Hacking Hearts was an exciting experimental project designed to interrogate and reimagine contemporary scientific research centered on heart disease, energy harvesting and cellular sensing. The activities resulted from the collaboration between Tokyo Institute of Technology and two British universities: Central Saint Martins College (CSM) at the University of the Arts London (UAL) and Queen Mary University of London.
The event was held on 4-8 November 2019 at the Grow Lab at UAL, in the UK. Bioengineering scientists presented their research to a team of art students, worked together for a few days and on the last day the students performed their original responses in a public symposium. A series of “creative translation processes” were employed in the deconstruction and reconstruction of cutting-edge mechanical engineering and biotechnology information through art and design practices. As Social Scientist in Residence at UAL, Prof. Nohara observed and analyzed communications and interactions among all the participants during the workshop and how arguments in science and engineering were translated, reworded and re-expressed for a team of art and design graduate students. The project team included Dr. Heather Barnett, Dr. Ulrike Oberlac and Dr. Betti Marenko of UAL, Dr. Wataru Hijikata of Tokyo Tech, and Dr. Thomas Iscratch of Queen Mary University.
The 5-day program included a range of activities which ended with a public participatory event on Nov 8th:
Nov 4th: Introduction and scientific presentations / demonstrations
Nov 5th: Practical activities / discussions to unpack the science and start ‘hacking’
Nov 6th-7th: Students work in small groups to develop ideas in critical / creative response to the scientific research.
Nov 8th: Presentation of outcomes to the visiting researchers + public symposium in the evening.
The international research team will continue to develop methods to combine different skills and ways of thinking to acquire fresh perspectives and ideas through communication using various tools, collectively called Communication-Driven Hybrid Method. Over 5 days of activities and discussions, the participants of Hacking Hearts explored techniques to share knowledge across disciplines and understanding each other beyond cultural borders. The project produced in-depth reflections and lessons learned which will inform future participation between science & technology and art & design practitioners. Interviews with participants and conclusions drawn from the event are discussed in more details in this article.
More information on the event program can be found on UAL’s website.
Many of us are attracted to the beautiful chaos of ” the fake” and “the real”, but we seldom ask ourselves why. What exactly does “fake” and “real” mean? What is “the fake” and “the real” of Shibuya? Perhaps, it is within this complex entanglement that lies the fascinating truth of the city.
People, architecture, industry, movies, pictures, music, dance, language, discussion… these products of human life seem to add so much value to Shibuya, to the point where Shibuya is no longer just a city… but a “museum”. Shibuya has evolved and always led the forefront of our lives. Only when we face the city can we understand the true value and creativity of our lives.
In this event, we bring you panel discussions with authorities from different creative backgrounds and interactions with the environment.
Fake & Reality of Shibuya ~Shibuya Museuming
Event Information:
♦︎ Date & Time: Wednesday, 27 November 2019 18:30~20:30(Open: 18:00) ♦︎ Venue: CROSS PARK(SHIBUYA QWS)2-24-12, Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Shibuya Scramble Square Ⅰ(East Wing)15F ♦︎ Admission Fee:Free (Pre-registration) ♦︎ Capacity:50 persons ♦︎ Organizer:SHIBUYA QWS, Tokyo Institute of Technology ♦︎ Speakers: Dr. Ulrike Oberlack (Tokyo Tech World Research Hub Initiative, Specially Appointed Professor, Light and Jewelry Design) Yoshiaki Nishino (Director of Intermediatheque) ♦︎ Facilitators Shohei Kawasaki (Concent, Inc., Editorial Design) Shogo Egashira (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Master’s student, Material Engineering/Museology) ♦︎ Coordinators Norihiro Kawasaki (Concent, Inc., Graphic Design) Kayoko Nohara (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor, Translation Studies/Communication)
Museum in Japan and UK – Cultural financial strength of the country, symbol of national power, cultural activity base – Example in London: Sense making and storytelling in UK museum (stimulate visitor, create interactive experiences, foster deeper engagement and further thinking)
Extension of Japanese Museum characteristics – In term of ability of attracting visitors, Shibuya city stands out as “planned exhibiton”
Breakthrough from “HAKOMONO” restraint – Mobile museum in daily space that does not have building, which can be made possible by removing the ‘HAKO’
Creation of value system – Museum: accepts all and mixed things of what left behind as a result of human activities – It is important to convey subjective things objectively
PART 2 : FAKE & REALITY
What is the attractive point of Shibuya? – FICTION, COPY (mass production), FAKE – The real value of what was created by FAKE, just like the other world when seeing Halloween event – If novel expressions continuously being brought out, it may become an icon of the awakening city
Try to see Shibuya from different angle. From participants: – “I was impressed that the word ‘Platform’ will be the keyword instead of ‘Museum’ from now on” (Graduate school staff in their 30s) – “The space in Shibuya, where I usually come to play casually, has never looked as glittering as it is today” (Teenage college student) – “Each topic reminded me of the connection with my daily work.” (Museum curator in his 50s) – “Halloween, Mona Lisa, literature… it was interesting because the explanations from various perspectives were connected.” (Railway facilities maintenance staff in their 20s).
