Digital Be-In Tokyo 95
Mikiko attended a few Digital Art Be-In events in the early 1990s and was impressed by the creative and artistic applications of technologies.
In early 1994, Mikiko envisioned bringing the Digital Be-In to Tokyo and initiated the event plan by contacting Michael Gosney at Verbum, the original producer, and IDG Japan (now a part of Nikkei BP), the producer of MacWorld Expo Japan.
IDG Japan and Gosney agreed to collaborate, co-produce, and hold the event at Makuhari Messe on the second night of MacWorld Expo Tokyo in 1995. The rest is history.
What Is Digital Be-In?
The Digital Be-In has been produced in San Francisco since 1989 by Michael Gosney working with various collaborators including Robert Gelman, Allen Cohen, Chet Helms, and many other people and groups. Perhaps best described as the original “socially conscious cyberculture event,“ the Digital Be-In began in spirit as a nod to the San Francisco counterculture and its influence on the technology revolution in the form of Verbum magazine’s industry party during the January Macworld Expo. Over the years it evolved into a public event in San Francisco, with special editions held in London and Tokyo.
(Excerpts from Be-in.com—no longer online)
Also read about the Human Be-ins here.
Digital Be-In Tokyo 95
Japan’s first large scale digital Be-In Event
In 1995, Verbum‘s president Michael Gosney and Mikiko Murdoch along with IDG Japan organized a Be-In in Tokyo 95, Japan. There they had a video tape message from Timothy Leary, a presentation on the links between the 1960s counterculture of the Bay Area and the personal computer revolution, a Digital Art Gallery, and the Digital Frontier included exhibits by avant garde multimedia publishers.
Articles In Media
Tokyo Be-In: The first Digital Be-In held outside of San Francisco was held outside of the Western Hemisphere: in the Land of the Rising Sun. Co-organized by Verbum’s Michael Gosney (original Digital Be-in organizer), IDG Expo (organizers of MacWorld Expo), and Mikiko Murdoch (co-producer of Digital Be-in Tokyo 95), the event was held at Makuhari Messe Conference center in Chiba where MacWorld Expo was also held, and had 150,000 attendees (50,000 or more of which do not own computers!).
The Be-In attracted about 2000 attendees. The event, sponsored by Apple Computer and others, began with a presentation by Michael Gosney of Verbum on the history of the Be-In and the connections between the 1960s Bay Area-based counterculture and the personal computer revolution. Gosney presented a videotaped keynote message from Timothy Leary, in which he complimented the Japanese people on their spiritual depth and modern leadership, and suggested that Japan is going to “Turn On, Intertune In, and Shine Out!”
Performances included live music. The Digital Art Gallery was organized by Tadao Shibata, editor of SuperDesigning magazine.
The Digital Frontier featured exhibits by avant garde multimedia publisher Digitalogue, HSC Software, Oracion and many others.
One of the most popular features of the event was an auction for the Kobe earthquake victims: vendors donated millions of yen worth of software. The publicity on the event was quite widespread, including national television news stories.
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