The new collaboration programme between Tokyo Institute of Technology and London University of the Arts Central Saint Martins (CSM) continued with the 4th session of our “Hybrid Innovation” programme for selected members of participating companies on Tuesday, 30th November 2021.
Session 4 welcomed Prof. Masahiko Hara, a researcher in nanotechnology, who conducted a thought experiment on how to solve problems by following the movement of an amoeba.
In today’s age of overflowing and increasingly complex information, events are occurring every day that exceed the amount of information that can be handled by computers. Under such circumstances, many problems have emerged that cannot be dealt with by scientific thinking, which is based on the principle of ‘certainty’ that ‘mistakes cannot be made’. The ability to deal with uncertain events is the key to Hybrid Innovation. We deciphered this mechanism from the movements of the amoeba, a primitive organism, and explored and discussed ways to use it in practice with the participating companies.
The Hybrid Innovation program uses translation-based communication methods to explore approaches to unknown areas to find new possibilities that can be hard to develop within a single industry.
In this program, companies embody the process to Hybrid Innovation. This merges “multi-communication” to transcend disciplinary boundary, promote the fusion of knowledge and change mindsets. The programme also aims stimulate innovative strategies in each participating company.
Activity period: October 2021 to April 2022
PROGRAMME CONTENT: Seminars, workshops, manufacturing, experiments, creative community activities, etc. that flexibly use face-to-face and online. A final symposium – open to participating companies and the public – is scheduled for April 2022.
The World Research Hub Initiative at Tokyo Tech (WRHI) have released a new set of videos outlining the work of its Satellite Labs. A complete English transcript and more info can be found below the video.
[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]
STADHI is a transdisciplinary research group based at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) in close collaboration with Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UK). Activities are funded by WRHI, the World Research Hub Initiative, an innovative research platform at Tokyo Tech. A number of renowned natural and social scientists, engineers, world famous designers and artists are actively involved in the collaborative research activities.
STADHI stands for Science and Technology and Art and Design Hybrid Innovation. This laboratory aims to pursue a space for academic fusion that reconsiders the conceptual mindsets that we researchers have unconsciously come to accept. We are working on a theoretical model of the processes that promote the integration of science technology art and design so that it can be applied to transdisciplinary research education and human resource development. We also accommodate subject-specific research projects, including speculative arts and design activities using the framework of “scientists in residence”, and research on craft and sustainability, olfactory devices and service development.
My specialisation is in translation studies and semiotics. The role of translation in this research project is immense. Translation is transferring meaning from one language or semiotic system to another. It is all about making a new otherwise difficult communication possible as it connects the people and discussions between very different cultures and disciplines. We utilize a variety of scientific and art strategies to observe and analyse the emerging integration of science and art, as well as translation strategies and other analytical tools.
We publish academic articles on specialist transdisciplinary subjects and on the hybrid research methodologies employed. We issue videos on our findings and also create original artwork and multimedia material from the fusion of art and design with science and technology, and we disseminate processes and findings through events and blog posts. In our research we work very closely with a small team of researchers and professors from Central Saint Martins in London. In particular, Betti Marenko who is a philosopher and design theorist, Heather Barnett who is an artist and teaches art and science at Central Saint Martins, and Nathan Cohen who is doing research on olfactory art.
STADHI has built the future-building hybrid innovation programme, comprising STEAM-type development modules for education and human resources based on the outcomes of the studies we have produced. We are now working with those new collaborators from the industries to achieve further insights through tackling complex social issues with a hybrid innovation model.
The new collaboration programme between Tokyo Institute of Technology and London University of the Arts Central Saint Martins (CSM) continued with the third session of our “Hybrid Innovation” programme for selected members of participating companies on Tuesday, 16th November, 2021.
In Session 3, we held a group discussion on NFT art. We considered the various possibilities of the unexplored NFT art market and asked the groups to give a presentation. The activities employed the team building methodologies explored in Session 2, covering how to come up with ideas for unexplored areas that the new team will challenge. The exercise focused on using translation strategies to not only bring together but also grow different opinions across different industries.
The Hybrid Innovation program uses translation-based communication methods to explore approaches to unknown areas to find new possibilities that can be hard to develop within a single industry.
In this program, companies embody the process to Hybrid Innovation. This merges “multi-communication” to transcend disciplinary boundary, promote the fusion of knowledge and change mindsets. The programme also aims stimulate innovative strategies in each participating company.
