Future Ideations Camp Vol.5 Meetup “Hello from the Campers!: Can or Should AI Become Life?”

2025.01.26(Sun)

Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]

Date & Time: January 26 (Sun), 2025 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm ※Networking follows
Venue: Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]
Capacity: 40
Admission: Free
Accessibility and Support: Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation will be provided.

Presenters: Martin O’Leary (Studio Community Lead / Pervasive Media Studio), Rachel Smith (artist, software engineer and creative technologist), Kato Yu (Engineer, Creator/dot-hzm), Sakamoto Kaoruko (Vice President Space Bussiness ＆ Industry Strategy), Hayashi Yusuke (Researcher, Director/AI Alignment Network)

CCBT will hold a Meetup on January 26 on the second day of Future Ideations Camp Vol. 5: Can AI Become Life?, which explores future relationships between human and technology through the framework of artificial intelligence. The event features instructors from the UK and participants in the camp.

Civic Creative Base Tokyo (CCBT)’s Future Ideations Camp is a series of intensive workshops bringing different kinds of people together to work collaboratively and creatively with art and digital technologies.With a focus on concepts of autonomy through ideas and issues related to artificial intelligence, this camp explores and proposes new approaches to the future relationship between humans and technology.

On the second day of the fifth Future Ideations Camp, three participants from the workshop program (which brings together artists, designers, engineers, researchers, and more) are joined by two instructors/facilitators from Watershed, a creative technology center in Bristol, UK, to explore if AI can become a life form—and if it should—and give presentations in the PechaKucha* format from their respective perspectives and expertise.

The second half of the event includes a discussion featuring Masumori Atsushi and Doi Itsuki, the directors of this edition of Future Ideations Camp. The discussion will bring to light the geographical, historical, and cultural differences and commonalities that lie behind the participants’ ideas and thinking. Looking ahead to human coexistence with AI and artificial systems that may well become living one day, the participants will consider visions of possible futures.

A mixer open to all will follow the Meetup.

*PechaKucha is an event featuring presentations of twenty slides, each shown for twenty seconds.

Timeline

19:30〜19:40　Introduction: About “Future Ideations Camp Vol.5: Can AI Become Life?”

19:40〜20:20　Presentation
Presenters:
Martin O’Leary (Studio Community Lead / Pervasive Media Studio)
Rachel Smith (artist, software engineer and creative technologist)
Kato Yu (Engineer, Creator/dot-hzm)
Sakamoto Kaoruko (Vice President Space Bussiness ＆ Industry Strategy)
Hayashi Yusuke (Researcher, Director/AI Alignment Network)

20:20〜21:00　Discussion: “Can or Should AI Become Life?”
Presenters above and
Masumori Atsushi (ALife researcher, Project Specialist / University of Tokyo Graduate School, CEO / Alternative Machine Inc.)
Doi Itsuki (Senior Researcher, Alternative Machine Inc., PhD)

21:00〜22:00　Networking

Martin O’Leary

Studio Community Lead / Pervasive Media Studio

Martin joined Watershed in 2019, after careers in software development, in academia and in exhibition design. As Studio Community Lead at the Pervasive Media Studio, he looks after a community of about two hundred artists, technologists, academics and activists. His work has a particular focus on early-stage prototyping, thinking through making, and the ways that technology shapes the kinds of futures we can imagine.

Rachel Smith

artist, software engineer and creative technologist

Rachel works as an artist, software engineer and creative technologist making performative installations with silly machines. Often interrogating emerging or prevalent technologies with both a critical and affectionate eye, she is interested in the relationship between humans and machines and seeks to create meaningful interactions which connect us both to our surroundings (physical and digital) and to one another. Rachel has exhibited internationally at Science Gallery Melbourne, Ars Electronic Linz, Kunstverein Tiergarten Berlin and with Amsterdam Noord municipality. She has an MFA in Media Art from Bauhaus University Weimar, was a fellow in Automation for South West Creative Technology Network and is currently a resident at Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol.

https://rachelsmith.xyz/about.html

Kato Yu

Engineer, Creator/dot-hzm

Born in Tokyo in 1998, Kato Yu uses artificial intelligence and artificial life to create mechanisms that bring fresh perspectives to things, spaces, and cities. Guided by an ethos of “implementation over theory,” Kato pursues creative projects that span fashion, architecture, and engineering with the spirit of fun. Kato is a certified Super Creator under the MITOU IT program. His notable projects include the AI-powered design system “HIZUMI” and the “AI Mimics the City”, a one-month AI installation project in Tokyo’s downtown Kyojima district, which earned him the GOOD DESIGN NEW HOPE AWARD.

Sakamoto Kaoruko

Vice President Space Bussiness ＆ Industry Strategy

After graduating from university, Sakamoto Kaoruko joined the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2017, where she worked on promoting public-private partnership programs for the post-ISS era. She led international coordination efforts with agencies such as NASA and ESA, and played a key role in Japan’s contribution to the Artemis program’s lunar orbiting station project. In 2024, she became the head of the Space Strategy Division at SpaceData, leading initiatives to recreate outer space in the digital sphere. Her ultimate goal is to understand and recreate autonomous models of life and space.

https://www.wantedly.com/id/kaoruko_sakamoto

Hayashi Yusuke

Researcher, Director/AI Alignment Network

Hayashi has been intrigued by the mathematical and physical foundations that define what we call agents. During his graduate years, he delved into quantum entanglement in the early universe and around black holes, which led him to realize that the observer remains conspicuously absent from many physical models. Later, He joined the Bank of Japan, where he grappled daily with the unsettling truth that we still lack a sound framework for rational decision-making among economic agents—citizens and corporations alike. Currently, as a member of the AI Alignment Network, he explores how humans and AI agents might coexist under “symbiotic alignment.” Guided by Professor Tadahiro Taniguchi’s theory of Collective Predictive Coding at Kyoto University, he strives to help design a society where people and AI stand on equal footing, forging thoughtful decisions together.

Masumori Atsushi

ALife researcher, Project Specialist / University of Tokyo Graduate School, CEO / Alternative Machine Inc.

In the field of artificial life, Masumori Atsushi primarily researches autonomy and agency using humanoid robots and hybrid systems and that combine robots with organisms like plants and cultured nerve cells, as well as researching self-assembly systems for morphological self-organization in the field of digital fabrication. He aspires for the social implementation of artificial life through the fusion of ALife theory, AI, digital fabrication, and blockchain technologies. As an engineer, Masumori is also involved in system development and artwork production.

Doi Itsuki

Senior Researcher, Alternative Machine Inc., PhD

Born in 1989 in Hyogo, Doi Itsuki is a researcher and music artist. After studying molecular biology at university, he pursued research into artificial life. Alongside researching means of understanding experiences of others that include artificial systems as experiences of other people, he also makes art and music. His major exhibitions include “MONAURALS” (2023, WHITEHOUSE, Tokyo), “I Forgot How to Look at the Ocean” (2022, JINNAN HOUSE, Tokyo), “ALTERNATIVE MACHINE” (2021, WHITEHOUSE, Tokyo), and “Bee Wee” (2021, Talion Gallery, Tokyo). His music releases include Peeling Blue (CD, 2017). In recent years, Doi has also been involved in music and sound system production for films and stage performances.

https://cotofu.com/

Organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] (Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)

Future Ideations Camp Vol.5 Meetup “Hello from the Campers!: Can or Should AI Become Life?”

Timeline

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