Summary
Ryuta Aoki is a Tokyo-based co-founder, director, and interdisciplinary practitioner who blends artistic direction, conceptual design, system architecture, and software engineering to prototype “possible cities” and future societies. Over 11 years he has launched multiple platforms—METACITY, ALife Lab., The TEA-ROOM, Art Hack Day, and VOLOCITEE—that bring artists, scientists, and engineers together to translate artificial life, tea-ceremony aesthetics, and city science into public installations and research prototypes. His projects have been exhibited internationally and recognized with prizes like the WIRED Creative Hack Public Prize and the Japan Media Arts Festival Social Impact Prize, and he was the inaugural recipient of the Ethereum Foundation Artist Scholarship. Unusually, his practice intentionally uses traditional chanoyu sensibilities as a living design constraint to shape techno-ecological interventions outside the gallery. He routinely coordinates large, cross-disciplinary teams and institutional collaborations—up to ~40 creators—bridging speculative concepting and exhibition-ready execution.
11 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer