SPEAKERS

Nicholas Negroponte

Professor & Co-Founder, MIT Media Lab Founder, One Laptop per Child

Nicholas Negroponte is the co-founder (with Jerome B. Wiesner) of the MIT Media Lab (1985), which he directed for its first 20 years. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. He gave the first TED talk in 1984, as well as 13 since. He is author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2005 he founded the non-profit One Laptop per Child, which deployed $1 billion of laptops for primary education in the developing world. In the private sector, Negroponte served on the board of directors of Motorola (for 15 years) and was general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has personally provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Zagats and Wired magazine.

Oron Catts

Director of SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia

Oron Catts is the Director of SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. As from 2016 he will also serve as a visiting faculty at the Royal College of Arts London, in the capacity of Professor of Constable Design.
He is an artist, designer, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA; winner of the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007).
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, in 2012 he set up a biological art lab at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
Exhibited in places such as the MoMA NY, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Ars Electronica, Linz, GOMA Brisbane and more.

David E. Benjamin

Principal, The Living / Assistant Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

David Benjamin is Founding Principal of The Living and Assistant Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. The Living explores new technologies and creates prototypes of the architecture of the future. Clients include the City of New York, Seoul Municipal Government, Nike, 3M, Airbus, Miami Science Museum, and Björk. Recent projects include Princeton Architecture Laboratory (a new building for research on building technologies), Pier 35 EcoPark (a 200-foot floating pier in the East River that changes color according to water quality), and Hy-Fi (a branching tower for the Museum of Modern Art made of a new type of biodegradable brick).

Ryuji Fujimura

Lecturer at Toyo University / Representative Director of ryuji fujimura architects

Born in 1976 at Tokyo, Japan. Established ryuji fujimura architects in 2005. Withdrew from the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Tokyo Institute of Technology, upon earning all required credits in 2008. Current, Lecturer at Toyo University. Architectural design and its education, and criticism, and such as city management with public participation in the background of aging and financial problems of public facilities, and the proposal of the future of the JAPAN ARCHIPELAGO and expand the project that is open to society. The main architectural works are “Facility for Ecology Education”(2014). The main publications are “Architecture for Critical Engineering-ism”(2014), “Prototyping: Many Models and Remarks”(2014).

Sputniko!

Assistant Professor, Design Fiction Group, MIT Media Lab

Sputniko! is an artist who creates music, film, and installation works exploring technology’s impact on everyday life and imagine alternative futures. Sputniko! has presented her film and installation works at exhibitions such as Talk to Me (MoMA, New York, 2011) and Bunny Smash (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2013). She has joined MIT Media Lab as an assistant professor from 2013 to start the Design Fiction Group. In the same year, Sputniko! was awarded VOGUE JAPAN “Woman of the Year” 2013. French paper ‘Le Figaro’ selected Sputniko! as one of “30 talented women under 30″ in 2015.

Kevin Slavin

Assistant Professor, Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab

Kevin Slavin is a serial entrepreneur and assistant professor / founder of the Playful Systems group at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge. The group works on projects ranging from chess tournaments in Las Vegas to urban metagenomics in Tokyo, researching how the experience of complex systems can move beyond information, into delight.
Prior to MIT, Slavin founded several companies, including Area/Code, which pioneered the use of new technologies and platforms (like GPS, optic sensing, and genetic data) in game development, inventing novel forms of interplay between games and cities. The company was acquired by Zynga in 2011, after years of working with everyone from Nike to Disney to Electronic Arts. Area/Code's work has been frequently profiled in major news media from the Wall Street Journal to the New Scientist to major network broadcasts. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Design Museum of London, the Frankfurt Museum fur Moderne Kunst, and other international venues. There was a recent feature profile in WIRED Japan.
His influential TED talk on How Algorithms Shape the World has nearly 4 million viewers, and has been the inspiration for scripted TV shows, a 60 Minutes segment, and was used, improbably, in TV commercials for Apple.

Christopher Mason

Associate Professor of Computational Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics Weill Cornell Medical College

Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Computational Genomics at Weill Cornell Medical College, with appointments in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the Institute for Computational Biomedicine, the Tri-Institutional Program on Computational Biology and Medicine, the Weill Cornell Cancer Center, and the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute. Dr. Mason completed his dual B.S. in Genetics and Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, his Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University in 2006, and his post-doctoral training in Clinical Genetics at Yale Medical School in 2009, while also serving as the first Visiting Fellow of Genomics, Ethics, and Law at Yale Law School; his work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court when he served as an expert witness for the AMP v. Myriad case. He creates and utilizes novel genomics technologies and algorithms for integrating “multi-omic” views of human biology, including the epitranscriptome, the urban metagenome, synthetic genomes, and the human genome.

Jessica Green

Director, Biology and Built Environment Center, University of Oregon Co-founder and CTO, Phylagen Inc.

Dr. Jessica Green is an Alec and Kay Keith Professor the University of Oregon, where she is founding director of the Biology and Built Environment Center, a team that bridges biology and architecture. Dr. Green envisions a future with genomic-driven approaches to architectural design that promotes sustainability, human health and well-being. She is internationally recognized for her research in ecology and evolution, with highly cited articles in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Time, NPR, Discover, Scientific American, and the New Scientist. She has been honored with a Blaise Pascale International Research Chair, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a TED Senior Fellowship. She completed a PhD in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, and earned a BS in civil and environmental engineering at UCLA.

Hiroaki Shono

Co-founder, ACN / President, vision track inc.

Born in 1969. President of “vision track inc.” With offices in Osaka and Tokyo, Shono manages artists and undertakes various art projects. In 2011, he launched “ubies,” the first creative platform based in Asia, and in 2013, he published “Asian Creatives: 150 Most Promising Talents in Art, Design, Illustration and Photography” from PIE International. In addition, as the co-founder of “ASIAN CREATIVE NETWORK (ACN),” a creative platform formed by volunteer members involved in the creative business in various countries in Asia (Republic of Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan), Shono planned and produced the Asian Creative Awards, which brought together more than 3,000 works by energetic creators from all over Asia. He is also involved in promoting Asian creatives and planning and managing exchange projects aimed at cultural development, as well as events such as exhibitions, forums, and exchange meetings.

Eisuke Tachikawa

CEO/Founder, Design Studio Nosigner

Eisuke Tachikawa is a design strategist whose guiding principle is to create designs that bring positive changes to society. His globally acclaimed work has earned honors such as the Grand Award of the Design for Asia Awards, the Platinum Pentaward, and the SDA Award’s top prize. In addition, he is the founder of Olive Project, he served as a concept director for the Cabinet Secretariat’s Cool Japan Movement Promotion Council, and in this role he contributed to the formulation of the initiative’s mission statement, “Japan, a Country Providing Creative Solutions to the World’s Challenges.”

