Nozomu Kubota: Inside Dementia

Nozomu Kubota is active across multiple fields as an entrepreneur, AI developer, inventor, YouTuber, and visual artist. As a visual artist, he has created works that probe the biases and bugs inherent in AI, as well as the underlying structures of the internet (such as standards for appropriateness/inappropriateness of content in public spaces), while questioning the fundamental state of the future.

For this project, Kubota presents his installation created based on the memory of spending time with his grandmother. He states, “when I was little, I loved watching the TV comedy program Shoten with my grandmother while eating mikan oranges by the kotatsu (blanketed table).” In this work, Kubota created a piece while holding that memory close, which screens footage of interviews with dementia patients, then provides a simulated experience of “wandering” (also known as walking or explorative behavior) observed in this condition.

It is said that the words “I must go home” are often spoken by elders with dementia living in nursing homes. When a person with dementia follows their own words and wanders outside only to lose their way, that action is called “wandering.” Yet in reality, this word is sometimes spoken even within their own home. Here, “home” may not refer to the physical home of “here and now,” but rather to another place deep within memories and emotions. When viewers roam the city—what will they feel as they drift in search of “home”?

Special Cooperation: Etoile Kaito & Co., Inc.