Environmental issues such as climate change and marine pollution are deeply connected to our daily lives, yet they are often perceived distant and irrelevant.
This talk brings together an environmental specialist, an artist, and an academic researcher to explore how art can engage with social and environmental issues to raise questions and reconsider perspectives.
Rather than offering definitive answers, the event invites participants to reflect, feel, and engage in dialogue, seeking new forms of awareness at the intersection of art and science.

Event Details:

Begin by “Feeling” Environmental Issues — Exploring New Approaches to Rethink Social Issues and Awareness Through Sensibility —

Date & Time: Thursday, January 29, 2026, 18:00–19:30
Venue: GA Lecture Room, 4F TAKI PLAZA, Ueno Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts
Language: Japanese (Partially English)
Speakers:
• Maya Takimoto (Public Outreach Officer, Oceans and Seafood Group, Conservation Division, WWF Japan)
• Tsuyoshi Anzai (Artist)
• Fumihiko Sumitomo (Professor, Graduate School of Global Arts,Tokyo University of the Arts)
Moderator: Hanako Kurita (Research Student, Graduate School of Global Arts,Tokyo University of the Arts)

Guest Profile:

Maya Takimoto

Public Outreach Officer, Oceans and Seafood Group, Conservation Division, WWF Japan
Maya Takimoto is a Public Outreach Officer for WWF-Japan’s Oceans and Seafood Group. Her work focuses on raising public awareness of sustainable fish consumption. She is also engaged in advocacy work for eliminating IUU fishing. Prior to joining WWF in 2017, Maya was an environmental consultant in the environmental policy field. She received her Bachelor of Laws from Keio University and her MSc. in Environmental Governance from Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany.

Tsuyoshi Anzai

Tsuyoshi Anzai was born in Tokyo in 1987 and is now based in Chiba. He graduated from the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he also completed graduate studies in new media. In his practice, he uses plastic everyday items and structures to explore the relationship between humans and objects, and investigate the arbitrary connection between function and form.
His major exhibitions include the solo show Aperto 12 ANZAI Tsuyoshi Poly- (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2020) and group show Extended Present – Transient Realities (Ludwig Museum, Budapest, 2022). Anzai spent a year at Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien from 2020 to 2021 on a grant from the Pola Art Foundation. He has also participated in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Core Residency Program (2015–17).
His recent practice has seen him engage with projects that rethink the relationship between human desire and plastic as a material through photography and installations about microplastics. Anzai won the Regional Grant Award at Fujifilm’s GFX Challenge Grant Program 2024 and was also selected for that year’s Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators, organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He currently teaches part-time at the Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment.