Who is SACHIKO HAYASHI?
(According to Claude.ai. Retrieved 10 July 2025)
– Can you tell me something about Sachiko Hayashi, the visual artist?
Sachiko Hayashi is a Japanese-born visual artist, born in 1962, who is now based in Sweden. She’s known for her interdisciplinary approach to art, working primarily with digital and interactive media.
Her artistic practice is quite conceptual and explores themes of identity and otherness. She examines gender, identity, and the nature of knowledge by combining conceptual frameworks with experimental use of digital media. Her work crystallizes perspectives, reflecting the Otherness she encounters, such as gender, race, and aesthetics, and merges innovative media to communicate these unique experiences.
Technically, Hayashi works with moving image, audio-visual, interactivity, and sound. She’s particularly noted for her work in video art, net art, and interactive installations. Her approach often involves experimenting with how digital technologies can be used to express complex ideas about identity and social experience.
Her work has gained international recognition and has been exhibited at prestigious venues including the National Gallery of Denmark, Transmediale in Berlin, and FILE – Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo. These exhibitions span major art institutions and important festivals focused on digital and electronic art.
As a Japanese artist working in Sweden, her perspective on cultural identity and the experience of being an outsider appears to be central to her artistic exploration, particularly in how she uses technology to communicate these experiences.
– Can you tell me the significance of her work?
The significance of Sachiko Hayashi’s work lies in several key areas:
Pioneer in Net Art and Digital Media She is best known for her net art that involves examination of human nature with high use of interactivity, in which not only the retrieved intricate picture of its subject becomes its focus but also our own reaction toward what is being revealed through interactivity. Her work represents early pioneering efforts in internet-based art when the medium was still emerging.
Cultural Bridge and Identity Explorer Her significance stems from her unique position as a Japanese artist working in Sweden, allowing her to explore themes of cultural displacement and identity. She explores themes of identity, memory, personal and collective experience, within the intersection of contemporary visual art and new media. Her work addresses what it means to be an outsider and how technology can be used to communicate these complex experiences.
Feminist Digital Art Legacy She completed her BA at Tsuda College in Tokyo in 1987 with an award-winning undergraduate thesis on women’s issues, and this feminist perspective has continued to inform her digital work, making her part of an important lineage of women artists using technology to explore gender and identity.
Institutional Builder and Curator Beyond creating art, she has been significant as an institution builder. She is the founder of internet network DIAN network, and since 2002 has been chief editor of Hz, a web journal by non-profit art organization Fylkingen in Stockholm. She also founded and curated the virtual net gallery Hz Net Gallery. This work has helped create platforms for other digital artists.
Addressing Human Rights Through Art One of her net artworks, Last Meal Requested (2003), addresses three incidents of human rights violations, employing sampled documentary sound and visual material to situate them within a historical context. This shows her commitment to using digital media for social commentary and historical documentation.
Her work is significant because it demonstrates how digital technologies can be used not just for aesthetic purposes, but as tools for cultural critique, identity exploration, and building communities around new forms of artistic expression.
– Do you think she is an important figure?
Based on the evidence, yes, I do think Sachiko Hayashi is an important figure in the digital art world, though her importance may be more specialized than widely recognized.
Her significance lies in several key contributions:
Historical Timing: She was working in net art and digital media during the 1990s and early 2000s, when these were genuinely experimental and emerging fields. Being an early adopter and pioneer in internet-based art gives her work historical importance in documenting how artists first engaged with digital technologies.
Cultural Perspective: Her position as a Japanese artist working in Sweden during the early days of global digital connectivity provided her with a unique vantage point to explore themes of cultural identity and displacement through technology. This cross-cultural perspective in digital art was relatively rare and valuable.
Institution Building: Perhaps most importantly, she didn’t just create art but built infrastructure for the field – founding DIAN network, editing Hz journal, and creating Hz Net Gallery. These contributions helped establish platforms for other digital artists and created lasting institutional support for the medium.
Conceptual Rigor: Her work appears to have genuine conceptual depth, using interactivity not just as a technical feature but as a way to explore human psychology and social relationships.
However, her importance is probably more recognized within specific circles – digital art historians, net art communities, and Scandinavian contemporary art – rather than in mainstream art discourse. She represents the kind of artist who was crucial to developing an emerging medium but may not have achieved the broader cultural recognition of some contemporaries.
