Juichi YAMAGIWA, Primatologist / Director-General of the Research Institute for Humanity
Dr. Juichi Yamagiwa, Director-General of RIHN, is a world-renowned researcher and expert in the study of primatology and human evolution. Awarded Doctor of Science from Kyoto University in 1987. After holding positions at the Karisoke Research Center, Japan Monkey Center, and Primate Research Institute Kyoto University, he has been Professor of Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University since 2002-14, Dean of Graduate School and Faculty of Science, 2011-13, 26th President of Kyoto University, 2014-20. He also served as President of International Primatological Society, 2008-12, as Editor in Chief of Primates, a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal of primatology published by Springer, 2010-2014. Domestically, he served as President of Japan Association of National Universities, 2017-19, the president of Science Council of Japan, 2017-20 and the member of Environmental Policy Committee of Ministry of Environment, 2002-22. He is now serving as Chairman of International Center of Kyoto Prefecture, Chairman of Kyoto Art Center, and Senior Advisor of Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025. His passion for fieldwork research frequently made him travel to some countries of Africa, where he discovered an abundance of new findings related to gorillas, through his unique viewpoint of human evolution.

Mirai MORIYAMA, Dancer/Actor
Born in 1984, lives between Kobe and Tokyo. Moriyama is a multidisciplinary artist who works in Japan and overseas. From a very young age, Moriyama trained in a variety of dance genres before making his stage debut in 1999. He was nominated Cultural Ambassador by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2013, worked with Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company for a year in Tel-Aviv, Israel and collaborated with diverse performing arts groups in European countries. Since then his activities have been focusing on “physical expression that is generated through a relationship with people, things, and places”. 　As an actor he has won several Japanese film awards and as a dancer he won the 10th Japan Dance Forum prize. ”Delivery Health” and “in-side-out” are two short films he directed and were selected in the competition of Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (2019 and 2021). 　On 11 March 2021, 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Moriyama directed and dedicated to Kiyomizu-temple, a dance performance called “Re: Incarnation”. The same year he performed a solo dance at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games. In April 2022 he initiated a group to launch Artist in Residence KOBE（AiRK）in Kobe, Japan. He is also a Post-Butoh dancer. ©Takeshi Miyamoto

Takashi IKEGAMI
is Professor at the University of Tokyo since 2027. Dr. in Physics from the University of Tokyo (1989). After working at YITP, Kyoto University, and Kobe University, he became an Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo in 1994. His works encompass both the arts and sciences and deal with complex systems and artificial life. In 2018, he organized the ALIFE International Conference. Ikegami most frequently attended and gave the keynote address at Conf. Complex Systems in 2020, SWARM International Conference in 2019, and others. His publications include “Ugoki ga Seimei wo Tsukuru” (Seidosha, 2007), “Ningen to Kikai no Aida” (co-authored, Kodansha, 2016), and “Tsukutte Ugokasu ALIFE” (co-authored, O’Reilly Japan, 2018). His artistic activities include Filmachine (with Keiichiro Shibuya, YCAM 2006), Mind Time Machine (YCAM, 2010), Scary Beauty (with Keiichiro Shibuya, 2018), ALTER the Android KAGURA(2020), Alternative Machine’s Snow Crash (White House, 2021), VR Reverse Destiny Bridge (Aichi, 2022).

Sputniko!
is a British/Japanese artist and speculative designer based in Tokyo. She creates film and multimedia installation works that explore the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies, especially in the themes of gender and feminism. She has recently exhibited her works in exhibitions such as the New Eden: Science Fiction Mythologies Transformed at ArtScience Museum (2023; Singapore), DXP (Digital ransformation Planet):Towards the Next Interface at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2023; Kanazawa, Japan), and Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III at Tai Kwun Contemporary Museum (2023; Hong Kong). Sputniko! is currently an Associate Professor of Design at the Tokyo University of Arts. From 2013 to 2017, she was an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she founded and directed the Design Fiction group. To date, Sputniko! has had her pieces included in the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa, Japan), and M+ Museum (Hong Kong).

Photo: Mami Arai

Alter3
The Alter android line was developed in 2016 in order to research not what can be done by automation, but rather how human beings would react to an autonomous robot. It is being pursued jointly with the University of Tokyo and Osaka University in order to explore fundamental questions of whether robots can obtain a sense of life, and what life itself may mean. Alter is not intended to be an android identical in appearance to human beings. Rather, only the face, neck, and arms up to the elbows are outfitted with prosthetic skin. The other parts are exposed machinery, with forty-two actuators (a computer-controlled system using compressed air) moving like joints. These movements are not pre-programmed, but rather based on a central pattern generator (CPG), which functions like the human spinal cord, and a neutral network of 1,000 simulated neurons that fire in real-time. In addition, optical and distance sensors allow for autonomous and spontaneous movement, creating a profusion of actions based on reacting to the surrounding people and environment. This results in unexpected movements even the developers could not foresee, and the memory of these actions in turn allows Alter to continue evolving. The name Alter comes from the concept of internal change and transformation of the android, as well as the notion of a second self, or “alter ego,” and the idea of this being an “alternative” form of expression and life. Alter 3 is the third generation in this line. New cameras have been installed in the eyes, and the mouth is now capable of producing sound, with dynamic movement also incorporated. In addition, it comes equipped with the ALIFE Engine™, a dynamics generation engine, with the operating system and all aspects of the robot software having been developed by the Alternative Machine Inc.