Nygren discusses the interplay of similarities and differences between American and Japanese styles of video and details the interconnected histories of both, suggesting that delays in acquisition of technologies has led to the misperception that Japanese video is "following" that of the West. Nygren argues that Japanese video art uses the quality of video to construct meaning in a way that is distinctly Eastern, in its relationship to landscapes and the natural environment. He also comments on the anti-realist aesthetic of Japanese media art, which defies the West's realist conventions.