Prof. Hiroshi Ishii - Beyond Pixels: Inventing Tangible Media for Human Expression & Communication

The Nugget

Prof. Hiroshi Ishii's vision for Tangible Media seeks to blend the physical and digital worlds, enabling new forms of expression and communication that transcend current technological limitations.

Make it stick

🎨 New Paintbrush - Ishii aims to invent tools for new forms of artistic expression, like a modern-day paintbrush to paint dreams.
🏖️ Seashore Metaphor - We are like people living at the seashore, submerged in digital pixels, but craving the tangible world of atoms.
💾 Radical Atoms - Ishii's concept aims to merge digital computation with physical matter, turning pixels into dynamic, tangible forms.
🧩 Presence of Absence - The idea that we can use technology to maintain a connection with those who are no longer physically present.

Ishii argues for the importance of physicality and materiality in interaction design, pushing back against the purely digital paradigm championed by books like "Being Digital" by Nicholas Negroponte.
He emphasizes the creation of new tools for human expression, viewing media as an extension of our hands and minds.

The concept of the seashore metaphor is used to describe our experience living amid digital and physical worlds.
Ishii's work champions the integration of the digital with the physical (digits and atoms), aiming to make digital information materially tangible.

Ishii's vision of Radical Atoms introduces a new kind of material which is dynamic, computationally driven, and physically tangible.
Examples include interactive sand tables and music bottles that play tunes when opened, designed to preserve and express memories.

Interactive exhibits like those at MIT Museum and dynamic physical tools for simulated city planning and water flow analysis show the practical applications of Tangible Media.
His work emphasizes the importance of transparency and interactivity in learning, exemplified by projects like the tangible interface of an abacus and landscape design tools.

Ishii's projects often include an emotional dimension, like creating objects to remember deceased loved ones, such as a music bottle that sings when opened.
The idea of 'presence of absence' is explored through projects that replicate the presence of those who are no longer alive, using technology to keep memories alive.

The intersection of art and technology is a recurring theme, with projects designed to inspire and provoke new forms of interaction, like kinetic sculptures that respond to human presence.
Collaboration with artists, such as dancers working with bio-responsive costumes, illustrates the creative potentials of Tangible Media.

"I want to invent new paintbrushes to paint our dreams."
"We live on the seashore of the digital and physical worlds, constantly balancing between pixels and atoms."
"Radical Atoms aims to merge digital computation with physical matter, turning bits into tangible objects."
"Being in a physical world, interacting with atoms instead of pixels, is fundamentally important for human experience."
"The presence of absence—using technology to maintain connections with those who are no longer here— is a profound concept in our work."

This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.