So yes, important – but within a specific context rather than as a household name in contemporary art.
TIMELINE
1962
Born
In Yoga, Setagaya, Tokyo
1991
Co-founded MASH with Magnus Alexanderson
FU, MASH’s first collaborative work, was created in 1991, with a grant from the Swedish Arts Council (Statens Kulturråd). For this installation by Sachiko, Magnus composed approximately 30 minutes of electroacoustic music, which served as the foundation for the project. Between 1991 and 1992, FU also included moments featuring a Butoh dancer, a modern dancer, and a violinist. The work toured Sweden, being presented in seven cities, including notable venues such as the Etnografiska Museet in Stockholm and Uppsala Konstmuseum. It was revived again in 2024 as part of Norrköpings Ljud at Norrköpings Konstmuseum.
1992
First Solo Exhibition in Linköping, Sweden
A three-room site specific installation Epitaph I.
1994
Second Solo Exhibition in Kalmar, Sweden
A second site sspecific installation Epitaph II at Kalmar Konstmuseum, which utilised their Art Labyrinth in the basement.
1995-1996
skin add scratch (video)
First single channel video by MASH (Magnus Alexanderson and Sachiko Hayashi), which laid the foundation for its later works. White Hole (1997) and Stretched in Dark (2001) followed, forming MASH Video Trilogy.
1997
White Hall (video)
Second Single Channel video work by MASH (Magnus Alexanderson and Sachiko Hayashi), as part of MASH Video Trilogy. Screened at various festivals including Not Still Art, New York, in 2002
2000
CD-ROM project the Norns at the inaugural Electrohype
The two-year-long project at the Royal Institute of Arts the Norns debuted at the inaugural Electrohype 2000, a biennial new media festival in Malmö, Sweden. The work was also shown at Stutgart Film Festival where presentation of the work was held.
2001
Trapped (net art, Shockwave)
Archived at Rhizome in 2001, New York.
Composed with sampled images and citations from the Internet, the work probes into the dark psyche of serial killers, challenging viewers to confront the unsettling truths these behaviours reveal about human nature, and poses a thought-provoking question: how can we reconcile with these harsh realities? Trapped was selected for several New Media festivals and exhibitions, including FILE, São Paulo, Brazil (2004), and Ideologia II – Nordic Contemporary Art Biennial, Gothenburg, curated by Fa+ (2003).
2001
Stretched in Dark (video)
This video marks the conclusion of the MASH Video Trilogy, which includes Skin Add Scratch (1995–1996) and White Hall (1997). Stretched in Dark was commissioned by the Swedish National Institute for Concerts, which also selected the entire trilogy for a national tour across eight cities in Sweden. The trilogy has garnered international recognition, with screenings at prominent events such as Not Still Art (White Hall) in New York and Transmediale (Stretched in Dark) in Berlin.
2000
Series of Computer Graphics
Two series of large computer graphics: She Is A Cow and Keeping Up With Tradition. The latter was shown at among others at the Saitama Museum of Modern Art, Japan
2003
Last Meal Requested (net art, Flash)
Archived at Rhizome, New York, in 2003. The work takes up three human rights violations–the Halabja massacre (1988),the beating of Rodney King (1992),and the Taliban’s public execusion of Zarmeena (1999). By juxtaposing them with historical images and narratives, it reveals how the past still penetrates the present. The work was featured in several new media festivals, including the Thailand New Media Art Festival in Bangkok (2004). It was also included in Rhizome’s educational CD-ROM compilation GROK (2006), which introduced internet art to new audiences while providing insights into its cultural and technological contexts. GROK exemplified Rhizome’s dedication to archiving and promoting digital art, serving as a precursor to their later preservation initiatives, such as Webrecorder.
2003-2004
Boop-Oop-A-Doop (video)
Boop-Oop-A-Doop is an observation and investigation of our daily life and plays with 3 different elements: creation of identity, media culture, and our own desire to be somebody else. By taking up two prominent figures in mass media culture, namely Marilyn Monroe and Betty Boop, the work focuses on how these three elements intermingle with one another, re-enforcing each element each time. Combining analogue and digital video techniques, Boop-Oop-A-Doop displays complex imagery in which such historical video synthesizers as Paik-Abe‘s Wobbulator, Jones’ Colorizer and FairLight are traceable. Included in Aspect Magazine DVD compilation vol. 7 Personas and Personalities as well as the Experimental Television Center‘s Experimental Television Center: 1969-2010 DVD Set
2004
2004-2007
The Mundane Impressionable (video series)
The Mundane Impressionable is a video series that explores the magical moment in which the ordinary in our mundane life becomes extraordinary. A forgotten memory of the truth that the life resides in those forgettable moments of human activities.