Event Reflection
(written by Chihiro Wada, Doctoral student of Tokyo Tech)
Discussion about “Mobile Museum” by Prof. Nishino was very intertesting. I thought it was a good example of an exhibition that was freed from ‘HAKOMONO’ restratint. The “mobile” concept is arguably the keyword of the 21st century, but I was surprised that it extended to museums. If “anywhere” is realized, I would like also realize the “anyone” by exhibiting for free.
I was also impressed that Prof. Nishino said that it was interesting because it was “subjective.” Even in the work of Izumi Kizara, which I am currently analyzing, the main characters are looking at things “subjectively” with a short-sighted eye, so it is important to have something that is not worth looking at “objectively”. What is being discussed about as worthwhile is appearing as irrelevant. What is “real”? It feels like an eternal question that seems both easy and not. Perhaps, the question of “What is it for you? What is it for me? What is it for both you and me?” should also be a set.
I pesonally hate Shibuya, so I do not agree with the discourse that Shibuya is “attractive”. However, I think it is a fact that “a lot of people gather”. When I took a Norwegian friend to Shibuya, I remember (she/he) exclaimed “(So many people!) Very Tokyo!” when seeing Scramble Square. Speaking of “Japanese culture”, I personally think that the conflict between the dynasty culture of Kyoto and merchant culture of Edo is interesting. So when I talk about “Japanese culture”, by connecting the broadcast between Kyoto and Shibuya, talking in “Shibuya” seems make the significance come into view.
QWSアカデミア(東工大 presents):Fake & Reality of Shibuya ~渋谷を博物館にする by 野原研 開催しました。 日時 : 2019年11月27日 18:30-20:30 場所 : Shibuya Scramble Square 15階 Shibuya QWS 内CROSS PARK 一般参加者 : 73名 参加費: 無料
PART 1 : 渋谷 MUSEUM構想 1. MUSEUM 日本とUK ・国の持つ文化的財力、国力の象徴、文化活動拠点 ・ロンドンの例 Sense making and storytelling in UK museum STIMULATE VISITOR / CREATE INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES / FOSTER DEEPER ENGAGEMENT AND FURTHER THINKING?… 2. 日本のMUSEUM特性の延長線 ・話題性や集客性力では、SHIBUYAという街は「企画展」として抜きん出ている 3. ハコモノ拘束からの打開 ・建築物を持たない、ハコを取り除いて可能になる日常空間モバイルミュージアム 4. 価値体系の創造 ・博物館ー人間の営みの結果残されたもの全般、混在を受け入れる。主観的なものを客観的に伝えていくことが大事
Before the signing of MOU on May 15, a Colloquium was held with Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London (CSM) on May 14.
Eleven faculty members from Tokyo Tech (Prof. Kayoko Nohara, Prof. Junichi Takada, Prof. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Prof. Masahiro Susa, Prof. Haruyuki Fujii, Prof. Daisuke Kurabayashi, Prof. Minoru Nakayama, Assoc. Prof. Naoya Abe, Assoc. Prof. Wataru Hijikata, and Hiroshi Tsuda(Executive officer of Concent, Inc.), and Susumu Yoneyama (URA)), four from CSM (Prof. Till, Ms. Dickson, and Project Professors of WRHI, Dr. (Reader) Betti Marenko and Dr. Ulrike Oberlack) gathered at the venue in South Bldg. 5. Heather Barnett and Dr. Nathan Cohen also joined from London via Skype. During the colloquium, in addition to launching the White Paper, Becoming Hybrid, which reflects the collaboration between the two universities in the past two and a half years and celebrated and celebrating the official MOU, the participants also joined a workshop utilizing LEGO to consider the methodology and meaning of Transdisciplinarity. Students from Nohara lab also assisted with the telecommunication, facilitation, and running of the event.
At the colloquium, faculty members from varying specialty gathered. It started with greeting and reflections on the previous activities by Dr. Marenko, Dr. Oberlack, and Prof. Nohara. The series of events and activities between the two universities started from a symposium in May 2017 and was followed by teaching and research residence of the CSM teaching faculties at Tokyo Tech, philosophy cafes, Wearable workshops, public workshop, and joint workshop held at CMS in London. With documentary films, the report showed the roadmap of the past explorations of the methodology and future visions of Transdisciplinarity. It had also gained grants from the Arts Council, Tokyo. This journey had been supported by diverse participants from educational institutions and corporations. Sharing the fruits of the experiments so far, Prof. Nohara also clarified that the final purpose of this project is not making products but raising questions and seeking solutions through the Transdisciplinarity when facing the uncertain future.
