10 Questions with Masaki Iwabuchi

Masaki Iwabuchi (b. 1984, Tokyo, Japan) is a New York-based interdisciplinary designer, artist, and futurist. He has expertise in Speculative Design and envisions future scenarios, socio-technical visions, and beautiful dreams through various media: photography, writing, video, and interactive prototypes. He received his BE and MA degrees from the University of Tokyo and an MFA in Design and Technology from the Parsons School of Design. In 2019, he was selected as the Design Researcher in Residence at KYOTO Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Masaki believes we need alternative visions and worldviews to overcome numerous wicked problems in this century, such as climate change, forced migration, political and social polarization, etc. Therefore, he is interested in challenging our societal structures, vested interests, and Cartesian belief systems through his works. In doing so, he provokes his audience to shake off old habits, patterns, and mindsets and cultivates new ways of seeing the world differently.

His works have been exhibited worldwide in exhibitions and art events, including the Recto Verso Gallery in Tokyo, the Stockholm Art Book Fair, and the NYC Media Lab Demo Expo. Additionally, He has been actively systemizing his artistic processes and publishing research papers in interaction design, speculative design, and transition design. Design Research Society, ACM SIGGRAPH, and many others accepted his papers. In 2023, he served on a jury at the Good Living 2050, an international vision design contest. 

Since 2021, Masaki Iwabuchi has been a visiting associate professor at Tohoku University, Japan, teaching engineering students speculative design and vision design. Most recently, he has proactively applied his artistic sensibilities in both the realms of academics and business. Masaki holds many lectures and workshops to shape positive future scenarios collaboratively with students, citizens, and business professionals.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Masaki Iwabuchi speculates possibilities and envisions novel ways of perceiving the world through designed artefacts. His aim is not to predict the future but to explore radical ways in which the future could unfold and alter current human behaviours to reach preferable futures. Therefore, Masaki experiments with and unpacks the politics, history, meanings, assumptions, and human nature behind the aesthetic representation of alternative worlds using a variety of media: drawing, photography, writing, video, objects, diagrams, spaces, workshops, and so on. His work serves as a reminder that the future is not something that happens to us automatically; it's something we actively create and take control of.

Masaki's lifelong mission is to pass the baton to the 22nd century by enhancing people's imagination and provoking them to think about preferred futures.

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Why are you an artist, and how did you become one?

I'm Masaki. I'm a designer and artist. I am interested in speculating about futures and visualizing them. There are many "wicked" problems in front of us in this century: climate change, forced migration, political and social polarization, global pandemics, etc. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to see a bright future. Even national governments and international organizations don't offer us optimistic visions. Under such circumstances, we must envision preferred futures by ourselves. Therefore, I want to create a work that inspires people to think about possible futures, debate preferred scenarios, and take action toward them. I believe that if people change how they perceive the world, the world will change. To achieve my vision, I considered becoming a politician or a critic before, but I preferred to create something concrete rather than discourse. By presenting tangible artefacts to the world and actively interacting with people through them, new ideas and alternative futures could emerge. Through my works, I always seek to ignite provocation and serendipity for the future. And people call it speculative art.

How did you develop into the artist you are today? What training or experiences helped you in the process? 

I studied at Parsons School of Design, USA, and worked with Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, proponents of the concept of speculative design. It was a life-changing experience for me! They nudged me beyond my old habits, thinking patterns, and mindsets. They gathered students from various majors, from art and design to architecture, technology, business, political science, and anthropology. And we discussed thought-experimental questions and made something together. The questions are mostly political, anthropological, and ethical. For example, what if a nation operates on an entirely different policy-making system? And what kind of tools do we use in this world? By thinking of these provocative questions in the interdisciplinary group, I could imagine alternative worlds and possible artefacts that don't exist with more sense of reality. Such a critical and interdisciplinary attitude is my core spirit as an artist.

You started your art journey in Tokyo before moving to New York. How do these two different cities and their environments influence your work?

I often capture each city's unique characteristics or issues and leverage them as themes for my work. For example, in New York, people of different ethnicities coexist in the same city and live in houses over 100 years old. This common sense in New York is unbelievable in mono-ethnic, earthquake-prone Japan. On the other hand, Tokyo is a source of animation and video game trends, and Japan has a significantly declining birth rate and an ageing population. I carefully observe these unique mindsets rooted in each city's cultures, histories, and geopolitics. These inspirations are significant for my work, and I love to create works in local contexts.

