Biography

Yuma Yanagisawa is a Japanese media artist based in Berlin whose practice explores real-time generative systems, immersive installations, and the intersection of nature, time-based systems, and perception. His work focuses on the poetic potential of computation, creating ephemeral environments shaped by algorithmic processes.

His works have been presented internationally at Ars Electronica, MUTEK Tokyo, and NODE20 at Mousonturm (Frankfurt), and have been licensed for long-term exhibition by CODE – Centre of Digital Experiences (Veszprém, Hungary). Yanagisawa has also created commissioned projects for Shiseido, Nikon, and Cartier.

Statement

My practice is grounded in the concept of Computational Ephemerality.

Computational Ephemerality is not an invention of new technology, but a shift in the observer’s focal point.

In an era where generative AI promises infinite production and perfect loops, our eyes are trained to see the “flow”—the continuous stream that moves ceaselessly. My practice quietly reorients this gaze from the immortal system to the individual particle.

By zooming in on the microscopic lifecycle of these instances, we discover that what appears to be a fluid macro-structure is actually a sequence of incessant dyings. The system may persist, but individual existence within it must vanish.

This work imbues the machine with the poetic reality of Hakanasa—the appreciation of fleeting existence. By engineering specific ends for these entities, I propose a new form of digital naturalism: one where existence acquires value precisely because it must eventually end.