In the following session, Barnett via Skype facilitated a workshop utilizing LEGO as a tool. At the venue in Tokyo Tech, the participants were divided into three groups. First, every one produced their own LEGO works based on their own considerations of Hybrid Methodology, issues and visions about the future collaboration. At this stage, the works were abstract and carried out in silence. In the next part, the group members explained the meanings of their works inside the groups. Then it opened to the floor with the groups presenting their ideas and discussions. Dr. Cohen also joined from London and presented his LEGO work. The models were all unique, some taking metaphors from “flower”, “window”, and “human body”, some endowed with the meanings of “feasibility”, “diversity”, and “uncertainty”. The participants, using English or Japanese with the facility of simultaneous interpretation, and traveling between Tokyo and London, together delineated the unlimited potential and positive vision of Transdisciplinarity and Hybrid Methodology. Prof. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto from architectural studies employed “network” as the concept, joined LEGO bricks of different colors and the work became a large structure, which seemed to symbolize a “hybrid”. Hiroshi Tsuda presented one of which the bricks were added to each other not through the intended joining parts and revealed the expectation of the collaboration to question the conventional ways. He also presented the significance to explore once again the merger of varying disciplines before the process of modernization in the context of Japan.
In the final part, the participants expressed their visions of the future after the signing of MOU. Prof. Wataru Hijikata, who specializes in Mechanical Design and collaboration between medical studies and engineering (for example, artificial hearts) shared his opinion from the perspective of research in science and technology and presented the significance of the collaboration between science/technology and art/design, “science and technology is convenient in a way however it is art that entertain people. Only through the merger can we find the way leading to happiness.”
Staff and students from Nohara Lab also supported and participated in the colloquium. They also expressed the ideas about Transdisciplinarity and Hybrid after participating in the colloquium. Chihiro Wada (Doctoral first year) put down that “there is an attractive possibility the hybrid of art and science can bring to the world through influencing and complementing each other… I feel that art has rich resources or elements that science tends to lack or disregard such as “beauty” or “heart” or “kokoro” in Japanese. It is certainly impossible to enrich the world only by pursuing the technology or convenience. There are plenty of things that I can learn from the hybrid and I believe that it represents or indicates a lot about the depth or complexity of the world and also, human being.” Takumi Saito (Master’s first year) expressed his opinion that “the significance of hybridity emerges when each discipline faces problems that it cannot tackle with on its own.” The project also anticipates further exploration of the methods of Transdisciplinarity and Hybrid from the enthusiastic students and researchers.
With vibrant discussions, the colloquium crossed boundaries of language, academic disciplines, and physical space. The project members refreshed themselves after the MOU and would like to embrace further challenges with confidence and courage.
A report/Narrativisation from UX Designer of the Existential Wearables Event
(29 Sept, 2018 @ Shibuya Hikarie)
“What people are going to wear in Tokyo in ten years” is an stimulating question.
We are trying to put into real designs the ideas and dialogues about people who we have not met and a new age no one has even seen.
It is difficult to predict the future in our age. The economics world called it “VUCA” age. Originally a military jargon, “VUCA” takes the caption letters from”Volatility”, “Uncertainty”, “Complexity”, and “Ambiguity”.
In this kind of complexity and diversity, “dialogue” attracts our attention. Dialogues lead to new discoveries, new ideas, and understanding/meaning of one’s self and relation with the wider society. This process is called “emergence”.
Mental model of this process to create meanings can be roughly divided into the following three:
1) Mental model to create human beings (religion, philosophy, ethics and morality)
2) Mental model to convey authority and history (legends, folklores)
3) Mental model in the field of learning, guiding, and counseling.
There are differences in these models among the individuals and collective groups. Complete sharing of mental model is difficult. Through hearing and sharing, however, similar mental models take shapes. The elements to lead to this kind of sharing and sense of sympathy include “reality”, “believability”, “feasibility”, “relatable”, “attention”, “attraction”. This process diverges from “embedded narrative” and is called “emergent narrative”. It is exactly this mechanism that bridges sense of sympathy with others with new ideas.
UX Design also constructs dialogues with its pre-assumed users and customers. Through systems of software designs and engineering, dialogues will be facilitated and barriers of operation will be lessen. It wishes to build more convenient tools and better relationship that meet the needs of the future.
Gen Tatsumi, UX Designer PIVOT Inc.
https://pivot.jp/
With the theme, “what people are going to wear in Tokyo in ten years”, students and those working in varying fields in the society formed three teams and participated in the hackathon. Before the event, sharing of the foundational viewpoints of the project was also held. It was a sharing of a question of the actual being of human life. The hackathon was carried out to find answers to “what is life” and “what is the life form when the concrete bodies are attached with machines in the modern society.”
The products of the teamwork may look crude at the first sight but they are actually suggestive metaphor for future technology. When the prototype was put on the body, we will also realize its performativity. This “performativity” is also a performance of culture, encompassing anthropological insights and artistic expression. In addition, as revealed by performance studies by Richard Schechner and John MacAloon, we can also find the narrativity (self-reflection) and boundary (between daily and non-daily) in this “performativity”.
