Tokyo salone
NOURISH
STORIES
AGENDA
A gathering for those shaping the future of culture.
Design. Architecture. Technology. Hospitality. Film. Music. Mobility. Fashion. Community.
Two days of keynotes, conversations, shared meals, and meaningful encounters, bringing together practitioners from Japan and around the world.
Tokyo Salone — NoV 13–14, 2026Tokyo American Club
Day 01
THE MAKING OF CULTURE
How ideas become objects, places, rituals, communities, and institutions.
08:00–09:00
Arrival — Soft Opening
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Coffee. Tea. Light breakfast.
Music sets the tone.KCRW × dublab Tokyo instagram.com/kcrwmusic • instagram.com/dublabjp
No announcements.
The room is already alive.
09:00–09:10
Opening — Setting Intention
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A brief welcome.
A framing of why we are here, together.
Short. Grounded.
Hosts
Ana Arriola-Kanada / semi permanent
Ana is a queer builder, investor, and cross-disciplinary maker working at the intersection of design, engineering, AI, and cultural systems. Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」 and a partner alongside teenage engineering behind Tokyo Salone and its year-round constellation of gatherings, she has led innovation across Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Sony, and IDEO. Holding more than 30 patents and multiple international design awards, Ana convenes global communities around creativity, technology, and cultural exchange.
Building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility. instagram.com/semipermanent • instagram.com/arriolakanada • semipermanent.com • tiktok.com/@tokyosalone
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya / semi permanentHikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna. instagram.com/masamiyajamiehikaru
Arc I
09:10–10:40
Timelessness, Taste & Cultural Translation
How design, hospitality, and creative leadership endure across generations.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Anne-Marie Buemann and Thomas Lykke / OEO StudioAnne-Marie and Thomas are the co-founders of OEO Studio, an internationally acclaimed design practice spanning architecture, interiors, product design, and brand. Anne-Marie leads the strategic realization of projects across Europe and Asia, while Thomas guides the studio’s creative vision through a lens shaped by fashion, publishing, and design culture. Together, they have built a practice known for its “Compelling Minimalism,” creating work that bridges Scandinavian values, global perspectives, and a deep respect for craft, materiality, and place.
instagram.com/mr.thomaslykke • instagram.com/annemariebuemann • instagram.com/oeo_studio • oeo.dk
Jesús Durón / MASA Jesús refined his craft across Europe before joining Pujol in Mexico City, where he helped shape the evolution of contemporary cuisine and contributed to its Michelin-star recognition. From the Basque Country to the Mediterranean coast, and later at La Marine under Alexandre Couillon, he developed a way of working grounded in seasonality, seafood, and vegetables. Today, in Tokyo, his life project MASA explores microseasonality as a dialogue between Mexico and Japan, shaped by time, place, memory, and roots. Beyond Japan, the work continues through different landscapes and communities, guided by the same intent. instagram.com/j_duron_ • instagram.com/masa______j
Rachel Gogel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry. instagram.com/rgogel • rachelgogel.com
Natasha Jen / Pentagram Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, educator, and partner at Pentagram’s New York office since 2012. A six-time National Design Award nominee and member of AGI and AIGA, her work is recognized for innovative use of graphic, verbal, digital, and spatial elements. Natasha’s clients include global brands like Google, Pfizer, Reddit, and Waze, and cultural institutions such as the New York Botanic Garden and The Metropolitan Museum. Her work spans brand identity, packaging, exhibition design, digital interfaces, signage, print, and architecture.
10:40–11:10
Pause
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Arc II
11:10–12:40
Imagination, Storytelling & Worldbuilding
How stories, education, and creative practice shape the worlds we inhabit.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Hector Silva / Advanced Design
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan. instagram.com/hectorius_ • instagram.com/adv_des advdes.org
Matt Alt
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more. instagram.com/altmattalt • mattalt.com
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen / KCRW, Los Angeles
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media. instagram.com/cafe__ale • kcrw.com/people/alejandro-cohen • instagram.com/kcrwmusic • instagram.com/kcrw
Dylan Sisson / Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
instagram.com/real_dylan_sisson • instagram.com/pixar • pixar.com
12:40–14:10
Lunch — Nourish Curated Bento
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A shared meal.
Part of the program.
Speakers sit within the room.
Conversations continue.
KCRW × dublab Tokyo
No stage.
Just exchange.