Activity period: October 2021 to April 2022
PROGRAMME CONTENT: Seminars, workshops, manufacturing, experiments, creative community activities, etc. that flexibly use face-to-face and online. A final symposium – open to participating companies and the public – is scheduled for April 2022.
Creating the Future “Hybrid Innovation”, Session 2
The second session of our Hybrid Innovation programme for industry was attended on Tuesday 26th October 2021 by selected members of the participating companies. This series of events led by scholars from Tokyo Tech and Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London, UK) explore a new approach to business innovation, developed by the two institutions to respond to complex challenges faced by 21st c. society. Following an introduction session on the need for methodological transdisciplinarity and openness, the second event covered the need to build teams and organisational cultures that can enable Hybrid Innovation. Dr Tuukka Toivonen, Course Leader of MA Innovation Management at CSM, gave an inspiring talk and led a team-building exercise to develop ideas and assimilate key concepts.
The social, environmental and economic problems facing contemporary society require new approaches built on the power of transdisciplinarity. In this context, companies can increase resilience and creativity by constructing diverse teams and using communication strategies to turn ideas into reality. An interactive exercise based on real-case scenarios provided the context for simulation and discussion between lecturers and participants.
The session was held at the STADHI office at Nohara Lab, Tokyo Tech, with participants joining both in person and online. In line with all events in the programme, a Miro board was used to facilitate interactions and collate all information related to the session.
By inviting experts in their respective fields – engineers and scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology, artists and designers from CSM – the programme offers participating companies a broader perspective to discuss ways to integrate different fields. Future events will continue continue the exchange between Tokyo Tech, CSM and the participating companies to develop new possibilities for innovation that are not achievable through scientific thinking alone, and to continue research that will feed future industrial and social development.
Can I enjoy the train even if I’m away? Train ride experience with 360-degree video
Rail operators are facing difficult working conditions as the number of passengers using the railways has decreased due to people refraining from going out due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection. In response, this event will carry out a satellite experiment on railways to examine the possibility of a service that would allow people to enjoy railways even when they are away from the train without boarding. In the experiment, participants will watch a 360-degree video showing a train window view of the Isumi Railway running on the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, and we will analyse the effects of the presence and combination of scents and sounds on their emotional state and willingness to pay.
The Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (CSM) held the first session of the new collaborative programme Creating the Future “Hybrid Innovation” on Tuesday 12 October 2021.
In this program, we invite companies to embody the process of “Hybrid Innovation”, i.e. multi-communication, to transcend the boundaries of each company and to learn how to “fuse knowledge” and change ideas. We hope that the participation in this programme will lead to the promotion of innovative practices in the companies.
By inviting experts in their fields – engineers and scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology, artists and designers from CSM – we give participating companies a broader perspective and advocate a methodology of interdisciplinary fusion. We are also building new ways of collaboration, such as interactive discussions that can be joined online or face-to-face, in order to respond to post-Covid working conditions.
The program is organized by 5 members of Nohara Lab at Tokyo Tech including designers and engineers, and aims to establish a uniform methodology that can be used in future Hybrid Innovation with more than 20 participants. Through this program, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, CSM and the participating companies work together to develop new possibilities for innovation that have not been seen with scientific thinking alone, and to continue research that will feed future industrial and social development.
Period of activity: October 2021 – April 2022
Content of the programme: seminars, workshops, making, experiments and creative community activities using flexible face-to-face and online formats. There will also be a final symposium (open to participating companies and the public).
PROGRAMME CONTENT: Seminars, workshops, manufacturing, experiments, creative community activities, etc. that flexibly use face-to-face and online. A final symposium – open to participating companies and the public – is scheduled for April 2022.
A free STEAM education workshop will be held online on 16th June 2021 by staff and students from MA Art and Science (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London), and led by WRHI Visiting Professors Nathan Cohen and Heather Barnett. The event will examine new STEAM methods developed as part of the Erasmus+ STEAM INC project examining higher education, engagement and policy.
The workshop is part of a large educational programme on the integration of arts and science funded by the European Union and run by six European universities and one cultural organisation who have pioneered STEAM approaches and methods.
The STEAM Inc Sites of Practice event will be of particular interest to educators, curriculum designers, pedagogy students and researchers and we hope that participants bring a broad range of disciplinary specialisms across the arts and sciences. Whether you are already working with STEAM education or are curious to find out more about how interdisciplinary methods could apply to your context, we look forward to interesting exploration and discussion.
