The Tokyo Institute of Technology and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London are collaborating on the industry-academia collaborative programme ‘Hybrid Innovation’. On Wednesday 24 July 2024, we held a discussion and networking event at Shibuya QWS on Wednesday 24 July 2024 under the theme ‘How to promote business innovation across industry barriers?’.
This event, the second of its kind, was held within the framework of the SHIBUYA QWS original programme ‘QWS ACADEMIA’, a programme for encountering ‘unknown questions’ in collaboration with universities. At the university, there are students and researchers facing a variety of questions. QWS ACADEMIA is not just a class where knowledge is transmitted, but an event that aims to stimulate each other interactively and create chemical reactions. On the day of the event, approximately 30 participants gathered to hear an overview of Hybrid Innovation, followed by a presentation by Assistant Professor Dr Giorgio Salani, Creative Director of Hybrid Innovation, on the elements necessary to generate innovation, which have been identified through research.
The presentation included the essential elements of Hybrid Innovation, the fundamental differences between design thinking and art thinking, and other results from the research conducted over the past three years, and the perspectives required in the context of contemporary innovation. In the discussion that followed, participants discussed the differences between art thinking and design thinking, and exchanged opinions on how to utilise ‘Hybrid Innovation’ in practice, including the impressions of past participants in this programme. The participants also exchanged opinions on how to utilise ‘Hybrid Innovation’ in practice. For inquiries on the programme, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
Session 10 of the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s industry-academia collaborative programme Hybrid Innovation 2023 (HI) was held at the Ookayama Campus on Tuesday, 5 March 2024.
In this final session, Professor Eiichiro Kimura from Tokyo Institute of Technology was invited as a guest speaker to give a lecture on the topic of ‘Alignment of Design (AOD) to accelerate the implementation of wellbeing’.
Professor Kimura, whose lifework is innovation in food and health, discussed the need for a company’s purpose in order to innovate, using actual activities at a food company as an example. In the activity, each group was asked to create a collage on the subject of wellbeing and add a catchphrase to it. In the discussion that followed the presentation, the importance of aligning the company’s objectives with the scenarios of what each individual wants to do was reaffirmed.
In the second half of the programme, the participants continued to return to HI Practice and delved deeper into group discussions on the direction of the final deliverables to be presented at the symposium and how to embody them. In this programme, the participants used the Hybrid Innovation Project Canvas to create not only a company profile and value proposition, but also a scenario for the future and a proposal sheet that included a clear statement of feasibility, such as sustainability and inclusiveness, as well as initiatives to address social issues. The project was dedicated to creating a soil in which the final deliverables would not be just an idea.
Although all the sessions have now finished, the management team will continue to support the symposium, where the final product will be the culmination of the programme, by utilising the experience gained from the previous sessions in the HI Practice in the short time remaining before the symposium to present the results.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
Session 9 of the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s industry-academia collaborative programme Hybrid Innovation 2023 (HI) was held at the Ookayama Campus on Tuesday, 27 February 2024.
In this session 9, the participants practically applied what they had learnt in the programme to prototyping HI Practice, a group work to give shape to new innovation ideas. Each group was assigned information on a fictitious company and asked to formulate a business plan while anticipating and predicting various futures under the theme of automation in 2035. By prototyping, they were able to give form to what they were thinking about, and by materialising it, they were able to check for consistency and possibilities that they had not been able to see before. In this session, where various materials were provided to enable three-dimensional and two-dimensional expression, prototyping was used as a method to promote a methodology of thinking through materials and to grasp the full extent of ideas that could not be verbalised.
In the second half of the session, members of each group were exchanged and opinions were exchanged, and a feedback exchange session was held to incorporate perspectives that were not visible within the group to find a new angle while incorporating an even broader perspective.
In this programme, which will be the final session with one session remaining, the participating members will make the most of what they have learnt through the lectures and activities, work on forming a new culture of innovation, and continue to produce the results of the HI Practice, which will be presented at the symposium scheduled for 19 April. We will continue to work on the results of the HI Practice.