Jackson Tan

Artist & Co-Founder, PHUNK / Creative Director & Curator, BLACK

Jackson Tan is a Singaporean artist, designer and curator.
He is the creative director & curator of BLACK, a multi-disciplinary creative agency and the artist & co-founder PHUNK, a contemporary art & design collective based in Singapore.
BLACK has worked with clients such as Asian Civilisations Museum, Design Singapore Council and Herman Miller. Notable projects include the brand identity of SG50, to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday celebrations and the design of the Peranakan Museum.
PHUNK’s creative vision and technical craft embrace a broad range of media, from painting, print, sculpture, video, and sound to typography, graphic design and animation. PHUNK’s artwork has been featured in numerous biennale, museum and gallery exhibitions, including Singapore Art Museum, MOCA Taipei, Design Museum, Yokohama Museum of Art, Venice Biennale and the Animamix Biennale.
He was awarded 'Designer of the Year' in 2007 by the President's Design Award, the highest accolade for designers in Singapore.

Jiradt Pornpanitphan

Founder & Editor in Chief, Cheeze Magazine / Looker Magazine / CheezeSnack Free Copy

Began his career as an editor for Delicious magazine and Katch magazine, Jiradt Pornpanitphan has always been working in creative field. As a founder & editor in chief of 3 fashion and lifestyle magazines, he is now one of the most influential people in new-age fashion magazine industry. Jiradt has founded Cheeze magazine in year 2004 which was the first and only magazine about street fashion in Thailand, after that he started Looker magazine in 2010 then CheezeSnack Free Copy in 2013. Working in the media, he is also an executive producer of a TV program ‘CheezeTV D.I.Y’ on Very channel. Jiradt is also in the position as a managing director of Say Cheeze Publishing which he has published his own books ‘Manud’ volume 1 to volume 7, the series of inspirational & motivational books about life. Being well-known as a writer who has different and unique perspectives, he has been invited to be a guest speaker in numerous events, also a guest lecturer at various universities giving lectures about fashion and styles including how to create a magazine from scratch.

Clare Reddington

Creative Director, Watershed

Clare Reddington is the Creative Director of Watershed. She joined Watershed in 2004 to work with HP Labs on utility computing animation project SE3D. Clare leads the Pervasive Media Studio, engagement and cinema teams in Watershed, working with industry, academic and creative partners to support talent and champion new ideas. She also leads on Watershed’s Playable City projects in the UK and internationally. Clare was a finalist in the British Council's UK Young Interactive Entrepreneur 2009 and featured in Wired magazine's 100 people who shape the Wired world. Clare is also Executive Producer of REACT hub and a Visiting Professor at University of the West of England.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/

Anna Grajper

Architect, Laboratory for Architectural Experiments (LAX)

Graduated from the TU Wrocław, the Faculty of Architecture, architect and researcher of Interactive Architecture. Gained experience in Poland and abroad at the Faculty of Architecture in Oulu/Finland. In 2011-2013, she worked in OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) on the project BRYGHUS PROJEKTET, and in De Zwarte Hond where she took part in a winning project of a masterplan Anna’s Hoeve in Hilversum/NL.
Anna is currently working on various conceptual projects of Interactive Structures in Wrocław, where she studies a relationship between affordances of motion and human behaviour.

Laboratory for Architectural Experiments (LAX) http://lax.com.pl/

LAX is an award winning experimental, urban and architectural think tank operating since 2011. It practices at the edge of architecture, urban planning, design, psychology and computation. The main focus of LAX is to conduct various studies, especially devoted to Interactive Architecture and Spatial Compensations in urban environment. At LAX we have an open attitude towards modern technologies, creative solutions and cooperation with specialists from various professions to put our projects into reality.

Kei Wakabayashi

『Editor in Chief, WIRED Japanese Edition

Born in 1971, Kei Wakabayashi spent his early childhood in London and New York. He graduated with a degree in French Literature from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University. After graduating, he joined the publishing company Heibonsha. As a member of the editorial staff of Gekkan Taiyo, he was involved in editing on cultural subjects ranging from Japanese traditional culture to cooking, architecture, design and literature. In 2000, he became a freelance editor, and since that time he has been involved in the editorial production of magazines, free newspapers, and corporate newsletters. In addition, he has edited a large number of books, exhibition guides and other reading material. Moreover, as a music journalist, he has written numerous articles on a broad range of genres from free jazz to K-pop, and has also worked as a consultant for a music label. He took up his current position in 2011. His hobby is purchasing CDs at Book Off.

Seiichi Saito

Creative&Technical Director, Rhizomatiks

Born in Kanagawa in 1975, Mr. Saito began his career in New York in 2000 after graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD). Since then, he has been active in creative work at the Arnell Group, and returned to Japan upon being selected for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial event. He produces works in the commercial art field which are three-dimensional and interactive while also being based on the firm grounding in logical thought that he cultivated through architecture. Mr. Saito has won numerous international awards at the 2009-2014. He currently serves as Director of Rhizomatiks Co., Ltd., while also lecturing part-time at the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Tokyo University of Science. 2013 D&AD “Digital Design” Jury, 2014 Cannes LIONS “Branded Content and Entertainment” jury. Milan Expo Japan pavilion theatre space director, Media Art Director at Roppongi Art Night 2015.Good Design Award 2015 Jury.

Sharon Zukin

Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Writing about cities, culture, and real estate markets, she is the author, most recently, of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2010; Japanese translation, Kodansha Scientific, 2013) and the co-author of Global Cities, Local Streets (Routledge, 2015), which looks at the reshaping of local shopping streets in six cities around the world, including New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, by globalization and gentrification. Her book Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World won the C. Wright Mills Award, and Naked City won the Jane Jacobs Award for Urban Communication.

David Malott

Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) Chairman, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)

David Malott specializes in the design and planning of super-tall buildings and large-scale mixed-use developments. Since joining KPF in 1998, he has served as Senior Designer for some of the firm’s most complex projects, including the 492-meter-tall Shanghai World Financial Center, and the 490-meter International Commerce Center in Hong Kong. He also played a key role in the design of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, the largest private-sector urban redevelopment project in Japan’s history, and the One Central luxury mixed-use development in Macau. Presently, he is leading the design of the 660-meter Ping An Finance Center (PAFC) in Shenzhen. Also of note, he has led the master planning for a number of urban renewal projects in Shanghai, Chongqing and Hong Kong. Prior to joining KPF, he apprenticed at Nikken Sekkei in Osaka, Japan, and was a senior design consultant to Hijjas Kasturi Associates and Veritas Architects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He received his Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shunya Yoshimi

Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo

Born in Tokyo in 1957, Shunya Yoshimi is a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies (III). He graduated from the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, and subsequently completed the doctoral coursework of the Graduate School of Sociology. His research spans sociology, cultural studies, and media studies. His past teaching positions include associate professor at the University of Tokyo Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies, associate professor and currently full professor at the university’s Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies. He has also served in multiple positions at The University of Tokyo, including Dean of the III and the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies from 2006 to 2008; Director of the University of Tokyo Newspaper from 2009 to 2012; Vice President of the University of Tokyo, Director of the Educational Planning Office, and Director of the Center for the Development of Global Leadership Education from 2010 to 2014; and Director of the Historical Library of the University of Tokyo from 2010 to 2013. Other current posts include Vice Director of the University of Tokyo Archives (since 2014) and Director of the III’s Center for Contemporary Korean Studies (since 2015). He studies contemporary Japanese pop culture, everyday life, and cultural politics from the perspective of dramaturgy. His major works include Dramaturgy in the City (Kawade Bunko), The Politics of Exposition (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko), Cultural Sociology in the Media Age (Shinyosha), Voice of Capitalism (Kawade Bunko), Cultural Studies (Iwanami Shoten), Invitation to Media Cultural Studies (Yuhikaku), The World Expo and Postwar Japan (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko), Pro-America, Anti-America (Iwanami Shinsho), Post-postwar Society (Iwanami Shinsho), What Are Universities? (Iwanami Shinsho), Atoms for Dream (Chikuma Shinsho), and Surpassing America (Kobundo).