Sites of Practice: new interdisciplinary methods of investigation
Wednesday 16 June 2021
Japan time (JST): 5:00-8:00 pm & 10:00-12:00 pm
[equivalent to UK time (BST) 9.00-12.00 & 14.00-16.00]
FREE event. Online on Zoom, hosted by Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London)
What you can gain from attending Sites of Practice?
Greater understanding of interdisciplinary STEAM practices
Examination of the potential of ‘site’ as a tool for interdisciplinary investigation
Insights into methods for developing interdisciplinary curriculum for HE
Tools for developing innovative methods for combining digital and situated learning
Connecting with others working in and developing STEAM educational tools and methods.
Keywords: art and science, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, STEAM, Higher Education, methodology, new methods, investigations, site work, Site-specificity, hybrid practices, pedagogy.
Schedule (PM, this is an evening event due to time difference with the UK):
5.00 Introduction to the day (including STEAM Inc context)
This article introduces the programme “Hybrid Innovation” Creating the Future: Transcending Boundaries through Multi-Communication, a new collaboration between Tokyo Tech and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (scroll down for English text).
A new collaboration was launched between the Tokyo Institute of Technology, a leading science and technology university, and Central Saint Martins (CSM), University of the Arts London, a world leader in art and design. The fusion of science and art can create a great wave of innovation in society and industry, beyond research and education. Following this approach, we have been engaging in various unique activities. → READ Prof. Nohara’s interview “Encouraging technological innovation through ‘translation'”: Tokyo Tech’s surprising research: a new discipline that enables the fusion of science and art, on Toyo Keizai ONLINE 2021.1.16 (in Japanese).
Our Science & Art Lab “Creative Flow” started in 2009. We have been running joint workshops on “Concept Designing” in collaboration with Musashino Art University and promoted dialogue between science and art in the Creative Café series. Collaboration between students and researchers from both disciplines has been shown to improve soft skills such as creativity, team management, communication, and problem-solving.
In 2017, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and CSM teamed up again to further promote the integration of knowledge across disciplines through speculative and interdisciplinary research activities such as: “the Experiment” Symposium (2017), the research project “Existential Wearables: what are we going to wear in Tokyo in 10 years’ time?” (2018), the joint workshop “Becoming Hybrid” (2019), and the design workshop “Hacking Hearts” (2019) about biotechnological research on the heart. This collaboration is recognized as a WRHI Satellite Lab at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, a centre for interdisciplinary research and creative practice between science and art.
At the point of contact between science & technology and art/design, we find ourselves bound by assumptions and habits as we encounter “others” who are different from us. We recognize alternative language cultures, ways of thinking and values. By leaving a comfort zone that is protected by homogeneous culture and placing ourselves in an interdisciplinary space, we can translate ourselves and embody a shift in thinking. Against this backdrop, we are implementing a program for companies that integrates human resources and information from different fields.
In a time of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), we cannot face future challenges with a fresh perspective if we remain complacent in existing fields and rely only on formulaic, conventional thinking. Innovation must be implemented in a social sense, not only in a technological sense. This requires innovation in our way of thinking. What is needed is a roadmap to think flexibly and overcome the segmentation of knowledge.
In this program, participating companies will experience a “Hybrid Innovation” process to establish a culture and methodology for creating innovation and transforming ideas. They will work with a diverse range of staff from Tokyo Tech and CSM, including scientists, engineers, artists, designers and philosophers, to provide a range of dynamic activities that connect science, technology and art. The participants will experience a multi-communication space and discussion where ideas reflect values, feelings and psychology without being bound by existing frameworks, and will gain insights for planning and executing strategies for creating unique innovation in their companies.
Program period: October 2022 – April 2023 (pre-season event in August/September 2022)
Application period: June 1, 2022 – September 15, 2022
Program contents: Seminars, workshops, manufacturing, experiments, and creative community activities that will be carried out flexibly face-to-face and/or online. The program will be concluded with a final symposium (limited to participating companies and open to the public).
This article introduces the “Technology and Product in Context” course by Dr Betti Marenko held in the 2020/21 autumn term for GSEC, the Global Scientists and Engineers Course. The classes included a series of 6 lectures and a workshop with the students on the third week. Design theorist Dr Marenko is WRHI Specially Appointed Professor at Tokyo Tech and Reader in Design and Techno-Digital Futures at Central Saint Martins (CSM), University of the Arts London, UK.
