contents
Live "Talking with Neurons"
We will hold an event where you can experience the exhibit "Talking with Neurons" with The University of Tokyo: DLX Design Lab + Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab, the participating creator in this exhibition.
"Talking with Neurons" is an installation that enables people to remotely connect with laboratory-grown neurons. In this live demo, the audience will have the chance to engage in a real-time, remote conversation with living neurons cultured in the Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab at U-Tokyo's Komaba Campus. You will speak to the neurons for 5 seconds, and we will record your voice. Your voice will then be sent to the lab and converted into electrical stimulation to activate the neural tissue. The response from the neural tissue will be transformed into graphics and sounds, which you can experience at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT. While this interaction is quick and simple, it prompts the question: will we be able to engage in more complex conversations with living neurons in the future?
- Date
- July 5 (Fri), 2024
- Time
- 17:00 - 19:00
* Miles Pennington and Yoshiho Ikeuchi will introduce the program individually for approx. 20-minute from 17:00. (Part of the talk will be held only in Japanese.) After that, you can experience the live demo at any time during the program period on a first-come, first-served basis. - Venue
- 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Gallery 1 & 2 B1F Lobby
- Instructors
- Miles Pennington, Yoshiho Ikeuchi, The members from the University of Tokyo: DLX Design Lab + Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab
- Special Sponsor
- Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
- Language
- Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese
* Admission to the exhibition is required to see this Live.
* No reservation needed.
* Admission may be restricted depending on congestion due to this program of the day.
Miles Pennington (DLX Design Lab, The University of Tokyo)
Miles Pennington is a Professor of Design Led Innovation at The University of Tokyo. He helps direct the DLX Design Lab that curates collaborations between design and science research. Previously he was at the Royal College of Art and was Head of the Program of the Innovation Design Engineering joint Masters program with Imperial College - he is an alumnus of the IDE program and graduated in 1992. He was also the Founder and Head of the international exchange program Global Innovation Design program. Previously, he was a Director of the London office of the innovation consultancy Takram.
Yoshiho Ikeuchi (Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab, The University of Tokyo)
Yoshiho Ikeuchi earned his Ph.D. degree from The University of Tokyo. He completed post-doctoral neuroscience training at Harvard Medical School and Washington University in St. Louis. In 2014, he was appointed as a Lecturer, and later promoted to Associate Professor in 2018 at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo. His research goal is to create nervous tissue (organoids) from human multipotent stem cells (iPS cells) and to make them functional in order to better understand the mechanisms of brain circuitry.
DLX Design Lab, The University of Tokyo (Hyunjung Kim, Bailang Cheng, Max Fischer)
DLX Design Lab at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, was founded in 2016 as an international team advocating 'creation of value through design.' A team of designers, researchers and engineers closely collaborates on the creation of innovative products and service prototypes, as well as the education of the next generation.
Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab, The University of Tokyo (Siu Yu Angela Chow, Tomoya Duenki, Huaruo Hu, Romain Beaubois)
Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab focuses on research at the intersection of neuroscience and tissue engineering. It produces and engineers neural tissues and organoids from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to understand mechanisms underlying development and function of our brain and nervous system.
* Yoshiho Ikeuchi Lab members will participate in the real-time operation from the lab, not at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT.