Yoichi OCHIAI

Media Artist / Assistant Professor at University of Tsukuba / Principle Investigator of Digital Nature Group

Yoichi Ochiai, media artist and assistant professor of Tsukuba University, was born in 1987 in Tokyo. He has a PhD in Interdisciplinary Information Studies, from the University of Tokyo. He has been an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba since 2015. People call him a "wizard” because of his work creating a lot of products composed of digital and analogue technologies. He works on new inventions and research through a mixture of applied physics, computer science, and art. He has received the Innovative Technologies Prize from METI, the World Technology Award from Fortune, and many more. His group, the Digital Nature Group, envisions the idea of “Digital Nature” which is a new combination of human and digital resources beyond borders existing between digital and analogue, real and virtual. He was awarded the IT Hardware category of 2015 World Technology Award.