Speaker: Yasuaki KAKEHI (Professor at the Graduate School of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo), Terumasa IKEDA (Artist)
Moderator: Yuko HASEGAWA (Director of Art and Design, International House of Japan, Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)
This Interdisciplinary Talk brought together a leading-edge researcher into human-computer interaction and media art and an innovative artist fusing traditional and futuristic motifs to examine the nature of materiality in the digital age. Yasuaki Kakehi is a professor at the University of Tokyo who researches physical materials and digital technology experiences, and Terumasa Ikeda is renowned for his intricate works using innovative raden lacquer techniques known as “cyber- raden.” They talked about new creations and experiences transcending the digital-physical divide, the broadening of possibilities.
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What Is Interdisciplinary Talk?
Our orderly ways of life have been disrupted in many places around the world, notably in Ukraine and Gaza, and there is little prospect of an early recovery. The issues modern society must consider, such as generative AI, climate change, and DEI promotion, have also grown more complex. The I-House Art and Design Division, under the leadership of Director Yuko Hasegawa, is organizing discussions among experts from different fields to explore the roles culture and art can play in promoting empathy and communication and connecting today’s divided cultural, political, economic, scientific, and other domains.
Yasuaki KAKEHI
is a Professor at the Graduate School of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo. He received PhD in Interdisciplinary Information Studies from The University of Tokyo in 2007. From 2008 to 2018, He had served as Lecturer, and Associate Professor consecutively at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University. He also worked as a Visiting Associate Professor at MIT Media Lab in 2015-2016. His artworks and research have been exhibited at ACM SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica Festival, YCAM and ICC, and he has been taking on challenges to cross over the boundaries between engineering, art and design.
Terumasa IKEDA
1987 Born in Chiba, Japan
2014 B.A., Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa
2016 M.A., Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa
2019 Completed Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei studio, Kanazawa
Pres- Established studio in Kanazawa city
Major exhibitions include Shell of Phantom Light (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2023), In the Genes, Taking Marvelous Meiji Craftmanship into the Future (Mitsui Memorial Museum, 2023), POKÉMON X KOGEI Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft (National Crafts Museum, Ishikawa, 2023), Genreless Kogei (National Crafts Museum, Ishikawa, 2022), Twelve Hawks and Crafts in Modernizing Japan (National Crafts Museum, Ishikawa, 2022), and WAKOZEKKA —Contemporary Japanese Crafts (Panasonic Shiodome Art Museum, 2022)