Kouta Minamizawa: Between Lives

2025/05/20

In the summer of 2020, amidst the social chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a workshop was held to develop the basic concept for the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a diverse group of members—including architects, designers, artists, and researchers like myself—gathered alongside a team of young METI officials. As humanity faced a collective threat to "life," we witnessed shifting values, the rapid development and integration of technologies like remote communication and AI, social and political turmoil, and the inevitable countdown toward planetary boundaries. The members involved in the basic concept were stakeholders in this reality, just as people all over the world are. The overall Expo theme set in 2017, "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," unexpectedly took on a completely different meaning. To determine what message Japan should project at the Osaka/Kansai Expo—which will be positioned as the dawn of the post-pandemic era—a group of outspoken members (despite wearing masks) gathered. The process began by completely overturning the draft prepared by the secretariat. Following relentless and heated discussions, the Basic Concept for the Japan Pavilion was finalized and released in April 2021.

The theme established for the basic concept was "Between Lives."

The pandemic made us realize once again the fragility of human "life." It highlighted the cycle where life is nurtured on Earth, nature is formed over long periods, and it becomes energy and food to sustain the next generation of life. It focused on the various relationships and changes that occur between the lives of humans, and between humans and diverse non-human life and environments. It considered unknown life that might exist somewhere in the universe, and new forms of life being created by AI and robots. As old and new values intersect, the message is to use this Expo as an opportunity to create and connect a space where diverse visitors from around the world can think about the nature of "life" across generations.

Guidelines for the exhibition and operations—such as experiences that change for each visitor, the inclusion of diverse people in operations and exhibits, mechanisms to encourage personal engagement, spatial configurations conscious of circulation, the interconnection of real and digital, and experiences of facing "life" by visualizing the visitor's inner self—were compiled with the hope that they would serve as a message not only for the Japan Pavilion but for all the various pavilions participating in the Expo. These ideas have been embodied in various forms across the colorful pavilions of the now-opened Expo, and I would like to express my heartfelt respect for the immense efforts of the many people involved over the four years since the basic concept was formed.

Based on the philosophy of this basic concept, I myself am planning to exhibit several research projects.

As a co-creation project with the Japan Craft 21 Association, we are working on the digitalization and transmission of skills in traditional Japanese crafts. As the declining birthrate and aging population accelerate, traditional crafts across Japan are facing a crisis of survival. We are exploring the future of crafts by using digital technology to preserve artisans' skills, utilizing them for training successors, and transmitting skills across time and space. In this exhibition, we will introduce our year-long collaboration with "Ikutouen," a Tsuboya-yaki pottery studio in Okinawa that has lasted for seven generations. We will showcase the recording and re-experiencing of pottery skills using haptic transmission technology, as well as skill expansion technology utilizing Cybernetic Avatars.

I serve as the project manager for the Cabinet Office/JST Moonshot R&D Program, "Development of Cybernetic Avatar Technology and Social Infrastructure for Physical Co-creation." By utilizing Cybernetic Avatar (CA) technology that allows for the sharing of human experiences and skills, we are working to create spaces for experience sharing, skill co-creation, cognitive expansion, and new social participation. Our goal is a future where diverse people can exercise their various abilities and play active roles regardless of age, gender, or disability. This exhibition summarizes five years of research, development, and social co-creation activities, illustrating the vision of society in 2050.

As social change accelerates and the future becomes harder to predict, the raison d'être of the Expo is being questioned. Rather than presenting a simple "future," we seek to have diverse people cooperate, create something together, and strive to pass it on to the next generation. Everyone, including visitors, interacts as stakeholders in realizing the future society. I hope you will experience this new form of the Expo in the post-pandemic era and use it as an opportunity to think about the future.