Yasunao Tone

Yasunao Tone (b.1935, Tokyo) began his career in Tokyo as a member of Group Ongaku along with Takehisa Kosugi, Mieko Shiomi and others. His improvisational, disruptive praxis extended to performing from a van during the protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty in 1960. Tone was also involved with the Japanese performance groups Neo-Dada Organizers and Hi-Red Center, and is counted among the members of Fluxus: his graphic score Anagram for Strings was published by George Maciunas in 1963 and he later helped to found the Japanese branch of the group.

Tone moved to New York permanently in 1972, where he worked extensively with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and performed at venues including the Kitchen, the Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and P.S.1. His hybrid works for Cunningham such as Clockwork Video (1974) and Geography and Music (1979-1987), combined sound, text, video and installations integrated into events and performances.