Ricky Burdett

Professor, London School of Economics

Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme. He is a member of the UK Government’s Independent Airports Commission and a member of Council of the Royal College of Art in London. Burdett was Visiting Professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 2014 and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University from 2010 to 2014. He has been involved in regeneration projects across Europe and was Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics (where he was involved in the selection of designers for many of the Olympic venues) and architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. Burdett was also a member of the Urban Task Force which produced a major report for the UK government on the future of English cities. He is editor of The Endless City (2007), Living in the Endless City (2011) and Innovation in Europe’s Cities (2015). Burdett acts as an adviser to national, regional and local governments on urban issues, and has worked with private companies and architectural practices on the development and framing of urban projects. He was involved in the design competitions for Tate Modern, the Laban Centre, BBC projects in Broadcasting House, White City and Glasgow; the Royal Opera House Open-up project, NM Rothschild & Sons Headquarters in the City of London, the Golden Mede development at Waddesdon, the MAXXI Centre in Rome, the new Integrated transport system in Jeddah and the redevelopment of Penn Plaza in New York City.

Tim Tompkins

President, Times Square Alliance

Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. Prior to that, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks. He has worked at New York City’s Economic Development Corporation, Charter Revision Commission, and was briefly the Nationals Editor at the Mexico City News, an English-language newspaper in Mexico. He has an undergraduate degree from Yale and an M.B.A. from Wharton, and currently teaches “Transforming the Urban Economy” and “The Arts and Artist in Urban Revitalization” at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy. When he is not spending time in the most urban and unnatural place on the planet, he enjoys boating in New York City’s natural areas and waterways, and also practicing yoga.

Michael Kimmelman

Architecture Critic, The New York Times

Michael Kimmelman is an American author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the architecture critic for The New York Times and has written on issues of public housing, public space, infrastructure, community development and social responsibility. In March, 2014, he was awarded the Brendan Gill Prize for his "insightful candor and continuous scrutiny of New York's architectural environment" that is "journalism at its finest."

Ryo Yamazaki

CEO, studio-L/Professor and Director of the Department of Community Design at Tohoku University of Art And Design/Guest Professor, Keio University

Born in Aichi in 1973, Ryo Yamazaki completed his graduate studies at Osaka Prefecture University and the University of Tokyo, earning a doctorate in engineering. He then worked for an architectural and landscaping design firm for several years before establishing studio-L in 2005. He engages in community design using an approach whereby community challenges are solved by the local residents, with many of his projects encompassing urban planning workshops, resident-involved total planning, and community-based park management. He has earned the Good Design Award for activities such as the “Comprehensive Revitalization Program for Ama Town,” “studio-L Iga,” and “Shimanowa 2014,” as well as the Kids Design Award for a parent-child health handbook. His publications include books such as Community Design (Gakugei Publishing; received award from the Real Estate Companies Association of Japan), The Era of Community Design (Chuokoron-Shinsha), Social Design Atlas (Kajima Institute Publishing), and Happiness Theory for the Local Area (NHK Publishing).

Hirokazu Nagata

Chair, Plus Arts (NPO)

Hirokazu Nagata completed his graduate studies at Osaka University in 1993. In 2005 he took part in a project marking the Great Hanshin earthquake’s 10th anniversary by producing “Iza! Kaeru Caravan!” a program designed to have families learn about disaster preparedness in a fun way. He established the NPO Plus Arts in 2006. He actively promotes disaster preparedness education all across Japan, as well as in other parts of the world, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Central and South America. He also serves as a disaster mitigation advisor to organizations such as Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Metro, the Mitsui Fudosan Group, Muji, and NHK.

Ruttikorn Vuttikorn

Design Director, Club Creative Co.,Ltd.

A play activist, Ruttikorn Vuttikorn, is an industrial design graduate and has been into toy design ever since. She strongly believes that every child should have equality in the accessibility of quality play. That's why she has never limited her job only in designing toys & games, but also include play training as her task. She works both in Thailand and abroad collaborating with different partners in order to achieve her goal.
In 2008, Ruttikorn took on a fresh challenge by collaborating with different organisations designing games that educate children to understand and solve different problems, i.e. environmental, social, and political problems. She does believe children are our future and they have the power to change society for the better. Our job is just empower them by using the right tools called "quality play".

Shohei Shigematsu

Architect, Partner, OMA

Shohei Shigematsu is an architect based in New York and a Partner at OMA. Since joining the office in 1998, he has been a driving force behind many of OMA’s projects in the Americas and Asia. Shohei’s designs for cultural venues include the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach – both scheduled for completion in 2015 – as well as direct collaborations with artists, including Cai Guo Qiang , Marina Abramovic and Kanye West. Sho is also currently designing a number of luxury, high rise towers in towers in San Francisco, New York and Miami, as well as a mixed-use complex in Santa Monica. His engagement with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia ; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; and a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky featuring a diversity of program to reflect the full food chain, as well as a new foodscape of public spaces and plazas where producers and consumers meet. He is a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is conducting a research studio entitled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture and urbanism.

Gustaff Harriman Iskandar

Artist/Director, Common Room Networks Foundation

Gustaff Harriman Iskandar (b. 1974), graduated in 1999 from Fine Arts Department, Bandung Institute of Technology. Starting from 1999 – 2000, He was working for Poros Art Management. Around that period he also wrote, participated in some visual art exhibitions, and organized publishing of Trolley Magazine (2000 – 2001). By the end of 2001, along with Reina Wulansari, R. E. Hartanto and T. Reza Ismail, he founded Bandung Center for New Media Arts, an organization that are focusing on the development of media art & multidisciplinary artistic practice in Indonesia. Having partnership with his wife, Reina Wulansari and other colleagues, Gustaff is working on his art, working for the organization, curates exhibition, write and speak on discussions and symposiums. In year 2003 he developed Common Room, an open platform for art, culture and ICT/Media that are being facilitated by Common Room Networks Foundation. Gustaff currently lives and works in Bandung - Indonesia.

Katherine Higgins

Producer, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST)

Katherine Higgins is an art historian, educator, curator and occasional artist specializing in contemporary art and methods for artistic production and exchange. As Producer of Artists in Residence and Public Programs at MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology, she facilitates collaborative projects between visiting artists and scientists, researchers and students.
Katherine’s research examines the ways artist residency programs engage communities, grow creative industries locally and regionally, and can incorporate indigenous epistemologies and Western pedagogy into professional training models. She often focuses on the Pacific Islands, where she spent many years. Katherine earned a PhD in art history from the University of Auckland. She currently serves as Arts Editor for The Contemporary Pacific and as a trustee for TransCultural Exchange.