Arc III
14:10–15:40
Designing Better Ways of Living
How communities, cities, and institutions can support human flourishing.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Paul Bennett / McKinsey, Group of Humans
Paul Bennett is Chief Curiosity Chronicler at Curiosity Chronicles, Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, Designy Human at GROUP OF HUMANS®, board member, and former Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer of IDEO. Over four decades, he has helped define the field of human-centered design, working with global organizations, governments, and institutions to create meaningful change through creativity, systems thinking, and innovation. Based in Denmark, he continues to explore how curiosity, empathy, and imagination can shape better futures. instagram.com/pb101 • instagram.com/groupofhumans • groupofhumans.com
Eri Tsutsumi / Boundless Life
Eri is Director of Lifestyle at Muji, managing MUJI’s accommodation, camping, and direct-from-local E-commerce business, as well as another lifestyle brand, IDÉE. With over 20 years of experience in developing new products and services across diverse industries as a copywriter, and later as a design researcher, Eri strives to recapture the insights of everyday locality - nature, culture, tradition, custom - into new experiences that retain their origin. She is a nature lover who often travels between ocean and mountain, enjoying experiments of her own organic vegetable garden on the weekend. instagram.com/tsutsumalu • boundless.life • instagram.com/boundlesslife
Richard Wood / Snøhetta
Richard Wood is an architect and Managing Director at Snøhetta, the internationally renowned practice working across architecture, landscape, and design. Snøhetta is currently engaged in Tokyo’s Shibuya Upper West project, contributing to the next phase of the district’s cultural and architectural evolution. instagram.com/rjw__ • instagram.com/snohetta • snohetta.com
15:40–16:10
Break
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Convergence
16:10–17:00
Open AMA
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
17:00–18:00
World Premiere — The Making of APC-02
A conversation of listening and building.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Jesper Kouthoofd / teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical. instagram.com/kouthoofd70 • instagram.com/teenageengineering • teenage.engineering
Doug Weber / Weber Workshops
Douglas Weber is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity. instagram.com/weberworkshops • weberworkshops.com
nosaj thing
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination. instagram.com/nosajthing • nosajthing.com
Hosted by Ana Arriola-Kanada
For the first time in Japan, and potentially the first public presentation of its kind anywhere in the world, Teenage Engineering introduces APC-02.
Part instrument.
Part machine.
Part invitation.
Together we explore the story behind its creation, the design decisions, engineering challenges, and creative obsessions that shaped it.
Throughout the conversation, APC-02 becomes both subject and participant.
Not a product launch.
A rare look behind the curtain at the people, ideas, experimentation, and love that made it possible.
Themes
• The future of independent music creation • Home mastering as authorship • Hardware as creative instrument • Sound as material • Designing tools people fall in love with • Obsession, experimentation, and craft • The relationship between maker and machine • Why physical media still matters • Why physical UX, haptics still matter
18:00–18:10
Transition — Procession Begins
Tokyo American Club — Entrance
No formal close.
Energy shifts.
The room begins to move.
19:00 →
Nightshift Shakedown
Azabudai Hills
Conversation becomes motion.
The city takes over.
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
Legal
Commercial Disclosure
Code of Conduct
privacy policy
Liability & Risk
Media Release
subscribe
© Semi Permanent / TOKYO SALONE
Tokyo salone
NOURISH
stories
AGENDA
A gathering for those shaping the future of culture.
Design. Architecture. Technology. Hospitality. Film. Music. Mobility. Fashion. Community.
Two days of keynotes, conversations, shared meals, and meaningful encounters, bringing together practitioners from Japan and around the world.
Tokyo Salone — NoV 13–14, 2026 Tokyo American Club
Day 01
THE MAKING OF CULTURE
How ideas become objects, places, rituals, communities, and institutions.
08:00–09:00
Arrival — Soft Opening
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Coffee. Tea. Light breakfast.
Music sets the tone.KCRW × dublab Tokyo
No announcements.
The room is already alive.
09:00–09:10
Opening — Setting Intention
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A brief welcome.
A framing of why we are here, together.
Short. Grounded.
Hosts
Ana Arriola-Kanada / semi permanent
Ana is a cultural-systems builder working at the intersection of community, design, frontier technology, and human culture. She serves as Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」, a Tokyo-based cultural consultancy and family office operating globally through Tokyo Salone and it’s constellations, in curation with semi permanent x teenage engineering. Having led innovation across Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, and IDEO, she spends her days building, gathering people, and chasing improbable side quests across culture, technology, and community. Every challenge is another boss monster. Every detour reveals a hidden path. Still exploring the map, building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility.
