and the so-called "post-human." Dyson argues that the concept of "immersion" has become a path leading away from aesthetic questions about meaning and toward questions about embodiment and the physical. The result is an insightful journey through the new technologies derived from electronics, imaging, and digital and computer processing, toward the creation of an aesthetic and philosophical framework for considering the least material element of an artwork, sound.