April 14, 1925 |
is born in Fushun, China, to Japanese parents |
| 1935 | Moves to Japan (Kagoshima Prefecture) |
| 1948–1951 | Studies philosophy and aesthetics at the University of Tokyo, Japan. His professor of aesthetics is Toshio Takeuchi. |
| 1950/1951 | While working on his diploma thesis Kawano discovers the Neo-Kantianism of the Freiburg School: the writings of Heinrich Rickert and Lenore Kühn. |
| 1951 | He graduates in philosophy with a thesis on aesthetics as a theory of aisthesis. |
| 1951–1955 | Graduate student at the University of Tokyo (major subject: aesthetics, minor subject: philosophy of science) |
| 1954 | Marries Taeko Unoki |
| 1955–1961 | Research assistant of Professor Toshio Takeuchi at the Department of Aesthetics at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo |
| 1956 | Kawano discovers semiotics through Max Rieser’s article “The Semantic Theory of Art in America” in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (September 1965). |
| 1959 | Susanne K. Langer’s Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art (1942) initiates Kawano to explore the field of symoblic logic. |
| ca. 1960 | In 1961 at the latest, Kawano discovers Max Bense’s Aesthetica series: Aesthetica I. Metaphysische Beobachtungen am Schönen [Metaphysical Observations of Beauty] (1954), Aesthetica II. Ästhetische Information [Aesthetic Information] (1956), Aesthetica III. Ästhetik und Zivilisation [Aesthetics and Civilization] (1958), and Aesthetica IV. Programmierung des Schönen [Programming of Beauty] (1960). |
| 1961–1970 | Lecturer in the Faculty of Art at Nihon University, Tokyo |
| 1961–1972 | Lecturer and associate professor at the Tokyo Metropolitan College of Air-Technology. He teaches philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. |
| 1962 | He publishes a study on information aesthetics:
美学的情報理論の一考察 [An Inquiry into Aesthetic Information Theory], in: 都立航空工業短期大学研究紀要 第1集 [Memoirs of Tokyo Metropolitan College of Air-Technology No. 1], 1962, pp. 75–85. |
| 1963 | He publishes his first article mentioning the possibility of using computers for aesthetics: 言語分析と情報理論：科学美学の方法に関する試論 [Linguistic Analysis and Information Theory: An Essay on the Methodology of Scientific Aesthetics], in: 都立航空工業短期大学研究紀要 第2集 [Memoirs of Tokyo Metropolitan College of Air-Technology No. 2], 1963, pp. 85–96. |
| Autumn 1963 | He starts to teach himself how to program computers and writes his first programs for the OKITAC 5090A computer. |
| Spring 1964 | Kawano is granted access to an OKITAC 5090A at the Computer Center of the University of Tokyo and realizes his first examples of computer-generated images. |
| September 1964 | Hiroshi Kawano publishes in the Japanese IBM Review an article showing examples of computer-generated graphics: 電子計算機とデザイン [Electronic Computer and Design], in: IBM Review, 6, September 1964, pp. 53–57. |
| Januar 1966 | Shigeru Watanabe, professor at the Department of Engineering, University of Tokyo, invites Hiroshi Kawano to participate in the meetings of his research group Computer-Based Art (CBA) to discuss the possibilities of computer-generated poetry. Using an algorithm by Kawano, a series of tankas, Japanese short poems, are generated. |
| 1967 | Kawano publishes an article on the application of computer technology to poetry: 短歌の分析と生成 [The Analysis and Generation of TANKA (Japanese 31 Syllable Poem)], in: 都立航空工業短期大学研究紀要 第6集 [Memoirsof Tokyo Metropolitan College of Air-Technology No. 6], 1967, pp. 105–114. |
| 1967 | Max Bense visits Japan and lectures in Sendai, Hirosaki, and Tokyo. Kawano meets Bense on the occasion of his presentation at Waseda University, Tokyo. |
| 1967 | Hiroshi Kawano publishes his first book: 美学[Aesthetics]. |
| 1968 | Kawano participates in the exhibition of the first Japanese computer art contest initiated by Shigeru Watanabe that takes place at the Sankei Building in Tokyo. |
| 1968 | Kawano participates in the information exhibition accompanying the colloquy tendencies 4. “Computers and Visual Research” at the Center for Culture and Information in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. |
| 1969 | Participates in the exhibition tendencies 4. computers and visual research, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. |
| 1970 | Solo exhibition at the Plaza DIC Tokyo under the title コンピューター・アート/ Computer Art. He is supported by the designer Mitsuo Katsui and his long-term collaborator Chihaya Shimomura, then lecturer at Musashino Art University. |
| May 1970 | Kawano publishes his first article on Noam Chomsky and his theory of generative grammar: 情報処理技術としての芸術 [Art as Information Processing Technology], in: 思想 [Shisou], 551, May 1970, pp. 68–81. |
| 1971 | Kawano participates in the conference “Art and Computers 71” in Zagreb. Here he discusses for the first time PDL (Picture Description Language). |
| 1972 | Kawano publishes the lecture “Computer Art and Picture Language,” in: 都立航空工業短期大学研究紀要 第11集 [Memoirs of Tokyo Metropolitan College of Air-Technology No. 11], March 1972, pp. 97–101. |
| 1972 | The Montreal-based artist, curator, and gallery owner Gilles Gheerbrant publishes a collection of silk screens with the title Art Ex Machina. It includes Red Tree by Hiroshi Kawano. |
| 1972–1988 | Professor of Science of Art, Information Science, and Computer Programming at the Metropolitan College of Technology in Tokyo |
| 1976 | Kawano publishes on the application of computers to music: 音楽計算機の楽曲処理システム [Analysis-Composition-Performance System of Music Computer], in: 航空工業短期大学研究紀要 [Memoirs of the Metropolitan College of Technology No. 4], March 1976, pp. 105–118.
With Toshio Isobe, chief researcher at the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan, Kawano develops a computing system for the generation of music. |
September–
November 1978 | Kawano visits the LOGO Group at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for three months. He studies LOGO programming and enquires into its possibilities for graphics and artificial intelligence. There he meets Marvin L. Minsky and Seymour A. Papert. |
| 1984 | He publishes the book コンピュータと美学：人工知能の芸術を探る [Computer and Aesthetics: Searching for the Art of Artificial Intelligence] and submits it to Osaka University as a PhD thesis. |
| 1986 | Kawano receives his PhD from Osaka University. |
| 1986–1990 | Professor of Science of Art, Information Science, and Computer Graphics at the Metropolitan Institute of Technology, Tokyo |
| 1990–1994 | Professor of Information Science and Computer Programming at Nagano University |
| 1994–1996 | Professor of Information Science and Computer Graphics at the Tohoku University of Art and Design |
| 1995–2001 | Lecturer for aesthetics at the Department of Philosophy, Nihon University |
| 1997–2001 | Visiting Professor of Information Science and Computer Graphics at Tama Art University |
| 2001–2006 | Lecturer in philosophy at the graduate school of the Department of Philosophy, Nihon University |
| 2006 | Kawano organizes the exhibition 20th Century Computer Art: Beginnings and Developments. The Work and Thought of Pioneers and Contemporary Practitioners of Algorithmic Art at the Tama Art University. |
| Januar 2010 | Hiroshi Kawano donates his archive to ZKM | Karlsruhe. |
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