Life forms and Technology
The products of the teams are as following. Team A conceived a kind of clothes to incorporate in wind. Team B designed a kind of nose device that sells health information from the nasal mucosa. Team C produced a kind of mask that offers the face consolation and defense. They proposed air, mucosa, skin of face as varying types of interface to directly mediate the inside and outside of the life forms.
Incorporating air, the design of Team A aimed at something beyond saving the weight of clothes. The idea was to circulate the win inside of the clothes and the outside environment – a kind of wind that plays with the clothes. The performance also attracted imagination and presented beautifully a life form of circulations across the boundaries of the bodies. Team B revealed a near-future technology. It aimed not at controlling of the health information but was based on a vision that one’s health information can serve as be sold. The performance showed the full energy of agency and a spirit of challenge. Team C pursued a strong wall to cut off the outside environment and the wearer. Their performance shared with the Japanese Noh masks and revealed a sense of tranquility. I can already feel its potential to be used in business scenes.
Task to Cope with or Integrate with Society of Risks
Although the three teams showed their differences in the directions, they vividly reflect the issues of the mega city, Tokyo. We can see the uncertainty and insecurity from the life forms when facing the “society of risks”. According to sociologist, Ulrich Beck, “risk” is different from “danger”. Rather than dangers such as natural disasters, “risks” refer to those due to human actions, for example, environmental issues, nuclear power, manipulation of genes, and abuse of data. The responsible actor is the individuals (This is also called “individualization”.) This is the actuality of “society of risks”. It requires every individual’s to proactively act for social reformation. To realize the real “safety and security”, individual’s participation and social inclusion becomes urgent in our time.
Technology used to control risks to free the life forms from surveillance. Media theorist KITANO Keisuke proposed that “control” should be translated as “manage (kanri)” rather than “control (seigyo)” in Japanese (Kitano, Control and Society or Seigyo to shakai). This kind of “control”, as presented in this hackathon, can be seen as individuals’ control of technology out of awareness to facilitate circulation among inside and out of bodies and proactively “sell” one’s health information. If we “integrate” the designs of the three teams, we can also see a kind of “internal tranquility” sustained in the imagined future. Throughout the process of the performance, image, affection, and unconsciousness without verbalization can also be observed. They managed to be turned into the prototypes under controls. Technology and performance are deeply intertwined. It is this kind of intimate relationship that gave birth to real “safety and security”.
Participants’ Report: “Lecture on Mode” by Keisuke Nagami, HATRA fashion designer, 2018.6.26
-From frontier to Normal – Media and fashion-
(By Marina Yamaha, Media Faculty, Josai International University)
Through this lecture, I had a chance to think about fashion transitions for human beings and life forms from the perspective of fashion design. I found the way of thinking and the view of the world of Mr. Nagami who is the designer of “HATRA” very interesting.
“Read fashion expressions”, based on this big theme as an extension of humanity, Mr. Nagai covered mainly the following three points:
Gender resolution
Frontier of uncanniness
Meaninglessness, irrationality
Here I’d like to introduce these points in order and my ideas.
“Gender resolution”
It was natural for people to wear clothes designed respectively for men and women. However, since the beginning of the popularization of SNS, gender differences began to shake and it started affecting fashion design. In the collection of JW Anderson of 2013, fashion of an entirely new figure which had not been seen before was proposed with the gender borderless design. With that as a start, GUCCI ‘s design for men changed drastically within one year, and the proposal to reconsider about gender in the fashion industry spread.
I caught that the fashion design indicates the gender resolution of the era. In my everyday life I still find a clear difference in fashion design between men and women, but in the future, maybe after ten years, the gap may disappear and the time of selecting clothing design faithfully to their own sensitivity will come. By watching the transition of fashion design industry carefully, I think that the way of thinking of gender in modern times and future will come to be more clearly visible.
“Uncanniness Frontier”
“Uncanniness Frontier” indicates the expansion of the range that human beings can accept, which has been adopted little by little in design from a long time ago. As times and places change, the meaning of things also changes. For example, the aristocratic dresses that showed a big, padded Bustle in the 1870s were regarded as uncanny at first. In a more recent example, in collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Final Fantasy in 2016, Louis Vuitton also showed a challenging and rich creativity, which shows fashion has been and is evolving all the time.
While listening to the story of this uncanniness frontier, I find fresh his description of “new, unprecedented and up to date things” using the word “uncanniness”. The feeling when a person encounters a new thing is not necessarily a positive thing, and it is often negative as it is a threatening and it is uncanny. However, once that uncanniness becomes good for himself and accepted by many people, it will eventually be updated to “normal”. I noticed that the design has expanded and will continue to change through this iteration.