Hyungmin Pai

Professor, University of Seoul

Hyungmin Pai has studied at Seoul National University and received his Ph.D from MIT. Twice a Fulbright Scholar, he is presently professor at the University of Seoul. He is author of The Portfolio and the Diagram (MIT Press, 2002), Sensuous Plan: The Architecture of Seung H-Sang (Dongnyok, 2007), and The Key Concepts of Korean Architecture (2012). For the Venice Biennale, he was curator for the Korean Pavilion in 2008 and 2014, of which the latter was awarded the Golden Lion, and a participant in the Common Pavilions project (2012). He was Head Curator for the 4th Gwangju Design Biennale and guest curator at the Aedes Gallery (Berlin), the Tophane Amire Gallery (Istanbul), The Cass Gallery (London), and Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul). He is presently on the Presidential Committee for the Hub City of Asian Culture and Visiting Director of Architecture for the Asia Culture Complex.

Benjamin Loyauté

Curator & Designer

Born in 1979 in France, Benjamin Loyauté is involved in Design, curating, designing and speculating the contemporary ecosystem of design landscape. Taking an experimental and historical approach to his work, he thrives at the intersection of collaborative systems & cross disciplinary researchs : Design & Geopolitics, History & Cultural Anthropology, Design & Art. Recently French Curator has been appointed as General Curator of the 9th edition of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint Etienne and achieved Hypervital on Aesthetic consciousness. The same year, Benjamin Loyauté open a new chapter in his work through a first cutting-edge Semantic Design Installation - The Astounding Candy Power - held during the Milan design week 2015 at the Palazzo delle Stelline.

Usman Haque

Founding Partner, Umbrellium / Founder, Thingful.net

Usman Haque is founding partner of Umbrellium [http://umbrellium.co.uk/] and Thingful [https://thingful.net/], a search engine for the Internet of Things. Earlier, he launched the Internet of Things data infrastructure and community platform Pachube.com, which was acquired by LogMeIn in 2011. Trained as an architect, he has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and dozens of mass-participation initiatives throughout the world. His skills include the design and engineering of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London. He received the 2008 Design of the Year Award (interactive) from the Design Museum, UK, a 2009 World Technology Award (art), the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence prize and the Asia Digital Art Award Grand Prize.

Heizo Takenaka

Professor, Keio University / Chairman, Institute for Urban Strategies, The Mori Memorial Foundation / Director, Academyhills

Heizo Takenaka is a Professor of Faculty of Policy Management and Director of the Global Security Research Institute at Keio University. He is also Chairman of the Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation and Director of Academyhills.
In 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi named him the Minister of Economic/Fiscal Policy, the Minister of both Financial Services and Economic/Fiscal Policy in 2002, the Minister of both Economic / Fiscal Policy and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2004, the Minister of both Internal Affairs and Communication, and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2005. The following year, he returned to academia, leaving both the Cabinet and the House of Councilors when Prime Minister Koizumi resigned.
He received his B.A. in Economics from Hitotsubashi University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Osaka University. His academic experience is numerous, including Visiting Associate Professor of Harvard University in 1989, and Professor of Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University in 1996.
He is the author of numerous books, including "The Structural Reforms of the Koizumi Cabinet".

Joichi Ito

Director, MIT Media Lab

Ito is the director of the MIT Media Lab. He is chairman of the board of PureTech Health and a board member of Sony Corp., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation , the Mozilla Foundation and The New York Times Co. He is the co-founder and a board member of Digital Garage, an Internet company in Japan. He has created numerous Internet companies, including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He was an early-stage investor in Formlabs, Flickr, Kickstarter, littleBits, Path, Twitter, Wikia and other companies.
In 2008, Ito was named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. In 2011 Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers. Also in 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in recognition of his role as one of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom. In 2011 and 2012, Nikkei Business selected him as one of the 100 most influential people for the future of Japan.
In 2013, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, from The New School. In 2014, he was inducted into the SXSW Interactive Festival Hall of Fame and was awarded the Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement. In 2015, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Tufts University.

Hiroo Ichikawa

Professor and Dean, Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University / Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation

Hiroo Ichikawa is Dean at the Professional Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. He is also Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation and President at the Meiji University Research Center for Crisis and Contingency Management. He is an expert in urban policy, urban and regional planning, and crisis management and has authored numerous books on issues related to Tokyo and metropolitan regions, including Urban Strategy for Tokyo (2012), Learning from the Disaster in Japan (2011), and Creating Japan’s Future (2008). He has also served numerous public and private organizations including the Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Telework Society, and Japan Association of Emergency Qualified Specialists. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning at Waseda University, he went on to the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he was granted a Doctoral degree in Urban and Regional Planning. He was born in Tokyo in 1947 and is a first-class registered architect in Japan.

Fumio Nanjo

Director, Mori Art Museum

Fumio Nanjo (b.1949 in Tokyo) has been director of Mori Art Museum since November 2006. Prior to taking the directorship at the Mori, he had served as the museum’s deputy director (2002-2006), after working with cultural organizations including the Japan Foundation(1978-1986). His main achievements include commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1997), commissioner at the Taipei Biennale (1998), member of jury committee of the Turner Prize (1998), artistic director of the Yokohama Triennale 2001, and artistic director of the Singapore Biennale (2006/2008). He graduated from Keio University in the faculty of Economics(1972) and Letters (Aesthetics/Art History;1977). Publications include Asian Contemporary Art Report: China, India, Middle East and Japan (2010) and A Life with Art (2012).

Nicholas Negroponte

Professor & Co-Founder, MIT Media Lab Founder, One Laptop per Child

Nicholas Negroponte is the co-founder (with Jerome B. Wiesner) of the MIT Media Lab (1985), which he directed for its first 20 years. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. He gave the first TED talk in 1984, as well as 13 since. He is author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2005 he founded the non-profit One Laptop per Child, which deployed $1 billion of laptops for primary education in the developing world. In the private sector, Negroponte served on the board of directors of Motorola (for 15 years) and was general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has personally provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Zagats and Wired magazine.

Oron Catts

Director of SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia

Oron Catts is the Director of SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. As from 2016 he will also serve as a visiting faculty at the Royal College of Arts London, in the capacity of Professor of Constable Design.
He is an artist, designer, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA; winner of the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007).
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, in 2012 he set up a biological art lab at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
Exhibited in places such as the MoMA NY, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Ars Electronica, Linz, GOMA Brisbane and more.

David E. Benjamin

Principal, The Living / Assistant Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

David Benjamin is Founding Principal of The Living and Assistant Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. The Living explores new technologies and creates prototypes of the architecture of the future. Clients include the City of New York, Seoul Municipal Government, Nike, 3M, Airbus, Miami Science Museum, and Björk. Recent projects include Princeton Architecture Laboratory (a new building for research on building technologies), Pier 35 EcoPark (a 200-foot floating pier in the East River that changes color according to water quality), and Hy-Fi (a branching tower for the Museum of Modern Art made of a new type of biodegradable brick).