The communication dynamics observed during your group discussions will be recorded in a sketchbook distributed to the participants and used to reflect on your learning and insights.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
さて、翌日1月24日はロンドン芸大CSMでのイベントに参加!最も刺激的な1日となりました。産業界のパートナーシップについての講演、アラン・アトリー氏(学術戦略学部長)とジョー・ウィーラー氏(国際パートナーシップ部長)による情報提供はたいへんおもしろかったです。また、サミュエル・ミッチェル氏(パートナーシップ戦略マネージャー)からは、CSM自身の他メタ、グーグル、アマゾンなどの企業がこぞって立地するキングス・クロス地区の、産業パートナーやステークホルダーとの連携に関する大学の戦略についてプレゼンがありました。MA Narrative Environmentsコースでは、ステファニー・シャーマン先生(MA Narrative Environmentsのコースリーダー、HI講師)による創造的アプローチと未来的視点についてのプレゼンが行われ、独創的・未来志向の視点に触れ、ストーリーと環境がどのように融合し社会的な役割を果たしていくかなど、新たな発見が与えてくれました。午後には、キュレーターでもあるヘザー・バーネット先生(MA Art and Scienceのパスウェイリーダー、HI講師)による、リーサビー・ギャラリーのプライベート・ビューや学生プレゼン、ギャラリー見学などイベントが目白押しで、若い才能の創造性に触れる、とても貴重な機会となりました。
As part of our industry-academia collaborative programme ‘Hybrid Innovation 2023’ (HI), in January 2024 we accompanied selected members on a trip to London, UK. The initiative provided HI participants with an opportunity to visit various cultural institutions in London, including Central Saint Martins college (CSM), University of the Arts London (UAL), with which the Tokyo Institute of Technology has a long-standing collaboration. The trip extended the hand-on activities and discussion held in Tokyo by being exposed new cultural and intellectual models, learning the origins of cultural institutions in the UK and their role in society, and encountering trends in London’s arts scene and educational institutions. This multicultural and transdisciplinary approach is committed to fostering innovation and communication in the business environment.
The day of arrival included some free time to enjoy the city and atmosphere of London. The following day, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (ROH) provided exclusive insights into the performing arts. The tour was guided by Nathan Cohen (Visiting Professor at Tokyo Tech and HI lecturer) and David Pickering (MBE, formerly First Artist and currently Learning and Participation Creative Associate, ROH). The group was introduced to heads of departments and senior staff who offered a privileged, first-hand experience of the fusion of age-old traditions and latest technologies, that is required to deliver a state-of-the-art cultural experience in each ROH show.
In the afternoon, the group visited the Wellcome Collection, a respected art and science cultural institution. Its permanent exhibition displays artworks and artefacts at the convergence of medicine, design and fine art. The section called Genetic Automata showcased artwork on racial issues “in an age of avatars, videogames and DNA ancestry”. The use of art in promoting discussion among the general public on key topics was identified by the participants as different from the role artwork typically performs in Japan, thus making us reconsider the relationship between art thinking and business, a point of focus in our innovation programme. The discussion continued at the recently reopened British Library, where the exhibition of ancient manuscripts offered insights into history and culture, both in London and globally. Here, the knowledge and ideas from our ancestors were felt as a strong foundation for future creativity.
The next day was spent entirely at Central Saint Martins (CSM), where our colleagues organised a full programme of talks and visits. We are grateful to Allan Atlee (Dean of Academic Strategy) and Jo Wheeler (Head of International Partnerships) for a very warm welcome and informative tour of the campus. Samuel Mitchell (Strategic Partnerships Manager) gave us a presentation on the college’s strategies for connections with industry partners and stakeholders in the wider Kings Cross area, where CSM and companies such as Meta, Google and Amazon are located. The morning included student presentations and a visit to the Grow Lab, a biological lab built in an art college, another rare opportunity to experience the creativity of young talent and learn about innovation across art & science. The afternoon continued with a presentation by Stephanie Sherman (Course Leader of MA Narrative Environments and HI lecturer), on creative approaches and futuristic perspectives, and a private view of the Lethaby Gallery by the curator Heather Barnett (Pathway Leader for MA Art and Science and HI lecturer).
On the final day, a tour of the Museum quarter in South Kensington included a brief stop at the Science Museum and an exclusive tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum by two leading scholars, Elaine Tierney and Simona Valeriani, of the V&A Research Institute (VARI). The buildings gave a sense of London’s history and future, while in the building we discussed material innovation through learning about the history of the tiles used for building the museum and the people involved in their production. In the furniture gallery, the discussion focused on cutting-edge material development by Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma, which inspired further thoughts about the possibilities of materials and innovation.
Through this business trip, the HI delegation could experience first-hand the vibrancy of London’s arts and cultural scene. Through the close collaboration with a prestigious art and design college, we could experience and discuss the potential for innovation in industry to connect with education and community revitalisation. We are convinced this will lead to intercultural inspiration and concrete ideas in the continuation of our programme at Tokyo Tech as well as future endeavours by all HI participants.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
Session 8 of the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s industry-academia collaborative programme Hybrid Innovation 2023 (HI) was held at the Ookayama Campus on Tuesday, 30 January 2024.
In this session, we connected online with HI Guest Lecturer Dr Stephanie Sherman, Course Leader of MA Narrative Environments, University of the Arts London (UAL) Central Saint Martins, UK, for a lecture and workshop on the topic of Pervasive Automation. The lecture introduced the long history of automation as a technology developed over time and not simply the result of the latest solutions in AI. This covered, for example, the production process of the Model T Ford, and provided case studies on the impact of automation on society and the environment, to illustrate the evolution of the automation technologies we encounter in our daily lives.