What does it mean to be human in a world designed to be smart? How well can we get along with machines that are unpredictable and inscrutable? How do we think about ‘hybrid futures’? These were some of the questions raised in the Technology and Product in Context lecture series by design theorist, academic and educator Dr Betti Marenko. The course – ended in February 2021 – was attended by about 15 students from various branches of engineering, social and life sciences, who share an interest in the future of technology, philosophical issues around design and making, design theory and science communication. The sessions were conducted entirely in English and online, using Zoom, PowerPoint and Miro boards. This article follows the structure of the course and outlines some of the key topics, references and examples discussed each week.
Dr Marenko’s publications focus on Design, Philosophy and Digital Futures (Credit: Marenko, 2021)
Dr Marenko has written extensively about technological futures and the role of design in the Post-Anthropocene, a future geological era that does not presuppose the presence of humans on Earth. Her “tools for thinking in the Post-Anthropocene” lie at the intersection of design, philosophy and technology. In her view, the development of future technologies needs to engage with complexity, and design can benefit from a shift “from problem solving to problem finding”. The first lecture explored the question of hybrid futures from a historical perspective, tracing the origins of the human-machine encounter back to the automata that emerged in Europe in the Renaissance period.
Dr Marenko discussed the history of automata, including The boy writer by Jaquet Droz (1770s) (Credit: unknown; slide by Marenko, 2021)
Prompted by questions on their views on “technology” and “context” – two keywords in the course title – the students proposed ideas such as “the unknown”, “a more harmonious and convenient society”, abstract and changeable ideas of “hope”, “cooperation” and “unpredictability”. For Marenko, the context of design is not simply a background to a project, but “mutually constituted ecologies” of interactions that retain an ability to ask better questions. She highlights the undivided nature of theory and practice through the image of the Moebius strip, a continuous form that is both inside and outside. Similarly, the contrast between what is human and non-human, or post-human, is dissolved in philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s definition of the human as “the machine that produces the notion of the human”. For design theorists Colomina and Wigley, “being human means being able to design”, and design is about changing the world. For Marenko, the boundaries between human and non-human need constant reassessing, and technology is what we use to address this instability. The lecture included numerous examples of artworks and writings that illustrate or embody her philosophical narratives.
Dr Marenko’s slides included striking images from popular culture, advertising and art projects (Credits: Apple Inc., 2015, left; Andy Taylor, 2012, right)
The course continued with an exploration of the concept of future through three keywords: expectation, imagination and anticipation. Anticipation is the capacity to imagine the non-existent future in the present, leading to the idea of ‘future proofing’. However, as Marenko puts it, “the conditions for change do change”. The simplistic assumption that future proofing is possible, let alone desirable, underpins some of the failed philosophies of modern design: planned obsolescence (the design of failure to stimulate future sales), solutionism (the idea that design is all about finding solutions to existing problems) and linear progress (the vision of a world constantly improving thanks to science and technology). Design brings better solutions, but better for whom? And, better for what? Dr Marenko proposes a view based on French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s idea that building the future is not about predicting but “being attentive to the unknown knocking at the door”.
This set the basis for a workshop conducted on Week 3 using a Miro board and a set of cards developed by Dr Marenko and colleagues at CSM. Working in four small groups, the students were asked to propose a scenario for 2050 that addressed one of four ‘pills’ provided: animism, counterfactuals, decolonization and post-Anthropocene. These were read through selected ‘affective mode cards’, which summarised the attitude performed in the discussion, i.e. the anxious, the optimist, the resilient, the survivalist, the nihilist and the Zen master. Guided by this participatory strategy, the groups offered their visions of the future in short presentations, anticipating a few aspects that would be analysed in the subsequent weeks.
A screenshot of the Miro board used by Marenko and her students (Credits: Marenko, 2021; Miro.com, 2021)
The course went on to question “received notions of technology” as having to do with the latest innovations, and stressed the continuity with historical developments. The term and notion of android, for instance, go back to Pierre Jaquet Droz’s writing automaton from the 1770s and its use of the power of technology to “enchant” its audience. Similarly, the term automaton today to some extent maintains the original meaning (from Diderot’s Encyclopaedia of 1751) of a machine that can move by itself, following a sequence of operations or responding to encoded instructions. The conversation continued on the topic of “digital enchantment” (based on texts by anthropologist Alfred Gell) and the relationship of technology with magic. The lecture material was grounded in historical and philosophical developments but made more accessible by recurrent references to well-known techno-gadgets, and visual and popular culture: from iPhones and Blade Runner, to Amazon and the latest Android firmware.