Ryuji Fujimura

Lecturer at Toyo University / Representative Director of ryuji fujimura architects

Born in 1976 at Tokyo, Japan. Established ryuji fujimura architects in 2005. Withdrew from the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Tokyo Institute of Technology, upon earning all required credits in 2008. Current, Lecturer at Toyo University. Architectural design and its education, and criticism, and such as city management with public participation in the background of aging and financial problems of public facilities, and the proposal of the future of the JAPAN ARCHIPELAGO and expand the project that is open to society. The main architectural works are “Facility for Ecology Education”(2014). The main publications are “Architecture for Critical Engineering-ism”(2014), “Prototyping: Many Models and Remarks”(2014).

Sputniko!

Assistant Professor, Design Fiction Group, MIT Media Lab

Sputniko! is an artist who creates music, film, and installation works exploring technology’s impact on everyday life and imagine alternative futures. Sputniko! has presented her film and installation works at exhibitions such as Talk to Me (MoMA, New York, 2011) and Bunny Smash (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2013). She has joined MIT Media Lab as an assistant professor from 2013 to start the Design Fiction Group. In the same year, Sputniko! was awarded VOGUE JAPAN “Woman of the Year” 2013. French paper ‘Le Figaro’ selected Sputniko! as one of “30 talented women under 30″ in 2015.

Kevin Slavin

Assistant Professor, Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab

Kevin Slavin is a serial entrepreneur and assistant professor / founder of the Playful Systems group at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge. The group works on projects ranging from chess tournaments in Las Vegas to urban metagenomics in Tokyo, researching how the experience of complex systems can move beyond information, into delight.
Prior to MIT, Slavin founded several companies, including Area/Code, which pioneered the use of new technologies and platforms (like GPS, optic sensing, and genetic data) in game development, inventing novel forms of interplay between games and cities. The company was acquired by Zynga in 2011, after years of working with everyone from Nike to Disney to Electronic Arts. Area/Code's work has been frequently profiled in major news media from the Wall Street Journal to the New Scientist to major network broadcasts. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Design Museum of London, the Frankfurt Museum fur Moderne Kunst, and other international venues. There was a recent feature profile in WIRED Japan.
His influential TED talk on How Algorithms Shape the World has nearly 4 million viewers, and has been the inspiration for scripted TV shows, a 60 Minutes segment, and was used, improbably, in TV commercials for Apple.

Christopher Mason

Associate Professor of Computational Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics Weill Cornell Medical College

Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Computational Genomics at Weill Cornell Medical College, with appointments in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the Institute for Computational Biomedicine, the Tri-Institutional Program on Computational Biology and Medicine, the Weill Cornell Cancer Center, and the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute. Dr. Mason completed his dual B.S. in Genetics and Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, his Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University in 2006, and his post-doctoral training in Clinical Genetics at Yale Medical School in 2009, while also serving as the first Visiting Fellow of Genomics, Ethics, and Law at Yale Law School; his work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court when he served as an expert witness for the AMP v. Myriad case. He creates and utilizes novel genomics technologies and algorithms for integrating “multi-omic” views of human biology, including the epitranscriptome, the urban metagenome, synthetic genomes, and the human genome.

Jessica Green

Director, Biology and Built Environment Center, University of Oregon Co-founder and CTO, Phylagen Inc.

Dr. Jessica Green is an Alec and Kay Keith Professor the University of Oregon, where she is founding director of the Biology and Built Environment Center, a team that bridges biology and architecture. Dr. Green envisions a future with genomic-driven approaches to architectural design that promotes sustainability, human health and well-being. She is internationally recognized for her research in ecology and evolution, with highly cited articles in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Time, NPR, Discover, Scientific American, and the New Scientist. She has been honored with a Blaise Pascale International Research Chair, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a TED Senior Fellowship. She completed a PhD in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, and earned a BS in civil and environmental engineering at UCLA.

Hiroaki Shono

Co-founder, ACN / President, vision track inc.

Born in 1969. President of “vision track inc.” With offices in Osaka and Tokyo, Shono manages artists and undertakes various art projects. In 2011, he launched “ubies,” the first creative platform based in Asia, and in 2013, he published “Asian Creatives: 150 Most Promising Talents in Art, Design, Illustration and Photography” from PIE International. In addition, as the co-founder of “ASIAN CREATIVE NETWORK (ACN),” a creative platform formed by volunteer members involved in the creative business in various countries in Asia (Republic of Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Japan), Shono planned and produced the Asian Creative Awards, which brought together more than 3,000 works by energetic creators from all over Asia. He is also involved in promoting Asian creatives and planning and managing exchange projects aimed at cultural development, as well as events such as exhibitions, forums, and exchange meetings.

Eisuke Tachikawa

CEO/Founder, Design Studio Nosigner

Eisuke Tachikawa is a design strategist whose guiding principle is to create designs that bring positive changes to society. His globally acclaimed work has earned honors such as the Grand Award of the Design for Asia Awards, the Platinum Pentaward, and the SDA Award’s top prize. In addition, he is the founder of Olive Project, he served as a concept director for the Cabinet Secretariat’s Cool Japan Movement Promotion Council, and in this role he contributed to the formulation of the initiative’s mission statement, “Japan, a Country Providing Creative Solutions to the World’s Challenges.”

Jackson Tan

Artist & Co-Founder, PHUNK / Creative Director & Curator, BLACK

Jackson Tan is a Singaporean artist, designer and curator.
He is the creative director & curator of BLACK, a multi-disciplinary creative agency and the artist & co-founder PHUNK, a contemporary art & design collective based in Singapore.
BLACK has worked with clients such as Asian Civilisations Museum, Design Singapore Council and Herman Miller. Notable projects include the brand identity of SG50, to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday celebrations and the design of the Peranakan Museum.
PHUNK’s creative vision and technical craft embrace a broad range of media, from painting, print, sculpture, video, and sound to typography, graphic design and animation. PHUNK’s artwork has been featured in numerous biennale, museum and gallery exhibitions, including Singapore Art Museum, MOCA Taipei, Design Museum, YokohamaMuseum of Art, Venice Biennale and the Animamix Biennale.
He was awarded 'Designer of the Year' in 2007 by the President's Design Award, the highest accolade for designers in Singapore.

Jiradt Pornpanitphan

Founder & Editor in Chief, Cheeze Magazine / Looker Magazine / CheezeSnack Free Copy

Began his career as an editor for Delicious magazine and Katch magazine, Jiradt Pornpanitphan has always been working in creative field. As a founder & editor in chief of 3 fashion and lifestyle magazines, he is now one of the most influential people in new-age fashion magazine industry. Jiradt has founded Cheeze magazine in year 2004 which was the first and only magazine about street fashion in Thailand, after that he started Looker magazine in 2010 then CheezeSnack Free Copy in 2013. Working in the media, he is also an executive producer of a TV program ‘CheezeTV D.I.Y’ on Very channel. Jiradt is also in the position as a managing director of Say Cheeze Publishing which he has published his own books ‘Manud’ volume 1 to volume 7, the series of inspirational & motivational books about life. Being well-known as a writer who has different and unique perspectives, he has been invited to be a guest speaker in numerous events, also a guest lecturer at various universities giving lectures about fashion and styles including how to create a magazine from scratch.

