Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow

An Exhibition Prompting Us to Think about Our Lifestyles from Now on, and How Human Beings Will Look in the Not-Too-Distant Future

Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow will look at our near future with its potential for enormous changes thanks to advances in technology. It is not hard to imagine a rose-tinted future of glorious freedom in which AI and robots liberate us from labor. On the other hand, there are those who warn of humans being controlled and enslaved by these same technologies. At this exhibition, we will invite visitors to join us to consider the kind of future that might await humanity, and the kind of future we ought to be building.

A Cross-Genre Thematic Show with Exhibits Not Limited to Contemporary Art

The Mori Art Museum has in the past presented unique, thematic exhibitions combining contemporary art with historical and scientific objects, including Medicine and Art (2009-2010) and The Universe and Art (2016-2017). This exhibition will go a step further, mixing an array of very different exhibits not confined to the contemporary art genre, but also including urban theory and architecture, design and product innovation, bio-art, and even movies and manga, in an endeavor to develop a unique style of art exhibition.

A Glimpse of Life in the Near Future

The exhibition will feature rather futuristic works and products connected with the basic human needs of food, clothing and housing, e.g. products/items of apparel, furniture, lighting and foodstuffs, firing the visitors’ imaginations with an advance taste of items and systems that will bring added convenience and comfort to everyday living while being still environmentally-conscious, and perhaps become integral to our lives in the coming decades.

“Bio-Atelier” Art Laboratory!

Artists are trying to expand the scope of their subjects and artistic expression by using biotechnology. An experimental studio that gathers their works will be set up at the exhibition, with displays including a work that uses modern biotechnology to recreate the left ear that Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have cut off himself.

Exhibition As a Platform for the Sharing of Culture and Opinions by Raising Current, Global Issues Ahead of 2020

With the year 2020 looming, the movement of people and goods both within Japan, and in and out of the country, is gathering pace, and there is a growing need for us to take a fresh look at this country from even more international viewpoint. Future and the Arts exhibition will be a platform for internationally-focused discussion on matters we are now confronting, such as urbanization, environmental problems, aging demographics, automation in various fields and more - all concerns that architects, designers, artists and researchers around the world are attempting to address - and their accompanying challenges for the future.

Collaborating with AI to Create an Exhibition Title for the First Time

Mori Art Museum has collaborated with the “IBM Watson” suite of AI (artificial intelligence) technology and services developed by IBM to come up with the title for this exhibition. The title chosen from over 15,000 AI-generated options, is now finalized as Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow. Please see here for details.