GUESTS

Professor, Yamaguchi University

Born in 1961 in Okayama prefecture, Rinji Akada is a professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Applied Chemistry in Yamaguchi University, focusing his research on genetic engineering. He first came across yeast at a fermentation engineering class held at Hiroshima University. In 2003, he released the worldʼs first japanese sake that is made using genetic engineering technology. Since then, he has been researching into different areas, such as bioethanol and human diseases, through the use of yeast, and often jumping at the ʻyeastyʼ opportunities.

Project Assistant Professor,
Database Center for Life Science (DBCL)

Toshiaki Katayamaʼs study aims to make integrated use of life and medical science databases, and has developed bioinformatics library BioRuby, and other database services including TogoDB, TogoWS, TogoGenome, TogoVar, among others. He has also been involved in organizing annual international conference BioHackathon for 10 years, as well as in the project "Genome Bento", co-produced with YCAM.

Artist
Researcher

Born in 1971, Hideo Iwasaki leads metaPhorest, a platform for researches on bioaesthetics, and is a professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Waseda University. He has been researching about biological clock and morphogenesis. He was involved in the establishment of a research organization, Japanese Society for Cell Synthesis Research, and became the head of the group in 2016. He is the author of a book "What is Life? – Expressing Biology, Thinking Art".

Molecular Florist

Independent Research Contractor at MIT Media Lab working on novel flower design through bleeding-edge plant genetic engineering technologies. Director of the education-oriented biotech non-profit, Binomica Labs, developing open source discovery-driven curricula for students in the molecular biology setting, both formal and amateur.

Co-founder at Bento Lab

Philipp Boeing is a co-founder at Bento Lab, where he's helped create the world's first easyto-use, laptop-sized DNA laboratory. Together with the team at Bento Bio, he is on a mission to bring down the barriers to entry in biotechnology, and make it accessible and affordable to all. He is also involved in a Tokyo-based artistic research framework BCL.

Artist unit

Developing their own idyllic sublime theory that emerges from physical contacts, contact Gonzo is a collective that presents improvisational performances, produces film and photo works, and edits magazines. The group name "contact Gonzo" is also the name given to the method they practice. They invented "mountain surfing", which uses mountain slope as the sliding ground.

Project Assistant Professor,
The University of Tokyo

Daiya Aida has been working in the education department as a chief educator at YCAM for 11 years since the opening. He has been developing and conducting workshops and programs, including "Korogaru Park" series, among others. He will be involved in Aichi Triennale 2019 as a curator.

Vegetable Café ToyToy is a restaurant in Yamaguchi city, exploring foods in various forms, including lunch using seasonal vegetables, bento box, catering, curry, and craft beers. Since 2017, they have been producing bento box using only the ingredients with the genomes decoded in the project "Genome Bento" with YCAM Bio Research team.