Following the steps of French philosopher F. Guattari, Dr Marenko discussed digital uncertainty in contemporary society, one that is seeing “a fundamental repositioning of human beings in relation to both their machinic and natural environments”. Information and computation are not simply mediating our lives, they constitute a large part of what we do every day. But the outcomes of these digital encounters are not fully predicted or programmed, hence the emergence of uncertainty. Examples include the algorithmic automation that drives financial services and much of our interaction online. These considerations are driving AI innovations and constitute a new “technological unconsciousness” that contrasts with 20th century views of technology. Marenko therefore asks, “Can AI get smarter by becoming more uncertain?”.
Dr Marenko reflected on the impact of planetary computation on contemporary and future societies (Credits: unknown, slide by Marenko, 2021)
Through old and new theories of cybernetics, uncertainty was explored both as an accident and as a glitch. A fundamental concept is von Foerster’s “non-trivial machines”, deterministic systems producing unpredictable outcomes. Digital models, for example, can work by iterations and design strategies can operate by a fast succession of trial and error, as described by historian and critic Mario Carpo (2013). This poses interesting questions on what constitutes digital craft and how it relates to the idea of “risk”, an essential aspect of handmade production.
The next lecture started by pointing out the paradox of innovation: any new products must retain familiarity, so people can comprehend and recognise them. For example, the first car in the 1870s was named “the horseless carriage” and very much looked like one. Design theorists D. Norman and R. Verganti discussed this issue in their 2014 paper on “incremental and radical innovation”, a critique of the same human-centred design (UCD) that Normal had helped developing in the 1980s and 90s. For them, UCD can provide incremental innovation to “users” but only focuses on things people already know. For Marenko, instead, design can assume a more rhizomatic nature and embrace its role as interface between the making of objects and that of concepts. According to this view, the design process is simultaneously thing-making, concept-making and future-building.
The discussion followed on the concept of future crafting and the role of fiction in producing reality. This was linked to other design strategies and methods of future crafting, such as cultural probes (embracing risk and uncertainty) and defamiliarization (embracing strangeness).
The horseless carriage, an early model of car (right), still closely resembled a horse-powered carriage (left). (Credit: unknown; slide by Marenko, 2021)
The series concluded with Dr Marenko’s original reflections on technology and animism. As surprising as it may sound, we already live in a world that has seen a shift from “talking about things to talking with things” (her italics). If from a technological perspective we are seeing the rise of the ‘internet of things’, theoretical developments also attempt to question outdated (Western) notions of animism for our new age. Following Bruno Latour’s thinking, the focus is not just on drawing parallels between consumerist and religious practices, but to rethink about the “agency” of objects as a relational property. Philosopher Jane Bennett has also discussed “thing-power”, the curious ability of inanimate things to produce effects. Referencing multiple recent studies on the subject, Dr Marenko discussed the role of animism in creativity and design. She provides a definition of “animistic design” as one that operates in a post-user (or post-UCD) scenario and maintains “mental elbowroom” to generate new, non-linear forms of knowledge. But why is uncertainty so important? Because it establishes perceptions, it shows what might happen and focuses on ranges of possibility, including those that were not thought of. It depends on elements that are not fully controllable, are random and not fully predicted. Uncertainty has to do with creativity.
Through her often surprising and always inspiring lectures, Dr Marenko opens new views on technology and its deployment in crafting humanity’s future. Her arguments on science and technology stand out as seamlessly built on a diverse range of references across disparate disciplines. The discussion was made more accurate and relevant by drawing from philosophy and design theory, but also science fiction, critical design, art practice, advertising and popular culture. The hope is that students’ accepted views of technology could be shaken by all this unorthodox transdisciplinarity, leading them to wider-open reflection, inspiration and future-shaping innovation.
Dr Betti Marenko’s forthcoming book, Designing Smart Objects in Everyday Life. Intelligences. Agencies. Ecologies (co-edited with Marco Rozendaal and Will Odom), is a collection of essays developing a new research framework for interaction design. For more information on this and other projects, visit bettimarenko.org