Heizo Takenaka

Professor, Keio University / Chairman, Institute for Urban Strategies, The Mori Memorial Foundation / Director, Academyhills

Heizo Takenaka is a Professor of Faculty of Policy Management and Director of the Global Security Research Institute at Keio University. He is also Chairman of the Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation and Director of Academyhills.
In 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi named him the Minister of Economic/Fiscal Policy, the Minister of both Financial Services and Economic/Fiscal Policy in 2002, the Minister of both Economic / Fiscal Policy and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2004, the Minister of both Internal Affairs and Communication, and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2005. The following year, he returned to academia, leaving both the Cabinet and the House of Councilors when Prime Minister Koizumi resigned.
He received his B.A. in Economics from Hitotsubashi University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Osaka University. His academic experience is numerous, including Visiting Associate Professor of Harvard University in 1989, and Professor of Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University in 1996.
He is the author of numerous books, including "The Structural Reforms of the Koizumi Cabinet".

Joichi Ito

Director, MIT Media Lab

Ito is the director of the MIT Media Lab. He is chairman of the board of PureTech Health and a board member of Sony Corp., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation , the Mozilla Foundation and The New York Times Co. He is the co-founder and a board member of Digital Garage, an Internet company in Japan. He has created numerous Internet companies, including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He was an early-stage investor in Formlabs, Flickr, Kickstarter, littleBits, Path, Twitter, Wikia and other companies.
In 2008, Ito was named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. In 2011 Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers. Also in 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in recognition of his role as one of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom. In 2011 and 2012, Nikkei Business selected him as one of the 100 most influential people for the future of Japan.
In 2013, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, from The New School. In 2014, he was inducted into the SXSW Interactive Festival Hall of Fame and was awarded the Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement. In 2015, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Tufts University.

Clare Reddington

Creative Director, Watershed

Clare Reddington is the Creative Director of Watershed. She joined Watershed in 2004 to work with HP Labs on utility computing animation project SE3D. Clare leads the Pervasive Media Studio, engagement and cinema teams in Watershed, working with industry, academic and creative partners to support talent and champion new ideas. She also leads on Watershed’s Playable City projects in the UK and internationally. Clare was a finalist in the British Council's UK Young Interactive Entrepreneur 2009 and featured in Wired magazine's 100 people who shape the Wired world. Clare is also Executive Producer of REACT hub and a Visiting Professor at University of the West of England.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/

Anna Grajper

Architect, Laboratory for Architectural Experiments (LAX)

Graduated from the TU Wrocław, the Faculty of Architecture, architect and researcher of Interactive Architecture. Gained experience in Poland and abroad at the Faculty of Architecture in Oulu/Finland. In 2011-2013, she worked in OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) on the project BRYGHUS PROJEKTET, and in De Zwarte Hond where she took part in a winning project of a masterplan Anna’s Hoeve in Hilversum/NL.
Anna is currently working on various conceptual projects of Interactive Structures in Wrocław, where she studies a relationship between affordances of motion and human behaviour.

Laboratory for Architectural Experiments (LAX) http://lax.com.pl/

LAX is an award winning experimental, urban and architectural think tank operating since 2011. It practices at the edge of architecture, urban planning, design, psychology and computation. The main focus of LAX is to conduct various studies, especially devoted to Interactive Architecture and Spatial Compensations in urban environment. At LAX we have an open attitude towards modern technologies, creative solutions and cooperation with specialists from various professions to put our projects into reality.

Kei Wakabayashi

『Editor in Chief, WIRED Japanese Edition

Born in 1971, Kei Wakabayashi spent his early childhood in London and New York. He graduated with a degree in French Literature from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University. After graduating, he joined the publishing company Heibonsha. As a member of the editorial staff of Gekkan Taiyo, he was involved in editing on cultural subjects ranging from Japanese traditional culture to cooking, architecture, design and literature. In 2000, he became a freelance editor, and since that time he has been involved in the editorial production of magazines, free newspapers, and corporate newsletters. In addition, he has edited a large number of books, exhibition guides and other reading material. Moreover, as a music journalist, he has written numerous articles on a broad range of genres from free jazz to K-pop, and has also worked as a consultant for a music label. He took up his current position in 2011. His hobby is purchasing CDs at Book Off.

Seiichi Saito

Creative&Technical Director, Rhizomatiks

Born in Kanagawa in 1975, Mr. Saito began his career in New York in 2000 after graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD). Since then, he has been active in creative work at the Arnell Group, and returned to Japan upon being selected for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial event. He produces works in the commercial art field which are three-dimensional and interactive while also being based on the firm grounding in logical thought that he cultivated through architecture. Mr. Saito has won numerous international awards at the 2009-2014. He currently serves as Director of Rhizomatiks Co., Ltd., while also lecturing part-time at the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Tokyo University of Science. 2013 D&AD “Digital Design” Jury, 2014 Cannes LIONS “Branded Content and Entertainment” jury. Milan Expo Japan pavilion theatre space director, Media Art Director at Roppongi Art Night 2015.Good Design Award 2015 Jury.

Sharon Zukin

Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Writing about cities, culture, and real estate markets, she is the author, most recently, of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2010; Japanese translation, Kodansha Scientific, 2013) and the co-author of Global Cities, Local Streets (Routledge, 2015), which looks at the reshaping of local shopping streets in six cities around the world, including New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, by globalization and gentrification. Her book Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World won the C. Wright Mills Award, and Naked City won the Jane Jacobs Award for Urban Communication.

David Malott

Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) Chairman, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)

David Malott specializes in the design and planning of super-tall buildings and large-scale mixed-use developments. Since joining KPF in 1998, he has served as Senior Designer for some of the firm’s most complex projects, including the 492-meter-tall Shanghai World Financial Center, and the 490-meter International Commerce Center in Hong Kong. He also played a key role in the design of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, the largest private-sector urban redevelopment project in Japan’s history, and the One Central luxury mixed-use development in Macau. Presently, he is leading the design of the 660-meter Ping An Finance Center (PAFC) in Shenzhen. Also of note, he has led the master planning for a number of urban renewal projects in Shanghai, Chongqing and Hong Kong. Prior to joining KPF, he apprenticed at Nikken Sekkei in Osaka, Japan, and was a senior design consultant to Hijjas Kasturi Associates and Veritas Architects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He received his Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shunya Yoshimi

Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo

Born in Tokyo in 1957, Shunya Yoshimi is a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies (III). He graduated from the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, and subsequently completed the doctoral coursework of the Graduate School of Sociology. His research spans sociology, cultural studies, and media studies. His past teaching positions include associate professor at the University of Tokyo Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies, associate professor and currently full professor at the university’s Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies. He has also served in multiple positions at The University of Tokyo, including Dean of the III and the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies from 2006 to 2008; Director of the University of Tokyo Newspaper from 2009 to 2012; Vice President of the University of Tokyo, Director of the Educational Planning Office, and Director of the Center for the Development of Global Leadership Education from 2010 to 2014; and Director of the Historical Library of the University of Tokyo from 2010 to 2013. Other current posts include Vice Director of the University of Tokyo Archives (since 2014) and Director of the III’s Center for Contemporary Korean Studies (since 2015). He studies contemporary Japanese pop culture, everyday life, and cultural politics from the perspective of dramaturgy. His major works include Dramaturgy in the City (Kawade Bunko), The Politics of Exposition (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko), Cultural Sociology in the Media Age (Shinyosha), Voice of Capitalism (Kawade Bunko), Cultural Studies (Iwanami Shoten), Invitation to Media Cultural Studies (Yuhikaku), The World Expo and Postwar Japan (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko), Pro-America, Anti-America (Iwanami Shinsho), Post-postwar Society (Iwanami Shinsho), What Are Universities? (Iwanami Shinsho), Atoms for Dream (Chikuma Shinsho), and Surpassing America (Kobundo).

