NSK Future Forum 5

Humor is needed to make the world move.

2020.11.7(sat)

_{"NSK VISION 2026 Project SENSE OF MOTION Future Forum 5" will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2020 from 15:00 to 19:00 at Spiral Hall (Spiral 3F).}

_{For the first time "NSK Future Forum" will take place without spectators and will be broadcasted live, on YouTube.}

_{The “NSK Future Forum” is the central program of NSK VISION 2026 Project “SENSE OF MOTION”, a platform giving form to the vision for the future formulated by NSK on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2016.}

_{Every year, “NSK Future Forum” invites “people who create new movements around the world” to discuss ideas as a step toward opening the door to a future of genuine prosperity of all. The 5th edition of “NSK Future Forum” will discuss how “humor is necessary to move the world”.}

Humor and Motion - Humor is needed to make the world move.

The global coronavirus pandemic has brought our society to a halt. Anxiety and fear are now widespread. People feel trapped and unable to move. In the midst of this, Taiwan’s digital minister, Audrey Tang, introduced a bold new strategy of “humor over rumor” to quash the disinformation that is intensifying our anxieties. Because humor is easier to share than anger, Tang has said. As human beings, we know that humor smooths over difficulties and helps things function better. In short, humor enlivens and enriches our lives. Sharing fun may very well inspire social innovations that can take us beyond the current “new normal.” This year’s Sense of Motion forum will explore, through humor, new ways of moving that break free from what constrains and impedes us.

Program : 　　

Part 1
Presentation 1 : Shigeru Watanabe（Professor emeritus, Keio University）
Presentation 2 : Yusuke Murakami (Extreme Field Architect / Founder of FIELD assistant)

Part 2
Presentation 3 : Taihei Hayashiya（Rakugo storyteller）

Part 3
Presentation 4 : exonemo（Artist unit）
Presentation 5 : Asa Ito（Associate Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology; aesthetics researcher）

Part 4
Discussion : Asa Ito, exonemo, Yusuke Murakami

_{＊The program might be subject to change without prior notification on this page.}

■ About

NSK VISION 2026 Project
SENSE OF MOTION―Future Forum 5

Future Forum 5 will take place online (in Japanese only).

_{Date : 7 (sat), November 2020 15:00-19:00

Viewing free（no application required）

Viewing website : www.senseofmotion.net

Inquiries：03-3498-1171 (Spiral)}

_{Organized by NSK Ltd.

Producer Nobuko Shimuta

Planned by Spiral / Wacoal Art Center

Art Direction by Atsuki Kikuchi

Broadcasting Produce：Kinuyo Nogami

Live Streaming Performance : FAIFAI}

■ Speakers

_{Asa Ito（Associate Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology; aesthetics researcher）

exonemo（Artist unit）

Taihei Hayashiya（Rakugo storyteller）

Yusuke Murakami（Extreme Field Architect / Founder of FIELD assistant）

Shigeru Watanabe（Professor emeritus, Keio University）}

■ Profile

Asa Ito

Asa Ito is director of the Future of Humanity Research Center at the Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, where she is also an associate professor at the Institute for Liberal Arts. In 2019, she was a visiting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She specializes in aesthetics and contemporary art. Originally aspiring to be a biologist, she switched to the humanities in her third year as an undergraduate. In 2010, she completed the coursework for the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo, majoring in aesthetics in the Division of General Culture. That same year, she obtained a PhD in literature. Her major publications include How a Blind Person Sees the World (Kobunsha), A Body That Stutters (Igaku-Shoin), When a Body Memorizes (Shunjusha), and Ethics of the Hand (Kodansha). Her accolades include the Wired Audi Innovation Award 2017 and the 13th Akiko Ikeda I Am Nobody Award (2020).

exonemo

The Japanese artist unit "exonemo" (by SEMBO Kensuke and AKAIWA Yae) was formed in 1996 on the Internet. Their experimental projects are typically humorous and innovative explorations of the paradoxes of digital and analog computer networked and actual environments in our lives. Their The Road Movie won the Golden Nica for Net Vision category at Prix Ars Electronica 2006. They have been organizing the IDPW gatherings and "Internet Yami-Ichi" since 2012. They live and work in New York since 2015.
PHOTO : Niko

Taihei Hayashiya

Born in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, in 1964, Taihei Hayashiya graduated from the College of Art and Design at Musashino Art University in 1987. In 1988, he became a student of the rakugo comic storyteller Konpei Hayashiya. In 1992, he advanced to the futatsume middle rank as a rakugo storyteller, reaching the shinuchi rank as a full master in 2000. His multi-award-winning style of rakugo reinterprets the stories in an accessible and fun way for contemporary audiences, attracting fans both young and old. Hayashiya strives to expand the popular appeal of rakugo through appearances on TV and radio, releasing CDs, and even producing and starring in a movie. He is the executive director of the Rakugo Association as well as a visiting professor at Musashino Art University. He also serves as a tourism ambassador for Chichibu, Ishinomaki, Higashichichibu, and Nagatoro, and a PR ambassador Miyagi Prefecture.

Yusuke Murakami

Yusuke Murakami (b. 1978) is a field architect who has explored life in extreme conditions, such as the Himalayas or Antarctica, in order to find ways of living in harsh environments. In 2008 he became a member of the winter crew of the 50th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition and spent fifteen months living at Syowa Station. In 2013, Murakami was chosen as the executive officer for American research group The Mars Society’s “Mars160” project, completing a total of 160 days in simulated Mars conditions in the Wayne Desert in Utah and on Devon Island in the Arctic in 2017. In 2019, he utilized a decommissioned Antarctic exploration ship to realize “SHIRASE EXP”, the first closed-habitation experiment in Japan’s history.

Shigeru Watanabe

Main research areas: Experimental psychology, Neuroscience, Comparative cognitive science
Main research topics: Neural basis of avian visual cognition, animal aesthetics, hippocampus and spatial memory, empathy in animals
Main publications: ”Origin of cognition”(Iwanami), “Ability of bird brain” (Kagakudoujinsya), ”Origin of aesthetics”(Kyouritsushuppann), “Do we need ‘mind’ to understand animal behavior?”(Tokyo Univ. Press).
Awards: IgNobel prize(1995), JPA International Award for Distinguished Research (2017), Ornithological Award in Memory of Dr. Yamashina Yoshimaro (2020)

About the online viewing

・This event will be held using YouTube.
・Depending on your network environment, the video may be distorted or the audio may be interrupted. We recommend you to make sure you are in an environment with a good internet connectability prior to watching the event.
・Please check the official website (senseofmotion.net) for more details on how to watch the event.

NSK Future Forum 5

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