Sputniko!

Hiromi Marissa Ozaki (born 1 July 1985), better known by her pseudonym Sputniko!, is a Japanese artist, designer and entrepreneur. She specializes in the field of speculative and critical design.^[1][2] She is known for her films and multimedia installation works inspired by emerging technologies’ possible impact on society and values – with a focus on gender issues.^[3][4]

Sputniko!
Born	Hiromi Ozaki Tokyo, Japan
Alma mater	Royal College of Art

Her high school friends in Japan gave her the nickname “Sputnik”, from the artificial Earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union, due to her interest in science and fair skin which her friends associated with Russia. She added “Ko” (子), a character commonly used at the end of Japanese girl names, to Sputnik after learning that it was the first-ever satellite creating her now iconic pseudonym.^[5]

After majoring in BSc Mathematics and Computer Science at Imperial College, London, she pursued a master's degree in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.^[6]

Her art and design works have been internationally exhibited in museums such as Cooper Hewitt Design Museum (USA), Museum of Modern Art (USA), Pompidou Centre-Metz (France), ZKM Art Center (Germany), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Japan), Mori Art Museum (Japan) and Victoria & Albert Museum (UK). Her works have also been shown in numerous art festivals including Triennale di Milano (Italy), Art & Science International Exhibition (Beijing) and Setouchi Art Trienniale (Japan).

Career

Art and Design

Sputniko! creates possible future scenarios and future artifacts inspired by emerging or existing technologies to promote discourse on topics such as gender, reproduction and interspecies relations. She often works with scientists to develop working prototypes of future artifacts. To convey a possible future scenario, she creates iconic music videos consisting of explanatory and narrative lyrics, pop music and films which often stars herself.

She also creates artworks with Masaya Kushino as the art duo Another Farm. Another Farm explores the relationship between humanity and nature by working with scientists and engineers to produce works that bring together new technology, traditional techniques and cultures.^[7]

As an artist and designer, she was named Vogue Japan's Women of the Year in 2013 and selected as one of Young Global Leaders in 2017 by World Economic Forum,^[8] and as one of twenty young researchers, artists and designers to become "TED Fellows in 2019.""^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

 

Sputniko! at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

To date, she has had her works included in the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan).

Education and Research

From 2013 to 2017, Sputniko! was an assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab^[14] where she founded and directed the Design Fiction research group. In October 2017, She was appointed as an Associate Professor of RCA-IIS Design Lab in the Institute of Industrial Engineering at the University of Tokyo which she continued until 2019. Currently, she is an associate professor of the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts.^[15][16]

Entrepreneurship

Spuniko! founded Cradle, a women’s healthcare service that supports the well-being of female employees working in Japanese corporations.^[17]

References

1. "Talk To Me | Crowbot Jenny". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
2. "Faculty Biography". MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
3. Kosuga, Tomo (8 March 2013). "When Communication Transcends Gender Boundaries: Meet Cyborg-Wannabe Sputniko!". The Creators Project. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
4. Andrews, William (21 November 2011). "From Music Homework to Digital Native Artist: An interview with music, video and conceptual design artist Sputniko!". Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
5. "Meet the YouTube Pop Star who Teaches at MIT". IDEO. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
6. "Marissa Ozaki (Sputniko!) |Roppongi Future Conference|". Retrieved 10 May 2022.
7. "Modified Paradise:Dress Another Farm(JP)". Ars Electronica. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
8. "World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 Young Global Leaders Participant List". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
9. . SCAI THE BATHHOUSE. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
10. "Women of the Year 2013 受賞者スペシャルムービー (Japanese)". Vogue Japan. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
11. "TED Fellows Program". www.ted.com. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
12. "Meet the 2019 TED Fellows and Senior Fellows". TED Blog. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
13. Conference, T. E. D. (15 April 2019), TED2019_20190415_2RL8752_1920, retrieved 15 June 2019
14. Sputniko! | MIT Media Lab
15. "Marissa Ozaki, Project Associate Professor". The University of Tokyo. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
16. "New Members". RCA-IIS Design Lab. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
17. "Designing a system enabling everyone to flourish in their own way, regardless of gender". Cradle Inc. Retrieved 13 May 2022.

External links

• Official website