“Meaninglessness ”and ”Irrationality”
The power of imagination that extracts intuition just before the meaning gets into shape by analyzing lots of detailed data. Mr. Nagami expressed them as “meaninglessness” and “irrationality”. I found that this intuition as “meaninglessness” and “irrationality” is to do with individual personalities and that moves people’s mind. A design born in such intuition may make a leap forward in future fashion design. Based on these, Mr. Nagami says that the users (or recipients of fashion design) can expand their body by updating their own sense of beauty and regarding something uncanny as ordinary and natural design. Understanding a certain fashion design using modern services and freshly making a fusion mean “decoding the body”. And finally, he concluded that the design accepted in the era becomes an ordinary design of that time, and that it would stimulate the generation and the next even if it is not accepted.
Through Ms. Nagami’s interpretation of fashion as an expression, I learned that fashion design is “an area that can be expanded as a self-expression by human beings”. Actually the change fashion in each era represents the male and female images of the time and I felt that modern fashion may slowly be losing its boundaries. In addition, it is possible to fuse clothes fashion with things other than clothes, so in the near future, even the concept of “clothes” may be lost and some digital wearable fashion with a different concept can be born. Also, if you combine media and fashion, which I am studying daily, we can propose various types of fashion to society. Media as a help of smooth cycle of unlocking uncanniness becomes more necessary than ever I think.
For the first time, had a chance to consider about human expansion from a viewpoint of fashion. It was a very meaningful time to know that there are various viewpoints in fashion design as well. I am looking forward to seeing how fashion design will be updated in the future.
Until now I always thought that people called “artists” are distant from the business world and are of an unusual people who are pursuing their own sensitivity. But that was a mistake. I learned that they have for a long time played a very important role in the business world. This discovery occurred while I was listening to Mr. Nagami’s lecture and learned “artists are uncanniness adorers.” Mr. Nagami says ” When a person sees something, he sometimes finds it uncanny and sometimes not. Stability is a sense of comfortableness obtained as a result of scraping up pieces of knowledge he already holds about the thing. Uncanniness emerges when such a stable picture crumbles.” Artists like uncanniness, which general consumers would rather avoid. He however further said using an example in which the sleeve which Vietnamese dubbed suddenly gradually penetrated to general consumers, “Things that modern people find not uncanny used to be taken uncanny before. This frontier, or borderline, which demarcates not uncanny or uncanny, constantly continues to expand.”
Indeed, unless there are artists pursuing uncanniness, the frontier general consumers reach doesn’t move forward. Without them, we would have felt uncanniness looking at the person walking in the city with a T-shirt and a pair of jeans today. In the modern market, companies using IT, including services like Amazon, Google, etc., measure and analyze everything we do in our daily lives and have sophisticated marketing activities. They can suggest what we need even before we do realize what we need. In an “ultimate form of marketing” they can induce people buy things subliminally and that will lead consumption in the future. However, what they can measure and analyze is “the past” at all times. Perhaps it is at best consuming more “jeans” that Google would recommend to people who already wear jeans every day as what they look at as data is always the past.
With the help from artists who pursue and propose uncanniness and spread the frontier, a man who wears jeans everyday might for the first time come up with the idea of trying a new, recently emerging kinds of trousers. “Artists” are not people who are diverting from the business world pursuing their favorite things, but also people who constantly create the way of our self-realization and some seeds for future consumption. I now recognize them as irreplaceable even in the context of marketing.
Preface to Biotechnology Café Wearable Café Today, the way we view life is changing. We have diverse narratives about life, including sustaining life by use of biotechnology, genetic engineering, eternal life, peaceful and natural way of dying, and self and the periphery (inorganic, AL, etc.) In fashion, we don’t merely seek only trend and culture, but rather a profound connection to life as well. We need to develop new fashion that makes working easier and wearables to ensure the safety of the elderly, children and the disabled as well as to save life at the time of disaster. In addition, numerous reports in the media contain voices that appear to suggest in the form of concrete requests how technology should be handled in coming years.
“It’s too painful to connected too closely.” “I don’t want to die from overwork. I want to have a different work style.” “It must be extremely hard to be an elderly care giver as well as to receive such care.” “I want to see children being happy.” “I want to eat safe food.” “I want to live in a society where privacy is respected rather than monitored.” Behind these voices seems to lie our unconscious sense of impending crisis of the life. In this project, we will create “biotechnology wearables. Through wearables, we will explore how technology should ensure the safety and growth of the individual. It’s a life liberating technology. To this end, we will first think about social context (background) and explore materials.
Endless possibilities of Materials (Talk by Professor Takeshi Kutani, Professor of School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Tech) Professor Kikutani is a prominent researcher on fiber. He explained how we view materials in terms of biomimesis, (like something similar to human skin), high efficiency, comfortability, health promotion, renewability. Specifically, he mentioned the following as new fiber materials:
Clothes that have the same structure as human skin (biomimesis, health promotion)
Ultimate black fiber (high efficiency)
Fiber colored without dye (high efficiency)
Artificial hair (high efficiency)
Stab-proof, bullet-proof clothes and their weakness (high efficiency)
Fiber materials utilizing softness and elasticity (comfortability, health promotion)
Fiber with logo woven on the cross-section
These are conceivable fiber materials at the current stage. We discussed what potential they would have in the light of today’s social context(background).
