Fall 2025 CHCI@VT Distinguished Speaker: Hiroshi Ishii (MIT Media Lab)

CHCI@VT Distinguished Speaker Hiroshi Ishii will talk about his research vision on Friday, October 31, 2025, at Gilbert Place 2124 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET. A Zoom webinar option will also be available: https://bit.ly/CHCI_VT_Weekly_Seminar

Vision-Driven Design: Beyond Tangible Bits toward Radical Atoms, Beyond Telepresence toward TeleAbsence

Abstract

Visions have always driven my design. In this talk, I will trace the evolution of my design visions over the past three decades—from Tangible Bits to Radical Atoms—since joining the MIT Media Lab in 1995. I will then introduce my latest and perhaps final vision, TeleAbsence, which moves beyond Telepresence.

Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms aim to realize seamless interfaces between humans, digital information, and the physical environment by giving dynamic physical form to digital computation. Tangible Bits make bits directly manipulable and perceptible, while Radical Atoms imagine a future where atoms themselves dance—changing their shape and properties computationally.

My journey began at NTT Human Interface Laboratories in the early 1990s, where I designed Seamless Telepresence media such as ClearBoard. At the Media Lab, this vision evolved into Tangible Telepresence, merging with the Radical Atoms vision. Now, in the concluding chapter of this exploration, TeleAbsence envisions illusory communication media that embody the presence of absence, inviting reflection on how technology mediates not only connection, but also separation, memory, and loneliness.

I will conclude my talk by sharing three guiding principles that have shaped my vision-driven research:

Be Artistic & Analytic
Be Poetic & Pragmatic
Be Romantic & Realistic

And I will close with this message:

“Life has an endpoint, but the future is never-ending. Technology soon becomes obsolete, but true vision is everlasting. What legacy will you leave for those living in 2200?”

Bio

Hiroshi Ishii is the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab. He was named Media Lab Associate Director in May 2008. He is the director of the Tangible Media Group which he founded in 1995 to pursue new visions in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): "Tangible Bits” and "Radical Atoms.” Ishii and his team have presented their research at a variety of scientific, design, and artistic venues, including ACM SIGCHI, SIGGRAPH, Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, Milan Design Week, Cannes Lions Festival, Aspen Ideas Festival, Industrial Design Society of America, AIGA, Ars Electronica, Centre Pompidou, Victoria and Albert Museum and NTT ICC, emphasizing that the development of a vision requires the rigors of both scientific and artistic review. In 2006, Ishii was elected to the CHI Academy by ACM SIGCHI and received the SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award in 2019. He was named an ACM Fellow in 2022 for his contributions to Tangible User Interfaces and to Human-Computer Interaction.

Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, from 1988 to 1994, Ishii led the CSCW research group at NTT Human Interface Laboratories, Japan, where he and his team invented TeamWorkStation and ClearBoard.