Left: Dr Takashi Ikegami, Right: ALTER3 (AI: More than Human, Barbican London, 2019)
Seminar - Between Man and Machine
- 2 December 2021
- 12:00 - 13:15 (GMT)
- Online
- https://dajf.org.uk/event/between-man-and-machine
- events@dajf.org.uk
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The quest for artificial life (ALIFE) has prompted researchers to reconsider their understanding of the nature of life. Professor Ikegami has developed various types of ALIFE systems and has been thinking about the differences between humans and machines (or “what humans and machines have in common”). Advanced technologies and cities are inevitably becoming life-like. Ikegami believes that we have now progressed from the age of AI into the age of ALIFE.
In this seminar, Professor Ikegami will introduce his current work (some of which is art-related) and discuss some interesting issues surrounding artificial life. He will discuss what it is about life that is lacking in today’s robots, and what lies between man and machine.
About the contributors
Dr Takashi Ikegami is a Professor at the Department of General Systems Sciences at the University of Tokyo. His works encompass both the arts and sciences and deal with complex systems and artificial life. He received his doctorate in physics from the University of Tokyo in 1989. His research is centered on complex systems and artificial life, a field which aims to build a possible form of life using computer simulations, chemical experiments, and robots. Some of these results have been published in Life Emerges in Motion (Seido Book Publishers, 2007) and In Between Man and Machine (Kodansha, 2016). He has been involved in media arts since 2005: projects include ‘Filmachine’ (with Keiichiro Shibuya, YCAM, 2006), ‘Mind Time Machine’ (YCAM, 2010), ‘Long Good bye’ (with Kenshu Shintsubo, Japan Alps Festa, 2017), and ‘Offloaded Agency’ (Barbican, 2019).
Dr Suzanne Livingston is co-curator of the Barbican’s AI: More than Human exhibition. She has spent her career researching and questioning the entwined relationship between humans, culture and technology and the philosophical consequences emerging from that. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, Suzanne has worked across sectors in technology, arts, museums, education and business markets. As Global Principal at Wolff Olins, Suzanne develops strategy and exhibitions internationally with museum organisations such as the V&A, Whitney, ICA Boston, Qatar Museums and Southbank Centre and also with technology businesses including Sony Worldwide, Playstation and Ericsson. Suzanne received her PhD in Philosophy from Warwick University and is a founding member of the influential Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU). She continues to write collaboratively on technology, belief systems, innovation and evolution.