Café starts!! The café event consisted of 6 teams, Team A~F (6 members in each team, 60% of them were students and 40% were members of society.) 2 rounds
Team A: Wear it as you feel <Social context> Tokyoite, who are swayed by trend, the media and information input from the market, may be able to gain autonomy if they resharpen their senses and make and wear what they want to wear in a primitive way. It would be also possible to construct new concept for intellectual property, designer identity, distribution channels, and industry system. It is to be noted that our discussion is based on the assumed medical advancement and population increase as a result of inflex of foreign workers in the next 10 years. <Material> Morpho butterfly’s biological replication technology, and highly stretchable advanced fiber material for good individual size adjustment <Final idea> We propose primitive and liberating clothes making using a 3D printer, which makes it possible to wear what one feel like wearing on each day. Size and color can be adjustable to a certain degree by dial on the printer. Designs by professional designers are preinstalled as software and downloadable. It would be interesting if the current condition of the wearer, which he/she is unaware of, could be reflected in the design by using the printer in conjunction with a sensor. Material is inserted into the printer just like ink, and after making clothes, it can be used as ink again. (Facilitator/reporter: Kayoko Nohara)
Team B: Clothes that could be worn for life <Social context>Clothing is a boundary between self and world/society, or between the private and the public. <Material>Biomimetics of morph butterfly and elastic fiber material allowing individual size adjustment <Final idea>Wearing a piece of cloth that one can transform freely. Size (fitting and compression) can be tailored to one’s taste. Color is also adjustable by coloring biomimetic technology. It can be fitted to the size of a child as he/she grows, which makes it unnecessary to dispose old clothes nor buy new ones. These are sustainable clothes made of a piece of cloth that could be worn for life. Expressing self becomes easier because it can be designed to fit to one’s taste. It also frees people from conforming to the custom in which they try to follow fashion trends and wear what others wear. So far this sort of social norm has been widespread and dictated what people should wear. Social norm and peer pressure of this sort may be broken in a good sense if people from all walks of life start wearing what they like. (Facilitator/reporter: Izumi Watahiki)
Team C: Wearable RIZAP <Social context>One interesting idea that came up other than the final idea was to wear makeup by just covering up the face with a transparent cloth. One could finish the make-up process by using this cloth when pressed for time in the morning. This cloth also could be used to hide the parts of your face you don’t want to show, for example for covering up unshaved parts of your face or blocking ultraviolet rays. “Hiding what you don’t want to show” may be linked to Japanese mentality. <Final idea> This cloth is something like a controlling undergarment which prevents overeating and overnutrition and corrects posture. It also has a feature to monitor activity level. The purpose of this device is for health maintenance and management. Light and elastic material is ideal. (Facilitator/reporter: Tomomi Wada)
Team D: Safe to wear, safe to put on <Social context> Some members expressed discomfort they experience on a packed train where they are pressed against strangers but unable to push them back because of their small frames. This led us to think about developing function to create personal space. We also tried to incorporate some social problems into our idea. They included fear of falling victim to crime, health-related concerns such as air pollution, pandemic and overuse of mobile devices in city life. One proposed idea was to have clothes that enable us to share our feeling and emotions with people around us without use of language. For example, at a live concert, audience could express their excitement by the light of the clothes they wear, which is incorporated into the production to create a performer- audience united live concert experience. <Final idea> We came up with a function that has a structure enabling to take out hoods and cloaks made of transparent and durable material whenever necessary from a choker-shaped device. It also inflates hoods and cloaks. This function helps to have personal space in crowed spaces and protect the wearer in the face of menace by a prowler. Furthermore, because of its transparency, it allows us to enjoy fashion as well as enjoy as an entertainment by making it of shinning material. Some of the other additional functions proposed include built-in solar power generation to charge mobile devices and antimicrobial/disproof processing that provides protection from hay, virus and PM2.5. (Facilitator/reporter: Ayano Nagata)
Team E: SMART WEAR <Social context> 1. Automation → Something that navigates dwellers moving in public spaces 2. Sense of isolation → Could connect people who have same interests in the community as SNS do 3. Lack of space → Stylish clothes which save storage space 4. Overconcentration of population, congestion → Secure personal space by wearables 5. Work-related stress → Something that makes stress visible so that others could notice it <Material> Biomimetic technology materials (materials that look different depending on the reflection of light like the surface of morpho butterfly wings) <Final idea> One piece all in one jacket that is suitable for summer / winter climate in Japan and versatile to reproduce colors and patterns that match various business scenes. Its smart textile in conjunction with hardware could keep you stay cool in summer and warm in winter. It could change color and pattern freely, so you could respond seamlessly to changes in the scene. Tokyo is a hub for business and fashion where people’s appearance is important. It is an idea that draws on the social background where the clothes for each season are necessary and storage space is limited in small houses. (Facilitator/reporter: Kengo Arai)