instagram.com/semipermanent • instagram.com/arriolakanada • semipermanent.com • tiktok.com/@tokyosalone
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya / semi permanentHikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna. instagram.com/masamiyajamiehikaru
Arc I
09:10–10:40
Timelessness, Taste & Cultural Translation
How design, hospitality, and creative leadership endure across generations.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Anne-Marie Buemann and Thomas Lykke / OEO StudioAnne-Marie and Thomas are the co-founders of OEO Studio, an internationally acclaimed design practice spanning architecture, interiors, product design, and brand. Anne-Marie leads the strategic realization of projects across Europe and Asia, while Thomas guides the studio’s creative vision through a lens shaped by fashion, publishing, and design culture. Together, they have built a practice known for its “Compelling Minimalism,” creating work that bridges Scandinavian values, global perspectives, and a deep respect for craft, materiality, and place.
instagram.com/mr.thomaslykke • instagram.com/annemariebuemann • instagram.com/oeo_studio • oeo.dk
Jesús Durón / MASA Jesús refined his craft across Europe before joining Pujol in Mexico City, where he helped shape the evolution of contemporary cuisine and contributed to its Michelin-star recognition. From the Basque Country to the Mediterranean coast, and later at La Marine under Alexandre Couillon, he developed a way of working grounded in seasonality, seafood, and vegetables. Today, in Tokyo, his life project MASA explores microseasonality as a dialogue between Mexico and Japan, shaped by time, place, memory, and roots. Beyond Japan, the work continues through different landscapes and communities, guided by the same intent. instagram.com/j_duron_ • instagram.com/masa______j
Rachel Gogel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry. instagram.com/rgogel • rachelgogel.com
Natasha Jen / Pentagram Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, educator, and partner at Pentagram’s New York office since 2012. A six-time National Design Award nominee and member of AGI and AIGA, her work is recognized for innovative use of graphic, verbal, digital, and spatial elements. Natasha’s clients include global brands like Google, Pfizer, Reddit, and Waze, and cultural institutions such as the New York Botanic Garden and The Metropolitan Museum. Her work spans brand identity, packaging, exhibition design, digital interfaces, signage, print, and architecture. instagram.com/njenworks • instagram.com pentagramdesign • pentagram.com
10:40–11:10
Pause
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Arc II
11:10–12:40
Imagination, Storytelling & Worldbuilding
How stories, education, and creative practice shape the worlds we inhabit.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Hector Silva / Advanced Design
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan. instagram.com/hectorius_/ instagram.com/adv_des advdes.org/
Matt Alt
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more. instagram.com/altmattalt • mattalt.com
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen / KCRW, Los Angeles
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media. instagram.com/cafe__ale • kcrw.com/people/alejandro-cohen • instagram.com/kcrwmusic • instagram.com/kcrw
Dylan Sisson / Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
instagram.com/real_dylan_sisson • instagram.com/pixar • pixar.com
12:40–14:10
Lunch — Nourish Curated Bento
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A shared meal.
Part of the program.
Speakers sit within the room.
Conversations continue.
KCRW × dublab Tokyo
No stage.
Just exchange.
Arc III
14:10–15:40
Designing Better Ways of Living
How communities, cities, and institutions can support human flourishing.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Paul Bennett / McKinsey, Group of Humans
Paul Bennett is Chief Curiosity Chronicler at Curiosity Chronicles, Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, Designy Human at GROUP OF HUMANS®, board member, and former Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer of IDEO. Over four decades, he has helped define the field of human-centered design, working with global organizations, governments, and institutions to create meaningful change through creativity, systems thinking, and innovation. Based in Denmark, he continues to explore how curiosity, empathy, and imagination can shape better futures. instagram.com/pb101 • instagram.com/groupofhumans • groupofhumans.com
Eri Tsutsumi / Boundless Life
Eri is Director of Lifestyle at Muji, managing MUJI’s accommodation, camping, and direct-from-local E-commerce business, as well as another lifestyle brand, IDÉE. With over 20 years of experience in developing new products and services across diverse industries as a copywriter, and later as a design researcher, Eri strives to recapture the insights of everyday locality - nature, culture, tradition, custom - into new experiences that retain their origin. She is a nature lover who often travels between ocean and mountain, enjoying experiments of her own organic vegetable garden on the weekend. instagram.com/tsutsumalu • boundless.life • instagram.com/boundlesslife
Richard Wood / Snøhetta
Richard Wood is an architect and Managing Director at Snøhetta, the internationally renowned practice working across architecture, landscape, and design. Snøhetta is currently engaged in Tokyo’s Shibuya Upper West project, contributing to the next phase of the district’s cultural and architectural evolution. instagram.com/rjw__ • instagram.com/snohetta • snohetta.com
15:40–16:10
Break
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Convergence
16:10–17:00
Open AMA
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
17:00–18:00
World Premiere — The Making of APC-02
A conversation of listening and building.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Jesper Kouthoofd / teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical. instagram.com/kouthoofd70 • instagram.com/teenageengineering • teenage.engineering
Doug Weber / Weber Workshops
Douglas Weber is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity. instagram.com/weberworkshops • weberworkshops.com
nosaj thing
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination. instagram.com/nosajthing • nosajthing.com
Hosted by Ana Arriola-Kanada
For the first time in Japan, and potentially the first public presentation of its kind anywhere in the world, Teenage Engineering introduces APC-02.
