Yoko Ono, born 1933, is a Japanese artist, author, and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon. Ono brought feminism to the forefront in her music which prefigured New Wave music and is known for her philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace and AIDS outreach programs.

Arata Isozaki was born in Oita, Kyushu, Japan in 1931. He studied under Kenso Tange at the University of Tokyo before becoming a member of Tange’s design team. In 1963 he established his own practice. His work in the late 1960s was influenced by the Metabolism school, but mannerism is discernable in the exaggerated expression of the structural members. The joint Core System that he developed in 1960 was essential to the Metabolism movement and was influential to Tange, his former teacher. His later works are Mannered and self-conscious, borrowing from a spectrum of architectural influences. He appropriates design ideas from such diverse sources as the Vienna Secession, Marcel Cuchamp and Archigram. Considered Tange’s successor as the leading creative figure in Japanese architecture, Isozaki is equally important as a writer and theorist. He consistently acts as the leading interpreter of outside trends and movements for other Japanese designers.