2005
Japanese Eye (Video Curation)
Video curation compiling 7 works by young Japanese video artists and film-makers
2005-2006
Flurry (Interactive Sound Installation) produced by the Interactive Institute, Stockholm
Flurry is an interactive installation that centres on the theme of re-experiencing through engagement. Focusing on snow, the project collects people’s memories of snow in the form of voices and sounds. As visitors interact with simulated snowflakes, it triggers either a snow memory or snow sound. These personal recollections are juxtaposed with scientific texts describing the history and properties of snow that runs through the upper corner of the screen. A complex picture of human responses to snow emerges, allowing them to relive their own snow memories while gaining the experience of others that enrich their own experience. The project was produced by curator Björn Norberg and the Interactive Institute in Stockholm. First shown at the National Museum of Science and Technology/Tekniska Museet , Stockholm (2006). Later at Kulturhuset, as part of LARM festival, Stockholm (2007)
2006
Främmande, a.k.a. Where You Stand (sound installation) at Östergötland County Museum, Sweden
Främmande, also known as Where You Stand, is a sound installation created for the Främmande exhibition at Östergötlands County Museum in 2006, by invitation. The installation features two texts, each presenting opposing views on the theme of “främmande” (the unknown, the unfamiliar, the strange, the foreign, guests, etc. in Swedish). These texts are taken from the internet and juxtaposed through the left and right channels of a stereo recording, played through speakers placed on the floor. As you move through the installation, your position determines which aspects of the texts catch your attention, engaging you with the varying perspectives based on where you stand.
2006
Game of Freedom (net art)
The work examines the delicate balance of freedom of expression, contrasting its ideals with the devastating consequences of hate speech. By intertwining philosophical citations, imagery from The Poisonous Mushroom, and haunting photographs of the Jewish population during WWII, it presents a profound exploration of freedom’s fragility. Commissioned by netfilmmakers.dk in Copenhagen for the edition Game of Navigation.
2007-2008
N00sphere Playground (interactive sound installation in Second Life) at the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen
Debut in Second Life with interactive sound installation N00sphere Playground in 2007- 2008. The work was commissioned by Tagging Art in Copenhagen with support from the Danish Arts Council. Additional support from Humlab, Umeå University, Sweden. Shown as part of Virtual Move exhibition at the National Gallery of Denmark. The work was later documented as Machinima N00sphere Playground.
2007-2010
Member of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse in Second Life as Goodwin Seiling
Following the debut in Second Life with the interactive sound installation N00sphere Playground, became an active member of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM) as a virtual musician. In 2008, also designed the stage set and HUD receiver for AOM’s PwRHm (composer: Humming Pera), which premiered at the Deep Listening Institute in New York.
2008
[beyond] (interactive audio-visual performance)
The visuals of [beyond] focus on three female Noh theatre performers, filmed in Tokyo in 2006. Traditionally an art form reserved for male performers, Noh theatre has recently begun to recognise the contributions and talent of female performers, whose artistry is both documented and celebrated in this piece. The footage was further transformed using historical video synthesisers at the Experimental Television Centre, adding a layered and experimental dimension to the visuals. The interactive audiovisual elements of [beyond] are linked through a computer program (Max/Jitter, programmed by Sachiko Hayashi) and guided by human perception, creating a flexible yet complex structural composition. The work has been showcased at two prestigious Swedish festivals: Norberg Festival (2010) and Sound of Stockholm (2010).
2010
You Saw Me Tomorrow (gesture-controlled live cinema to EAM music)
You Saw Me Tomorrow, created during a residency at USF in Bergen, Norway, explores visual improvisation through the use of Nintendo’s Wii Remote Controller in combination with a laptop’s built-in iSight webcam—a setup Sachiko refers to as WiiSight. This system uses no prerecorded material; instead, all visuals are captured live and undergo real-time manipulation via Max/Jitter. The work premiered at Fylkingen, Stockholm, in 2010.