Team F: Stay personal <Final idea> There was a proposal from students who took up the noise problem that every personal space could be secured by not onlyblocking the sound from outside but also removing all the sounds emitted within the house. As a solution, we thought of wearables based on the concept of creating a personal space that could be insulated. So, we started with the idea of covering the mouth when emitting sound and coving the ears when wishing to block the sound coming from the outside, which led to what we can remove when it is not used. The hood and the part covering the neck would be made of sound insulation material with a built-in speaker in the part covering the ears and a built-in microphone in the part covering the mouth. This way, it would be possible to establish a personal space anywhere as well as use it in conjunction with a mobile phone using Bluetooth. (Facilitator/reporter: Shogo Egashira)
[Future tasks] It is worth noting that an appropriate sense of distance between self and world, and problems concerning personal space surfaced in many team discussions. A good sense of distance is important for human emotions and existence, and for the matter maintenance of life. Although it is easy to focus only on ideas for developing devices, I think that our next task would be how to realize it in terms of securing personal space. In modern thought, “not being connected too much” (Masaya Chiba, philosopher) is beginning to be advocated so as not to create a society where individuals are kept under mutual surveillance by being too tied. It is not an overstatement, I feel, to say that this is a social issue that we need to deal with for the protection of our lives. (Facilitator & reporter: Hiroshi Tsuda)
On May 12th, 2018, Art and Science Cafe “Many Headed: co-creating with the collective” was held with at the Shibuya Hikarie by the facilitation of Dr. Heather Barnett from University of the Arts London Central Sains Martins.
This event explored living systems from an art perspective, and used these ideas to think creatively about the possibilities of what Wearables could be, how they could function and be worn. As an exercise in thinking through making this event was spurred by a thought experiment: playing with randomly selected variables to generate ideas. From lists of ‘biological systems’, ‘communication devices’ and ‘parts of the body’, a roll of the dice decided which items were selected, provoking imaginative and creative speculations for the wearables of the near future.
Following the lecture by Heather, the participants were divided into groups and each group gave a presentation. As the participant, Suwa Aoi from the University of Arts accounted, Bioart was interesting for her to think about who was the subject that carried out the role of expressing and communicating. Another member also shared that there was similarity between the movement of the fungi and that of the society and finance.
Started from Heather’s practices and design, the discussions developed and encompassed a reconsideration of the larger structure of the society, animism, body, urban space, and biotechnology. This stimulating event called for further thinking of those taken for granted in our daily life.
Event Reflection
(by Aoi Suwa, Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Painting)
In this Art and Science Cafe “Many Headed: co-creating with the collective”, the participants were invited to appreciate Dr. Heather Barnett’s artistic approach to slime molds, and expands the discussion about what it means for humans and other organisms to coexist, what is “life”, and what kind of symbiosis could be realized in the mega city of “Tokyo”.
The event outline was a lecture by Dr. Heather and brief discussion with the members at venue, followed with workshop and discussion in groups divided by specialties. In the introductory lecture, Dr. Heather explained about what slime molds are and her past works. She shared the finding of how community could be observed from the structure of real organisms, and raised the possibility of how they might be greatly useful for our human society.
I also watched Dr. Heather’s video on TED, so I was very excited to listen her lecture in live. At that time, she asked one question: “How can a biological system such as slime mold can be useful for your work (life)?”. For me who was in the fine art field, I found this question surprisingly difficult. Even if there are various possibilities for applying biological systems to design field, when considering about how to express them, I feel like the slime molds are already too attractive by themselves, or rather already completed beings with no need for further value addition. Even if we were to present slime molds as themselves, do we really need an artist there? Can we call the presenter as artist?–and so on–many questions that cannot be easily answered began to emerge.
I honestly talked about them with my fellow friends from art field and they immediately sympathized with them. When I think about bio-art and about who the artist is, I feel that when the living thing or biological system is in the medium, they do not just function as medium but also serve as the expression. In such case, I feel like the one who do the expression in a true sense is not the human who set the situation but the inhuman being instead.
When being confronted in such position, I think there are various ways in which our human expressions can become more advanced without just leave them to non-human beings. However, they are more likely to be the clues to the reality that can be felt through the human body, and I believe it is a grand question that can only be answered by steady exploration. Since it leads to the phenomenon and problem representation of my graduation thesis work, I would like to continue thinking about it.
Next, one person from the same table group showed us video of similar creatures and talked about the structure of electronic money called blockchain. Certainly, the reason why the movement of slime molds feel similar to the movement of sociology and finance is probably because the predation and economic activities are related to the instinctive profits and losses of living things, and I felt the reality there. I also thought that the biological system of slime molds is indeed a community,and it has high affinity image with social community that has similar structure.
