Bio Lab/Food Lab Opening Symposium: “Nurturing Creativity: A Dialogue Aimed at Reconceptualizing Intelligence and Life”

To commemorate the opening of Bio Lab and Food Lab (designed by the Masaaki Iwamoto lab at Kyushu University) at the Ohashi Campus Shared Facility Building (formerly the Student Hall Canteen), Kyushu University Faculty of Design organized a symposium entitled “Nurturing Creativity: A Dialogue Aimed at Reconceptualizing Intelligence and Life.”

As part of our ongoing research project “Developing methods for next-generation design education (Creativity education),” this dialogue examines how creativity can be nurtured via multiple perspectives centered on intelligence and life, including bio-aesthetics, artificial intelligence, bio-art, synthetic life, DIY biology, etc. For 50 years since its establishment, the Kyushu Institute of Design has been seeking out the missing links between biotechnology and design, between food and design, in its study of the “humanization of technology.” Building on this, we explored new openings for future activities that were useful for nurturing a new generation of higher-order designers.

[Program]
14:00 – 15:30 Part 1: Presentation
Introduction to our guests’ practical work on intelligence and life
15:30 – 17:00 Part 2: Dialogue
Small-group discussion between guests and participants
17:00 – 19:00 Part 3: Panel Dialogue
Panel discussion between guests and our faculty members on topics raised
19:00 Reception Party
Informal reception in Food Lab, and tours of both Bio Lab and Food Lab
(DJ: Nao Tokui、Jo Kazuhiro, etc.)

[Speakers]
Hideo Iwasaki (metaPhorest/Professor at Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University)
Nao Tokui (Qosmo/Adjunct Associate Professor at Global Innovation Center, Kyushu University)
Ai Hasegawa (Artist & Designer/Research Fellow at Tokyo University)
Dominick Chen (Associate Professor at Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)
Kazutoshi Tsuda (Researcher at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM])
Jo Kazuhiro (Associate Professor at Faculty of Design, Kyushu University)

[Organizers]
Graduate School of Design, Kyushu University
Jo Kazuhiro (Media Art), Hiroshi Ito (Chronobiology), Tokushu Inamura (Design Engineering), Chihiro Hiramatsu (Genetics/Visual Physiological Psychology), Yuki Morimoto (Computer Graphics)

What is Bio Lab?
Bio Lab is an integrated facility equipped with tools for genetic analysis and image analysis, and it seeks to explore the possibilities of the rapidly growing field of biotechnology from a design perspective. For instance, through various work that involves creating designs based on the function and structure of living things, and art that harnesses living things as a medium of expression, Bio Lab evaluates the potential and ethics of new means of expression, and explores the various aesthetics and moral issues implicated in the intersection between the evolving fields of life sciences and technology. Through these means, Bio Lab endeavors to unlock new research areas in the field of design that go beyond simply finding and solving existing problems.

What is Food Lab?
At Food Lab, food production is conceived of as a design problem that needs to take into account the types of food and consumption habits. Through guest workshops and lecture-demonstrations, Food Lab explores the future directions of this idea of “food” that is inextricable from and of utmost importance to our everyday life. As with Bio Lab, Food Lab has utilized existing equipment in the former Student Hall canteen as much as possible to minimize expenses. In the future, Food Lab aims to conduct various experiments to explore the ways “food” functions for us as a gateway into many other areas of our lives, including multiculturalism, poverty, genetic modification, community reconstruction, etc.

This symposium is part of an ongoing series of events to share the research findings of the 2018 QR Program “Research on the design potential of biotechnology” as well as the Next Enhanced Education Program (NEEP) “Development of methods for next-generation design education based on digital fabrication, aimed at developing innovative science & technology talents that harness design thinking.”