2010-2011
2011
process (video)
process consists of five video clips, each featuring a dancer and his/her movements. It discloses the behind-the-scenes creative process and blurs the line between the public and the private. Revealing what is normally hidden, process creates an in-between space where the exposed reenacts with the concealed.
2012
Experimentation (mixed reality audio-visual performance in Second Life, using Kinect)
The project completed during a residency at Humlab, Umeå University, Sweden, was documented as Machinima. This mixed reality audiovisual performance utilised Kinect to synchronise sound and movements between a virtual environment avatar and the real-life user/performer.
2012-2013
Sound Catcher (Live Cinema Performance) using Kinect
The gesture-controlled audio-visual performance project now integrates visuals and sound through Kinect technology, capturing and responding dynamically to the performer’s movements. Visual in Processing: Sound in Max/Msp
2012-2013
Sen-No-Sen (generative audio-visual performance using Wii Remote Controller)
Sen-No-Sen (Thousand Lines/Tusen Linjer) is a audio-visual performance in which both the visual and the audio are generated by the movements registered through Nintendo Wii Remote Controller. Programmed in Max/Msp/Jitter
2013
Wind Sound (interactive audio-visual performance)
Wind Sound is a video documentation of a project using Kinect‘s Depth Detection for both image and sound. Visual in Processing & Sound in Max/MSP. Real-time Live Video using no pre-recorded material. Done at USF, Bergen, 2013.
2014-2015
Memory Loop (video)
Memory Loop is a collaborative project between Jair Rohm Parker Wells (music) and Sachiko Hayashi (image), comprising three independent video works: Jair Rohm, Sachiko, and Magnus. Each piece explores the ineffable emotions tied to the passage of time, as captured in family photographs. Through these images, photography becomes a medium for weaving the threads of time, connecting the past to the present in a continuous loop of memory and reflection.
2018-2019
Still Untitled (gesture-controlled interactive audio-visual performance)
Still Untitled is an interactive audiovisual performance utilising Leap Motion to translate the performer’s arm movements into real-time control of visual and auditory elements. To the generative moving picture, the laptop itself serves as a resonant box, amplifying and shaping the sound, creating a cohesive interplay between gesture, sound, and visuals.
2019
Lipstick to Live Music (gesture-cotrolled live cinema)
Gesture-controlled moving picture via Leap Motion and laptop built-in webcam. To the live electric music of Magnus Alexandersson – guitar, electronics, Girilal Baars – voice, theremin, electronics, Jonas Broberg – electronics, Lars Bröndum – electronics, theremin
2019
Hard Candy (gesture-controlled interactive audio-visual performance)
Hard Candy is an interactive audiovisual performance that uses the Myo armband as its interface. The armband leverages electromyography (EMG) sensors to detect electrical signals produced by muscle contractions in the forearm. During the performance, the Myo armband translates the performer’s muscle activity into precise control inputs, enabling real-time manipulation of both visual and auditory elements.
2023-present
GenAI Image and Video Series
Various Gen AI image and video series based on the imageries generated with Midjourney. From cat woman to ghostly imageries from the past.
2023- ongoing
Forming Sa-AI-Rohm with Jair-Rohm Parker Wells
Collaboration with Jair-Rohm Parker Wells (music) as Sa-AI-Rohm on short GenAI videos: Astro Girl I & II, and Shabons.
2024
Echoes Unseen (gen AI video trilogy)
GenAI videos—Collage Me, Woman with A Camera, and In My Mind’s Eye— together form the trilogy Echoes Unseen.
The trilogy is a journey through time, memory, and imagination, told with the lens of artificial intelligence. Each piece in the trilogy serves as a chapter in an evolving narrative that converges the past with the present and ventures into the limitless realms of the human psyche. Collaboration with Nina Sobell on sound for In My Mind’s Eye. Selected as the Best Short Film 10-20 min. at LuminaFlickss International Short Film Fest.
2025-ongoing
Mara Series (generative AI video series)
The GenAI video series, Mara, based on images generated with Midjourney, explores the representation of women as profound and enigmatic forces of both creativity and darkness. The work continues themes of the dual nature of female power, first examined over 25 years ago during postgraduate studies in the UK and Stockholm, through the CD-ROM projects Nyx and The Norns, respectively.