Part instrument.
Part machine.
Part invitation.
Together we explore the story behind its creation, the design decisions, engineering challenges, and creative obsessions that shaped it.
Throughout the conversation, APC-02 becomes both subject and participant.
Not a product launch.
A rare look behind the curtain at the people, ideas, experimentation, and love that made it possible.
Themes
• The future of independent music creation • Home mastering as authorship • Hardware as creative instrument • Sound as material • Designing tools people fall in love with • Obsession, experimentation, and craft • The relationship between maker and machine • Why physical media still matters • Why physical UX, haptics still matter
18:00–18:10
Transition — Procession Begins
Tokyo American Club — Entrance
Dino Dalle Carbonare joins us as we walk together toward Azabudai Hills.
No formal close.
Energy shifts.
The room begins to move.
19:00 →
Nightshift Shakedown
Azabudai Hills
Engineering. Design. Culture.
The city takes over.
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
Legal
Commercial Disclosure
Code of Conduct
privacy policy
Liability & Risk
Media Release
subscribe
© Semi Permanent / TOKYO SALONE
Tokyo salone
NOURISH
stories
AGENDA
A gathering for those shaping the future of culture.
Design. Architecture. Technology. Hospitality. Film. Music. Mobility. Fashion. Community.
Two days of keynotes, conversations, shared meals, and meaningful encounters, bringing together practitioners from Japan and around the world.
Tokyo Salone — NoV 13–14, 2026 Tokyo American Club
Day 01
THE MAKING OF CULTURE
How ideas become objects, places, rituals, communities, and institutions.
08:00–09:00
Arrival — Soft Opening
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Coffee. Tea. Light breakfast.
Music sets the tone.KCRW × dublab Tokyo
No announcements.
The room is already alive.
09:00–09:10
Opening — Setting Intention
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A brief welcome.
A framing of why we are here, together.
Short. Grounded.
Hosts
Ana Arriola-Kanada / semi permanent
Ana is a cultural-systems builder working at the intersection of community, design, frontier technology, and human culture. She serves as Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」, a Tokyo-based cultural consultancy and family office operating globally through Tokyo Salone and it’s constellations, in curation with semi permanent x teenage engineering. Having led innovation across Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, and IDEO, she spends her days building, gathering people, and chasing improbable side quests across culture, technology, and community. Every challenge is another boss monster. Every detour reveals a hidden path. Still exploring the map, building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility.
instagram.com/semipermanent • instagram.com/arriolakanada • semipermanent.com • tiktok.com/@tokyosalone
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya / semi permanentHikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna. instagram.com/masamiyajamiehikaru
Arc I
09:10–10:40
Timelessness, Taste & Cultural Translation
How design, hospitality, and creative leadership endure across generations.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Anne-Marie Buemann and Thomas Lykke / OEO StudioAnne-Marie and Thomas are the co-founders of OEO Studio, an internationally acclaimed design practice spanning architecture, interiors, product design, and brand. Anne-Marie leads the strategic realization of projects across Europe and Asia, while Thomas guides the studio’s creative vision through a lens shaped by fashion, publishing, and design culture. Together, they have built a practice known for its “Compelling Minimalism,” creating work that bridges Scandinavian values, global perspectives, and a deep respect for craft, materiality, and place.
