Takashi Ikegami | TEDxTokyo 2012
To Takashi Ikegami, life is what you make it. Specifically, he and his Ikegami Lab cohorts are attempting to build viable synthetic life forms using computer simulations, chemical experiments and robots. A professor in the University of Tokyo’s Department of General Systems Sciences, Takashi’s works encompass both the arts and sciences. In one conceptual art project, Sound Bookshelf, an autonomous sensor network reacted to temperature and humidity changes in a Tokyo bookstore to create unique soundscapes. Takashi is now busy investigating life indicators such as autonomy, sustainability and “evolvability.” Some of his findings appeared in a 2007 book called Life Emerges in Motion. Takashi is also on the editorial boards of the journals Artificial Life, Adaptive Behaviors, BioSystems and Interaction Studies, and presented the 2008 keynote at the 20th Anniversary of Artificial Life Conference in Winchester, UK.