In practical activities conducted as part of group conducted over multiple session (i.e. HI Practice), the participants discussed the impact of widespread automation on Japan and the world, using speculative exercises to reflect on what new environments or devices could be created in each scenarios. Then, the participants presented the impact of pervasive automation on their group projects and received feedback from Dr Sherman.
When considering automation, in the context of innovation, the focus tends to be only on efficiency but through the lectures and activities, the discussion unearthed cultural and social aspects of automation. This was facilitated through brainstorming and making activities that employed an art thinking approach, in line with the HI method. The communication dynamics observed during your group discussions were recorded in sketchbooks distributed to the participants, which were used to reflect on the progress in their learning and other insights.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
Session 7 of the industry-academia collaborative programme Hybrid Innovation 2023 (HI) was held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama Campus, on Tuesday 9 January 2024. Following on from Session 6, this workshop was also led by Specially Appointed Professor Betti Marenko from Central Saint Martins (CSM), University of the Arts London (UAL). In the session, an exercise developed for the Foundation Course at CSM – called Idea Factory – was adapted to facilitate ideation and communication of ideas during practical group work carried out by the participants. This phase of the programme, called HI Practice, will continue over the next few sessions at demonstration of the lessons learnt during the programme. Output from the activities will provide a basis for discussion during the HI Symposium planned for April 2024.
In the HI Practice, participants are divided into four groups with the task of creating an “intervention” (i.e. a product, service or artwork) based on the theme of automation and a future scenario set in 2036. Through this activity, the participants explore new possibilities by first reflecting of various elements in isolation (through quick brainstorming exercises) and then combining them into original proposals and inventive possibilities.
In the second activity, workshop facilitation cards developed by the lecturer Dr Marenko, were used to spark innovative future ideas that came out of the brainstorming phase, not only to find practical applications for them but also to test how resilient the ideas may be to unanticipated events that may occur in the future. The aim was to improve technical aspects of the participants’ innovative proposal by forcing each group into an in-depth reflection on their cultural and social value.
In the spirit of “reflexivity” that permeates all sessions of the programme, the communication dynamics observed during your group discussions were recorded in sketchbooks distributed to the participants, which were used to record progress in their learning and other insights.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
The sixth session of Tokyo Tech’s industry collaborative programme Hybrid Innovation 2023 (HI) was held on Tuesday 19 December at the Ookayama Campus. The programme is based on an original method developed in collaboration with Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSM), University of the Arts London, UK, and offers a total of 10 sessions incorporating lectures, practical workshops, facilitation, etc. The sessions offer follow an interdisciplinary approach to promote innovation and communication in the business environment. The session included a lecture by Betti Marenko, Reader in Contextual Studies at Central Saint Martins college, University of the Arts London (UAL), and Specially Appointed Visiting Professor at Tokyo Tech, Japan. The workshop was partly facilitated by a set of ‘philosophy pills’, a deck of cards created by Dr Marenko: the participants were asked to imagine the year 2035 and visualise the future of everyday life and work using a collage. This aimed to broaden perspectives and help speculate about the future by taking key concepts into account and introducing additional keywords to disrupt their attempts to base their future scenarios on rigid assumptions. Instead, they were invited to think about “futures” in the plural, and be able to accommodate sudden changes, as it’s likely to occur in reality. Working in groups, the participants developed shared visions of the future and agreed on a storyline that was then presented to the class. stimulating further discussion through a Q&A.
In the second activity, using the ‘philosophical pill’ cards, all groups discussed what changes would occur if new perspectives, such as philosophical or emotional perspectives, were added to the vision of the future created by the group, and how these changes would affect the vision of the future created by the group. The discussion also included a variety of these different perspectives and their impact on any rigid “anticipation” of the future.
The discussion also covered the importance of considering these diverse visions of the future and how to utilise them for innovation, e.g. how they can be used effectively in the practical group work to be carried out in the next sessions. The communication dynamics observed during your group discussions were recorded in sketchbooks distributed to the participants, which were used to reflect on the progress in their learning and other insights.
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat:. ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
2023 Creating the future “Hybrid Innovation” Session 5
Session 5 of the industry-academia collaborative programme ‘Hybrid Innovation 2023’ (HI) was held on Tuesday 5 December at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Ookayama Campus. The programme is based on an original method developed in collaboration with Central Saint Martins college of Art and Design (CSM), University of the Arts London, UK, and offers a total of 10 sessions incorporating lectures, practical workshops, facilitation, etc.
Based on the STADHI – Science & Technology + Art & Design Hybrid Innovation philosophy, led by Nohara at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s School of Environment and Society, the programme combines the knowledge and methodologies of art, design, technology and science. It takes an transdisciplinary approach to promote innovation and communication in business environments.
