Tokyo | Future and the Arts exhibition

Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow - a major international exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo looks at What Is True Affluence, What Is It to Be Human, What Is Life? The exhibition runs 19 November 2019 till 29 March 2020.

Advances in technology over the past few years are now starting to have a significant impact on various aspects of our lives. It is said that not too far in the future, human beings will be entrusting many of their decisions to AI (artificial intelligence) which will then supersede human intelligence; the advent of “singularity” will potentially usher in enormous changes to our society and lifestyles. Another development, that of blockchain technology, looks set to build new levels of trust and value into our social systems, while advances in biotechnology will have a major impact on food, medicine, and the environment. It is also possible that one day, we humans will be able to extend our physical functions, and enjoy longer life spans. The effect of such changes may not be necessarily and universally positive, yet surely we need to at least acquire a vision of what life may look like in the next 20-30 years, and ponder the possibilities of that new world. Doing so will also spark fundamental questions about the nature of affluence and of being human, and what constitutes life.

Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow, consisted of five sections: i.e. “New Possibilities of Cities;” “Toward Neo-Metabolism Architecture;” “Lifestyle and Design Innovations;” “Human Augmentation and Its Ethical Issues;” and “Society and Humans in Transformation,” will showcase over 100 projects/works. The exhibition will aim to encourage us to contemplate cities, environmental issues, human lifestyles and the likely state of human beings as well as human society - all in the imminent future, via cutting-edge developments in science and technology including AI, biotechnology, robotics, and AR (augmented reality), plus art, design, and architecture influenced by all these.

The exhibition is an international collaboration, with co-curation from ArtScience Museum, Singapore, curatorial advice from SymbioticA The University of Western Australia,and grants from Adam Mickiewicz Institute / culture.pl, Australian Embassy Tokyo, The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

Image: ecoLogicStudio - H.O.R.T.U.S. XL Astaxanthin.g, 2019 ©NAARO