instagram.com/mr.thomaslykke • instagram.com/annemariebuemann • instagram.com/oeo_studio • oeo.dk
Jesús Durón / MASA Jesús refined his craft across Europe before joining Pujol in Mexico City, where he helped shape the evolution of contemporary cuisine and contributed to its Michelin-star recognition. From the Basque Country to the Mediterranean coast, and later at La Marine under Alexandre Couillon, he developed a way of working grounded in seasonality, seafood, and vegetables. Today, in Tokyo, his life project MASA explores microseasonality as a dialogue between Mexico and Japan, shaped by time, place, memory, and roots. Beyond Japan, the work continues through different landscapes and communities, guided by the same intent. instagram.com/j_duron_ • instagram.com/masa______j
Rachel Gogel Rachel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry. instagram.com/rgogel • rachelgogel.com
Natasha Jen / Pentagram Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, educator, and partner at Pentagram’s New York office since 2012. A six-time National Design Award nominee and member of AGI and AIGA, her work is recognized for innovative use of graphic, verbal, digital, and spatial elements. Natasha’s clients include global brands like Google, Pfizer, Reddit, and Waze, and cultural institutions such as the New York Botanic Garden and The Metropolitan Museum. Her work spans brand identity, packaging, exhibition design, digital interfaces, signage, print, and architecture. instagram.com/njenworks • instagram.com/pentagramdesign • pentagram.com
10:40–11:10
Pause
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Arc II
11:10–12:40
Imagination, Storytelling & Worldbuilding
How stories, education, and creative practice shape the worlds we inhabit.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Hector Silva / Advanced Design
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan. instagram.com/hectorius_ • instagram.com/adv_des • advdes.org
Matt Alt
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more. instagram.com/altmattalt • mattalt.com
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen / KCRW, Los Angeles
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media. instagram.com/cafe__ale • kcrw.com/people/alejandro-cohen • instagram.com/kcrwmusic • instagram.com/kcrw
Dylan Sisson / Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
instagram.com/real_dylan_sisson • instagram.com/pixar • pixar.com
12:40–14:10
Lunch — Nourish Curated Bento
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
A shared meal.
Part of the program.
Speakers sit within the room.
Conversations continue.
No stage.
Just exchange.
Arc III
14:10–15:40
Designing Better Ways of Living
How communities, cities, and institutions can support human flourishing.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Paul Bennett / McKinsey, Group of Humans
Paul Bennett is Chief Curiosity Chronicler at Curiosity Chronicles, Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, Designy Human at GROUP OF HUMANS®, board member, and former Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer of IDEO. Over four decades, he has helped define the field of human-centered design, working with global organizations, governments, and institutions to create meaningful change through creativity, systems thinking, and innovation. Based in Denmark, he continues to explore how curiosity, empathy, and imagination can shape better futures. instagram.com/pb101 • instagram.com/groupofhumans • groupofhumans.com
Eri Tsutsumi / Boundless Life
Eri is Director of Lifestyle at Muji, managing MUJI’s accommodation, camping, and direct-from-local E-commerce business, as well as another lifestyle brand, IDÉE. With over 20 years of experience in developing new products and services across diverse industries as a copywriter, and later as a design researcher, Eri strives to recapture the insights of everyday locality - nature, culture, tradition, custom - into new experiences that retain their origin. She is a nature lover who often travels between ocean and mountain, enjoying experiments of her own organic vegetable garden on the weekend. instagram.com/tsutsumalu • boundless.life • instagram.com/boundlesslife
Richard Wood / Snøhetta
Richard Wood is an architect and Managing Director at Snøhetta, the internationally renowned practice working across architecture, landscape, and design. Snøhetta is currently engaged in Tokyo’s Shibuya Upper West project, contributing to the next phase of the district’s cultural and architectural evolution. instagram.com/rjw__ • instagram.com/snohetta • snohetta.com
15:40–16:10
Break
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Convergence
16:10–17:00
Open AMA
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
17:00–18:00
World Premiere — The Making of APC-02
A conversation of listening and building.
Tokyo American Club — Manhattan
Jesper Kouthoofd / teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical. instagram.com/kouthoofd70 • instagram.com/teenageengineering • teenage.engineering
Doug Weber / Weber Workshops
Douglas Weber is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity. instagram.com/weberworkshops • weberworkshops.com
nosaj thing / Timetable.ltd
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination. instagram.com/nosajthing • nosajthing.com
Hosted by Ana Arriola-Kanada
For the first time in Japan, and potentially the first public presentation of its kind anywhere in the world, Teenage Engineering introduces APC-02.
Part instrument.
Part machine.
Part invitation.
Together we explore the story behind its creation, the design decisions, engineering challenges, and creative obsessions that shaped it.
Throughout the conversation, APC-02 becomes both subject and participant.
Not a product launch.
A rare look behind the curtain at the people, ideas, experimentation, and love that made it possible.
Themes
• The future of independent music creation • Home mastering as authorship • Hardware as creative instrument • Sound as material • Designing tools people fall in love with • Obsession, experimentation, and craft • The relationship between maker and machine • Why physical media still matters • Why physical UX, haptics still matter
18:00–18:10
Transition — Procession Begins
Tokyo American Club — Entrance
Dino Dalle Carbonare joins us as we walk together toward Azabudai Hills.
No formal close.
Energy shifts.
The room begins to move.
19:00 →
Nightshift Shakedown
Azabudai Hills
Engineering. Design. Culture.
The city takes over.
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
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