Your work spans various mediums, from photography to interactive prototypes. How do you decide which medium to use for a particular project, and how does each medium contribute to the message you aim to convey?

There are many different ways of expressing future worldviews. You could make an illustration, a novel, or even a film. However, future scenarios depicted in this way are often received as an imaginary world rather than a real one. Through the artefacts, I want the viewer to imagine the future that could happen in our real world. For this reason, I prefer realistic representations, such as photographs, documentary videos, and functioning prototypes. If the project is about the future of artificial intelligence, I may use prototypes; if the project is about the future of the natural environment, I may use photographs or some objects "from the future." I choose the most appropriate medium depending on the theme and audience of the project.

Your statement mentions challenging societal structures and belief systems through your artwork. Can you give examples of how you incorporate this theme into your creative process?

These days, our entire social system itself is about to collapse, such as the widening economic disparity caused by capitalism and the dysfunction of the social security funds for retirees. We must find hope for the future by reinventing alternative economies and ways of life that are entirely different from the current norms. Many problem-solving processes occur within existing social and economic systems, but I create my work with the belief that these systems can be reimagined radically. To give an example of an actual product, Uber's idea of "riding someone else's car to your destination instead of taking a public cab" replaced the existing infrastructure; Airbnb's idea of "staying in someone else's empty house instead of a hotel" created a new sharing-economy. These ideas are really artistic for me. We have the potential to change conventional worldviews with a critical mindset. I convey these messages in my work to open people's perspectives and make them think about a world that is different from now.

Your work often explores alternative visions of the future. What inspires you to delve into these speculative scenarios, and how do you hope they impact society's understanding of the future?

As I answered in the previous question, the starting point of my inspiration is to imagine a world completely different from the present. When I say "imagine a different world," I am not anticipating an advanced technological civilization, as in science fiction. In most cases, I envision a world where the social structure is radically different, such as one in which the monetary system has been eliminated or people have been freed from labour. Economists and researchers have proposed such ideas, but there is a lot of uncertainty about whether they are genuinely ideal utopias or desirable worlds for us as consumers. We need more diverse opinions, debates, and high-resolution worldviews. Therefore, I hope my work works as a "translator" of future uncertainty into present-day choices. I want to mediate between abstract future concepts and current behavioural changes through concrete photographs and tangible objects.

How do you balance the creative exploration of potential futures with the practical considerations of technological and societal feasibility?

I have positioned my work in an approach called "Backcasting." It envisions the future state or destination first and then thinks backwards to the present about what can be done to achieve it and how to get there. If we think about the constraints and feasibility of the present first, that alone narrows our imagination and creativity for the future. Instead, it is crucial to explore potential futures without restrictions and then generate discussion on how to avoid or change present constraints itself toward the desired future. In many cases, artwork alone does not automatically evoke these deep reflections and discussions. Therefore, I sometimes introduce my artwork to citizens and business professionals and do workshops for further discussion. This approach of applying artists' thinking and deliverables to other industries is called artistic intervention.

Speaking of the future, what are some of the key themes or projects you're excited to explore in the near future, both in your artistic practice and your academic endeavours?

If I talk about the near future, I would mention the evolution of AI. Many media outlets report negatively about AI taking away human jobs, exploiting human intelligence, etc. However, I want to think about a positive future and how AI can allow humans to evolve. Also, as I mentioned earlier, as countries and regions change, so do the needs and application scenarios for advanced technologies. So, I am interested in diving into a local context and creating works that utilize cutting-edge technologies and are also tied to cultures and histories.

Do you have any exhibition or project you are currently working on? 

I am preparing for an upcoming project called the Future Society Design Program at Tohoku University, where I am affiliated. This one-year-long project brings together university researchers, designers, and business professionals from various industries to co-create a societal vision in response to global-scale problems such as climate change. This is an ambitious project to turn everyone into artists. I will introduce my practised artistic process to non-artists and ask all participants to create artefacts for preferred futures. Finally, we will showcase these to the public as an art exhibition. In this context, I will go beyond being an individual artist and serve as a mediator and facilitator. It is an entirely new challenge for me, but I am very excited about it because it is an opportunity to have a bigger impact on society.

And lastly, what is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist? 

I believe that artists are people who interact with the world through their work. It is not a pleasant moment when people say they don't understand or criticize my work, but I reflect on it as meaningful because I have touched their emotions and created such feelings. For all emerging artists, I would suggest not staying in your own world but actively sharing your work and communicating with the world. Artistic sensitivity is refined through dialogue between creator and receiver.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.