Ricky Burdett

Professor, London School of Economics

Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme. He is a member of the UK Government’s Independent Airports Commission and a member of Council of the Royal College of Art in London. Burdett was Visiting Professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 2014 and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University from 2010 to 2014. He has been involved in regeneration projects across Europe and was Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics (where he was involved in the selection of designers for many of the Olympic venues) and architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. Burdett was also a member of the Urban Task Force which produced a major report for the UK government on the future of English cities. He is editor of The Endless City (2007), Living in the Endless City (2011) and Innovation in Europe’s Cities (2015). Burdett acts as an adviser to national, regional and local governments on urban issues, and has worked with private companies and architectural practices on the development and framing of urban projects. He was involved in the design competitions for Tate Modern, the Laban Centre, BBC projects in Broadcasting House, White City and Glasgow; the Royal Opera House Open-up project, NM Rothschild & Sons Headquarters in the City of London, the Golden Mede development at Waddesdon, the MAXXI Centre in Rome, the new Integrated transport system in Jeddah and the redevelopment of Penn Plaza in New York City.

Tim Tompkins

President, Times Square Alliance

Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. Prior to that, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks. He has worked at New York City’s Economic Development Corporation, Charter Revision Commission, and was briefly the Nationals Editor at the Mexico City News, an English-language newspaper in Mexico. He has an undergraduate degree from Yale and an M.B.A. from Wharton, and currently teaches “Transforming the Urban Economy” and “The Arts and Artist in Urban Revitalization” at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy. When he is not spending time in the most urban and unnatural place on the planet, he enjoys boating in New York City’s natural areas and waterways, and also practicing yoga.

Michael Kimmelman

Architecture Critic, The New York Times

Michael Kimmelman is an American author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the architecture critic for The New York Times and has written on issues of public housing, public space, infrastructure, community development and social responsibility. In March, 2014, he was awarded the Brendan Gill Prize for his "insightful candor and continuous scrutiny of New York's architectural environment" that is "journalism at its finest."

Ryo Yamazaki

CEO, studio-L/Professor and Director of the Department of Community Design at Tohoku University of Art And Design/Guest Professor, Keio University

Born in Aichi in 1973, Ryo Yamazaki completed his graduate studies at Osaka Prefecture University and the University of Tokyo, earning a doctorate in engineering. He then worked for an architectural and landscaping design firm for several years before establishing studio-L in 2005. He engages in community design using an approach whereby community challenges are solved by the local residents, with many of his projects encompassing urban planning workshops, resident-involved total planning, and community-based park management. He has earned the Good Design Award for activities such as the “Comprehensive Revitalization Program for Ama Town,” “studio-L Iga,” and “Shimanowa 2014,” as well as the Kids Design Award for a parent-child health handbook. His publications include books such as Community Design (Gakugei Publishing; received award from the Real Estate Companies Association of Japan), The Era of Community Design (Chuokoron-Shinsha), Social Design Atlas (Kajima Institute Publishing), and Happiness Theory for the Local Area (NHK Publishing).

Hirokazu Nagata

Chair, Plus Arts (NPO)

Hirokazu Nagata completed his graduate studies at Osaka University in 1993. In 2005 he took part in a project marking the Great Hanshin earthquake’s 10th anniversary by producing “Iza! Kaeru Caravan!” a program designed to have families learn about disaster preparedness in a fun way. He established the NPO Plus Arts in 2006. He actively promotes disaster preparedness education all across Japan, as well as in other parts of the world, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Central and South America. He also serves as a disaster mitigation advisor to organizations such as Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Metro, the Mitsui Fudosan Group, Muji, and NHK.

Ruttikorn Vuttikorn

Design Director, Club Creative Co.,Ltd.

A play activist, Ruttikorn Vuttikorn, is an industrial design graduate and has been into toy design ever since. She strongly believes that every child should have equality in the accessibility of quality play. That's why she has never limited her job only in designing toys & games, but also include play training as her task. She works both in Thailand and abroad collaborating with different partners in order to achieve her goal.
In 2008, Ruttikorn took on a fresh challenge by collaborating with different organisations designing games that educate children to understand and solve different problems, i.e. environmental, social, and political problems. She does believe children are our future and they have the power to change society for the better. Our job is just empower them by using the right tools called "quality play".

Hiroo Ichikawa

Professor and Dean, Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University / Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation

Hiroo Ichikawa is Dean at the Professional Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. He is also Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation and President at the Meiji University Research Center for Crisis and Contingency Management. He is an expert in urban policy, urban and regional planning, and crisis management and has authored numerous books on issues related to Tokyo and metropolitan regions, including Urban Strategy for Tokyo (2012), Learning from the Disaster in Japan (2011), and Creating Japan’s Future (2008). He has also served numerous public and private organizations including the Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Telework Society, and Japan Association of Emergency Qualified Specialists. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning at Waseda University, he went on to the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he was granted a Doctoral degree in Urban and Regional Planning. He was born in Tokyo in 1947 and is a first-class registered architect in Japan.

Shohei Shigematsu

Architect, Partner, OMA

Shohei Shigematsu is an architect based in New York and a Partner at OMA. Since joining the office in 1998, he has been a driving force behind many of OMA’s projects in the Americas and Asia. Shohei’s designs for cultural venues include the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach – both scheduled for completion in 2015 – as well as direct collaborations with artists, including Cai Guo Qiang , Marina Abramovic and Kanye West. Sho is also currently designing a number of luxury, high rise towers in towers in San Francisco, New York and Miami, as well as a mixed-use complex in Santa Monica. His engagement with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia ; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; and a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky featuring a diversity of program to reflect the full food chain, as well as a new foodscape of public spaces and plazas where producers and consumers meet. He is a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is conducting a research studio entitled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture and urbanism.

Gustaff Harriman Iskandar

Artist/Director, Common Room Networks Foundation

Gustaff Harriman Iskandar (b. 1974), graduated in 1999 from Fine Arts Department, Bandung Institute of Technology. Starting from 1999 – 2000, He was working for Poros Art Management. Around that period he also wrote, participated in some visual art exhibitions, and organized publishing of Trolley Magazine (2000 – 2001). By the end of 2001, along with Reina Wulansari, R. E. Hartanto and T. Reza Ismail, he founded Bandung Center for New Media Arts, an organization that are focusing on the development of media art & multidisciplinary artistic practice in Indonesia. Having partnership with his wife, Reina Wulansari and other colleagues, Gustaff is working on his art, working for the organization, curates exhibition, write and speak on discussions and symposiums. In year 2003 he developed Common Room, an open platform for art, culture and ICT/Media that are being facilitated by Common Room Networks Foundation. Gustaff currently lives and works in Bandung - Indonesia.

