Keio Media Design

Keio Media Design
Name	Keio Media Design
Native name	慶應義塾大学メディアデザイン研究科
Established	2008
Type	Private
City	Minato, Tokyo
Country	Japan
Campus	Urban
Parent	Keio University

Keio Media Design Keio Media Design is a graduate school and research initiative within Keio University focused on interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of media art, design, technology, culture, and business. It brings together scholars and practitioners from fields such as computer science, architecture, film, music, journalism, marketing, and law to address contemporary challenges in urban planning, human–computer interaction, digital humanities, and entrepreneurship. The program emphasizes project-based learning, industry collaboration with organizations such as Sony, SoftBank, Toyota, and NHK, and partnerships with cultural institutions like the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Overview

Keio Media Design operates within the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design structure alongside related units including Keio University SFC, Keio Business School, and the Keio Research Institute. The school connects to global networks such as MIT Media Lab, Royal College of Art, Stanford University, University of Tokyo, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University College London, University of Cambridge, and ETH Zurich. Faculty collaborations have extended to institutions like Ritsumeikan University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Waseda University, Doshisha University, and international research centers including Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, and CNRS.

History

Founded in 2008, the school emerged amid developments in digital media and the rise of platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that reshaped mass media and creative industries. Early milestones included partnerships with corporations like Panasonic and Canon and cultural exchanges with museums including the Smithsonian Institution and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Alumni projects have been featured at events such as the Venice Biennale, SXSW, FIFA World Cup, Tokyo Game Show, IFA Berlin, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and Ars Electronica Festival. The school has engaged in municipal collaborations with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Yokohama City, Osaka Prefecture, and prefectural cultural offices.

Academic Programs and Curriculum

Programs emphasize cross-disciplinary practice across tracks influenced by interaction design, media arts, information science, business administration, cognitive science, and sociology. Coursework and studios draw on methodologies from humanities, engineering, and management science and include collaboration with industry partners such as Rakuten, LINE Corporation, Nintendo, Capcom, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and NEC. Students undertake capstone projects linked to festivals like Tokyo International Film Festival, Design Miami, Milan Design Week, and research symposia including SIGGRAPH, CHI, NIME, ICMI, ICLR, and NeurIPS. The curriculum integrates seminars that reference theorists and practitioners associated with Marshall McLuhan, John Dewey, Herbert Simon, Bruno Latour, Sherry Turkle, and Donna Haraway through study modules and guest lectures.

Research and Labs

Research areas include augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, immersive media, data visualization, sound design, and new media performance. Labs and projects have collaborated with technology centers like Google Research, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, NVIDIA, Adobe Research, and startup incubators such as Plug and Play Japan and Samurai Incubate. Notable laboratories and initiatives have connections to laboratories and groups at MIT Media Lab, Stanford d.school, Berkeley AI Research, EPFL Idiap Research Institute, KAIST, Peking University School of Software and Microelectronics, and Seoul National University. Research outputs have appeared at conferences including CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, SIGGRAPH, NeurIPS, ICASSP, IROS, HRI, and journals like ACM Transactions on Graphics and IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

Campus and Facilities

Located in Shibaura and proximate to Mita, Tokyo, facilities include studios, fabrication workshops with 3D printing and CNC equipment, audio and film production suites, motion-capture stages, and mixed-reality labs. The school leverages university resources such as the Keio University Library, Keio University Museum, and the SFC Research Institute for archives, collections, and exhibition spaces. Collaborative facilities extend to nearby institutions like Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Tokyo Midtown, and cultural venues including Shibuya Hikarie and Osaka Science Museum.

Notable Faculty and Alumni

Faculty and visiting scholars have included prominent figures who have worked with or held positions at MIT, Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Columbia University, Yale University, and Princeton University. Alumni occupy roles at organizations such as NHK, NHK World, Netflix, Amazon Studios, BBC, The Asahi Shimbun, Nikkei, Bloomberg, Accenture, Dentsu, Hakuhodo, IDEO, Frog Design, and startups featured in TechCrunch and Wired. Graduates have received awards and recognition including Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo Midtown Awards, Good Design Award, Red Dot Design Award, Prix Ars Electronica, LOUIS VUITTON Foundation prizes, and residencies at institutions such as The Getty, TATE Modern, and MoMA PS1.

Category:Keio University