After that, each group briefly present the content of discussion and Dr. Heather summarized it. After a short break, Dr. Heather showed some practical activities through videos. The content of the video focused on how humans can think of a community system just like slime molds, and how people become “slime molds” by performing movements inside certain space (probably a maze), with holding hands together and eyes closed. I felt a very strong sociological point of view from there. Dr. Heather presentation made me to think about the “how to coexist” message and obtained many hints for overcoming what is going to happen on this earth from now on.
Also, just like when I heard about it during lecture from Prof. Betty Marenko of CSM University of the Arts London who came to Tokyo Tech, the word of “animism” was repeatedly used as a keyword. It left strong impression and started to connect together in my head. It is probably because while it is a fresh way of thinking, it also felt familiar. When I think about where the familiarity comes from, I feel they are very much like Eastern ideas. In a sense, it may feel novel that the ideas that have been taken for granted as an Eastern view are being spoken in Western languages. I felt the strength of the ideological structure, which seems to be based on logic even under such uncertainty that has never been seen before.
Furthermore, such feelings will be further enhanced in the workshops that followed. After the lecture, we were divided into groups of somewhat equal numbers of person from art field, science field, and other professionals, and we began new work. First of all, we were asked to list 6 for each “biological system”, “communication means”, and “part of body”. After listing, Dr. Heather rolled three-colored dices. We were instructed to discuss and think about ideas in groups using the words with the numbers corresponding to the dice rolls.
My group was designated as “biological system: fingerprint”, “communication means: Morse code”, and “part of body: eyes”. Various voice of confusions came from each group, but I personally think that the topics our group obtained was relatively easy to be thought about.
From the argument that Morse code does not necessarily have to be digital, it progressed to the talk that even fingerprints do not have to be so-called fingerprint authentication. With further advice from Dr. Heather about how to convey the focus of the story and to whom, we managed to deepen the basic story. I also talked about the fact that art works are exactly the same, and that theaters are a typical example of such system.
I talked about how in theater, the performers on the stage also express and communicate with the other performers on the stage, and that there is a composition where many people see that limited situation.I tried to connect it with that even when a specific person communicates with a specific person using some kind of fingerprint, it is possible that the majority of other people can also see it. We were able to deepen the discussion on it, bur Dr. Heather rolled the dice for the second time around that, and since it also seemed to be interesting, the discussion moved to the second combination.
This time, we got “Biological system: Authentication”, “Communication means: Carrier pigeon”, and “Part of body: Claws”. This time, it was not a bad combination, but I think that a word that can’t be ignored: ‘carrier pigeon’ would be the center of theme. In a sense, the discussion spread to the opposite vector from previously, and we started to bring the discussion direction to what about attaching GPS to the claws of the carrier pigeon so that it can be tracked. I feel it’s like a dream to be able to combine modern technology with mechanism that was once commonly used. Further discussions evolved into the possibility that the pigeon trajectory data obtained by the GPS could be used for something else. At that point, I felt that the trajectory that the pigeon showed was already a message, and it was not necessary to carry some conventional documents. When I proposed it, some people in the group sympathized with it so we concluded the discussion to that direction.
The beginning lecture about slime molds by Dr. Heather was also a stimulus, and it became a talk that if slime molds draw a two-dimensional world, then the trajectory drawn by pigeon will be three-dimensional, and it was very exciting discussion. During the presentation, we presented those ideas as pigeons that do not carrying things, but instead use the location information as media art works. While talking and considering about what is required for this time theme, after thinking about it again, it might be better to put at the core of the message that the invisible shape of the city could be highlighted by flying pigeons around Tokyo.
Other groups also presented about very unique ideas, such as signal that can express emotions with color, nail pet that can visualize and keep invisible bacteria on the nails, and educational ideas that allow us to think of a city as an intestine and learn about the properties of oil and water in it.
I originally thought that these kind of group works tend to end up become things that unrealistic, or conversely, too realistic in the common case. But, Dr. Heather’s skillful gimmicks has enabled the certain amount of absurdity and the logic part that can be derived from it being mixed very well. I felt the exquisite balance that I have felt since the beginning of the lecture, and I could enjoy it like a game while also easily have the logic in the output of ideas.
I wondered if Dr. Heather’s works were also born in this kind of way. It was a very exciting group work where I was able to witness a piece of Dr. Heather’s style of design-thinking. I am really honored to be able to participate in a project that could bring a feeling of thinking like this.
I become very interested in the future projects of the professors, and was very looking forward to participate since the content is closely related to what I have been thinking for my art production. Thank you Dr. Heather, Prof. Nohara, and everyone involved for this wonderful opportunity!
Aoi Suwa, Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Painting
ヘザー・バーネット先生によるイベント体験記録/渋谷ヒカリエ8F COURTにて
3月12日、東工大「生命体テクノロジーウェアラブルカフェ」の一環である、ヘザー・バーネット先生によるワークショップイベント「Many Headed: co-creating with the collective」が渋谷ヒカリエ8Fにて開催されました。