Katherine Higgins

Producer, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST)

Katherine Higgins is an art historian, educator, curator and occasional artist specializing in contemporary art and methods for artistic production and exchange. As Producer of Artists in Residence and Public Programs at MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology, she facilitates collaborative projects between visiting artists and scientists, researchers and students.
Katherine’s research examines the ways artist residency programs engage communities, grow creative industries locally and regionally, and can incorporate indigenous epistemologies and Western pedagogy into professional training models. She often focuses on the Pacific Islands, where she spent many years. Katherine earned a PhD in art history from the University of Auckland. She currently serves as Arts Editor for The Contemporary Pacific and as a trustee for TransCultural Exchange.

Hyungmin Pai

Professor, University of Seoul

Hyungmin Pai has studied at Seoul National University and received his Ph.D from MIT. Twice a Fulbright Scholar, he is presently professor at the University of Seoul. He is author of The Portfolio and the Diagram (MIT Press, 2002), Sensuous Plan: The Architecture of Seung H-Sang (Dongnyok, 2007), and The Key Concepts of Korean Architecture (2012). For the Venice Biennale, he was curator for the Korean Pavilion in 2008 and 2014, of which the latter was awarded the Golden Lion, and a participant in the Common Pavilions project (2012). He was Head Curator for the 4th Gwangju Design Biennale and guest curator at the Aedes Gallery (Berlin), the Tophane Amire Gallery (Istanbul), The Cass Gallery (London), and Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul). He is presently on the Presidential Committee for the Hub City of Asian Culture and Visiting Director of Architecture for the Asia Culture Complex.

Benjamin Loyauté

Curator & Designer

Born in 1979 in France, Benjamin Loyauté is involved in Design, curating, designing and speculating the contemporary ecosystem of design landscape. Taking an experimental and historical approach to his work, he thrives at the intersection of collaborative systems & cross disciplinary researchs : Design & Geopolitics, History & Cultural Anthropology, Design & Art. Recently French Curator has been appointed as General Curator of the 9th edition of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint Etienne and achieved Hypervital on Aesthetic consciousness. The same year, Benjamin Loyauté open a new chapter in his work through a first cutting-edge Semantic Design Installation - The Astounding Candy Power - held during the Milan design week 2015 at the Palazzo delle Stelline.

Usman Haque

Founding Partner, Umbrellium / Founder, Thingful.net

Usman Haque is founding partner of Umbrellium [http://umbrellium.co.uk/] and Thingful [https://thingful.net/], a search engine for the Internet of Things. Earlier, he launched the Internet of Things data infrastructure and community platform Pachube.com, which was acquired by LogMeIn in 2011. Trained as an architect, he has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and dozens of mass-participation initiatives throughout the world. His skills include the design and engineering of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London. He received the 2008 Design of the Year Award (interactive) from the Design Museum, UK, a 2009 World Technology Award (art), the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence prize and the Asia Digital Art Award Grand Prize.

Oron Catts

Director of SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia

Oron Catts is the Director of SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. As from 2016 he will also serve as a visiting faculty at the Royal College of Arts London, in the capacity of Professor of Constable Design.
He is an artist, designer, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA; winner of the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007).
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, in 2012 he set up a biological art lab at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
Exhibited in places such as the MoMA NY, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Ars Electronica, Linz, GOMA Brisbane and more.

Jessica Green

Director, Biology and Built Environment Center, University of Oregon Co-founder and CTO, Phylagen Inc.

Dr. Jessica Green is an Alec and Kay Keith Professor the University of Oregon, where she is founding director of the Biology and Built Environment Center, a team that bridges biology and architecture. Dr. Green envisions a future with genomic-driven approaches to architectural design that promotes sustainability, human health and well-being. She is internationally recognized for her research in ecology and evolution, with highly cited articles in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Time, NPR, Discover, Scientific American, and the New Scientist. She has been honored with a Blaise Pascale International Research Chair, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a TED Senior Fellowship. She completed a PhD in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, and earned a BS in civil and environmental engineering at UCLA.

Heizo Takenaka

Professor, Keio University / Chairman, Institute for Urban Strategies, The Mori Memorial Foundation / Director, Academyhills

Heizo Takenaka is a Professor of Faculty of Policy Management and Director of the Global Security Research Institute at Keio University. He is also Chairman of the Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation and Director of Academyhills.
In 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi named him the Minister of Economic/Fiscal Policy, the Minister of both Financial Services and Economic/Fiscal Policy in 2002, the Minister of both Economic / Fiscal Policy and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2004, the Minister of both Internal Affairs and Communication, and Privatization of the Postal Services in 2005. The following year, he returned to academia, leaving both the Cabinet and the House of Councilors when Prime Minister Koizumi resigned.
He received his B.A. in Economics from Hitotsubashi University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Osaka University. His academic experience is numerous, including Visiting Associate Professor of Harvard University in 1989, and Professor of Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University in 1996.
He is the author of numerous books, including "The Structural Reforms of the Koizumi Cabinet".

Joichi Ito

Director, MIT Media Lab

Ito is the director of the MIT Media Lab. He is chairman of the board of PureTech Health and a board member of Sony Corp., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation , the Mozilla Foundation and The New York Times Co. He is the co-founder and a board member of Digital Garage, an Internet company in Japan. He has created numerous Internet companies, including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. He was an early-stage investor in Formlabs, Flickr, Kickstarter, littleBits, Path, Twitter, Wikia and other companies.
In 2008, Ito was named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. In 2011 Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers. Also in 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in recognition of his role as one of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom. In 2011 and 2012, Nikkei Business selected him as one of the 100 most influential people for the future of Japan.
In 2013, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, from The New School. In 2014, he was inducted into the SXSW Interactive Festival Hall of Fame and was awarded the Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement. In 2015, Ito was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Tufts University.

Hiroo Ichikawa

Professor and Dean, Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University / Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation

Hiroo Ichikawa is Dean at the Professional Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. He is also Executive Director, The Mori Memorial Foundation and President at the Meiji University Research Center for Crisis and Contingency Management. He is an expert in urban policy, urban and regional planning, and crisis management and has authored numerous books on issues related to Tokyo and metropolitan regions, including Urban Strategy for Tokyo (2012), Learning from the Disaster in Japan (2011), and Creating Japan’s Future (2008). He has also served numerous public and private organizations including the Japanese government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Telework Society, and Japan Association of Emergency Qualified Specialists. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning at Waseda University, he went on to the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he was granted a Doctoral degree in Urban and Regional Planning. He was born in Tokyo in 1947 and is a first-class registered architect in Japan.

Fumio Nanjo

Director, Mori Art Museum

Fumio Nanjo (b.1949 in Tokyo) has been director of Mori Art Museum since November 2006. Prior to taking the directorship at the Mori, he had served as the museum’s deputy director (2002-2006), after working with cultural organizations including the Japan Foundation(1978-1986). His main achievements include commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1997), commissioner at the Taipei Biennale (1998), member of jury committee of the Turner Prize (1998), artistic director of the Yokohama Triennale 2001, and artistic director of the Singapore Biennale (2006/2008). He graduated from Keio University in the faculty of Economics(1972) and Letters (Aesthetics/Art History;1977). Publications include Asian Contemporary Art Report: China, India, Middle East and Japan (2010) and A Life with Art (2012).