Dr Heather Barnett, a visiting researcher at Tokyo Tech, gave a lecture and exercise exploring the innovation potential of slime molds. The aim of the session was for participants to use slime molds to solve problems, come up with creative ideas, and gain new discoveries and insights.
In the first exercise, participants observed a familiar object and considered the different ways in which it could be used. In this exercise, the group discussed and exchanged ideas in three categories: the commonplace uses of paper clips, other practical uses, and imaginative uses. In order to inspire ideas, the group also tried to think beyond human forms of intelligence by pretending to be other creatures to think of alternative ways to use the paper clips.
The second exercise used slime molds as a problem-solving tool. Participants were asked to discuss the problem they wanted to solve in groups and then plan how they could get the slime mold to solve it, using a planning sheet.
As slime molds move differently from humans, it is difficult to completely control their movements. The movements of the slime molds set up by each group will be filmed by camera over the next week or so, and the trajectory will be presented at the next session.
If you would like further information about HI, including the HI Method and last year’s program, please visit: https://www.tse.ens.titech.ac.jp/~deepmode/csm/blog/ creating-the-future-hybrid-innovation/
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat: ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
You can find further information on the HI programme here. For an outline of the content of previous sessions, please visit our blog.
2023 Creating the future “Hybrid Innovation” Session 4
Session 4 of the industry-academia collaborative programme ‘Hybrid Innovation (HI) 2023’ was held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology Ookayama Campus on Tuesday 21 November. The programme is based on an original method developed in collaboration with Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSM), University of the Arts London, UK, and offers a total of 10 sessions incorporating lectures, practical workshops, facilitation, etc.
Based on the STADHI – Science & Technology + Art & Design Hybrid Innovation philosophy, led by Nohara at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s School of Environmental and Social Science and Engineering, the programme combines the knowledge and methodologies of art, design, technology and science. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to promote innovation and communication in the business environment.
This week’s theme was “Ambiguity in Science and Technology” and Prof Masahiko Hara from RWTH Aachen University gave an online lecture on the concept of ‘ambiguity’ from the perspective of cutting-edge nanotechnology and the limits of science and technology from the perspective of biology.
In the practical activities that followed, participants experienced the difficulty of the Travelling Salesman Problem, which is used to test computational skills, and realised how difficult it is to find the optimum solution to a complex calculation. The problem is prone to information explosion; as the number of points to be circulated increases, modern computers take a tremendous amount of time to process the problem.
Humans and other living organisms can create their own answers in ways other than finding the optimum solution. As a way of doing this, in the second activity participants were asked to create a story about an imaginary trip that connects the dots. By adding a unique story to the answer, the participants were able to understand that the shortest distance is not the only optimum solution. The storyline also helped them to understand that there were possible answers that could not be seen only with numbers.
If you would like further information about HI, including the HI Method and last year’s program, please visit: https://www.tse.ens.titech.ac.jp/~deepmode/csm/blog/ creating-the-future-hybrid-innovation/
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat: ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
2023 Creating the future “Hybrid Innovation” Session 3
Session 3 of the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Hybrid Innovation programme for industry 2023 was held at the Ookayama Campus on Tuesday 7 November. The programme is based on an original method developed in collaboration with Central Saint Martins college of Art and Design (CSM), University of the Arts London, UK, and offers a total of 10 sessions incorporating lectures and practical workshops.
Based on the STADHI – Science & Technology + Art & Design Hybrid Innovation philosophy, led by Nohara at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s School of Environmental and Social Science and Engineering, the programme combines the knowledge and methodologies of art, design, technology and science. It is an interdisciplinary approach that aims to promote innovation and communication in the business environment.
This time, we invited Dr Xinru Zhu, Assistant Professor of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering at the School of Environmental and Society, to discuss the relationship between process and tools in innovation with the participants through activities and lectures under the theme ‘Thinking about letters, technology, society and typeface design’.
In the first activity, participants traced fonts and observed the shapes of the letters, discussing how the details came to be. In the lecture, the participants learnt from Xinru Zhu about the history of typefaces and their deep connection with printing technology. In the second activity, the participants worked in groups to create their own original fonts and made posters using the fonts according to a given theme. Through process of creating the posters, they experienced the ways in which tools such as markers, pencils and brush pens, as well as pens influence the form of the font.
This session was an opportunity to learn about the historical background of how the letters we see every day came to be the way they are today, and to experience the potential that tools have for innovation through practice. The discussion focused on the importance of process in innovation, as a separate consideration from the innovation of output (such as products and services).
If you would like further information about HI, including the HI Method and last year’s program, please visit: https://www.tse.ens.titech.ac.jp/~deepmode/csm/blog/ creating-the-future-hybrid-innovation/
For inquiries, please contact the secretariat: ogiuchi.s.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp