Emi Kusano

Emi Kusano is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, singer and songwriter based in Tokyo.

Kusano is a co-founder of the NFT animation project "Shinsei Galverse", which recorded a total transaction amount of 5,895.767 ETH (approx. 10 million dollar).

She is known for her Retro-Futuristic style and the use of artificial intelligence in her work.

In a collaboration auction between Christie's, a British auction house, and Gucci, she unveiled an AI-generated 3D dress.

She is also a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts and is the leader and vocalist of the synthwave music unit, Satellite Young.

The works of Kusano have been exhibited in contemporary art museums and galleries worldwide, including 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Saatchi Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Kusano was born and raised in Tokyo.

Prior to 2008, during her high school years, she was active as a street fashion photographer.

She took street snaps primarily in Harajuku and published them on the website "Japanese Streets", as well as in English magazine "Metropolis", CNN's travel guide magazine "CNN GO", and UK industry magazine "WGSN".

Her photography was exhibited at the FIT Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

In 2014, Kusano started her work of a music unit "Satellite Young" in genre of synthwave, with the Soundman BelleMaison Sekine.

She created music with a modern twist on the 80's, incorporating themes in her lyrics related to the post-Internet era, such as the societal aspects surrounding cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and online dating.

Satellite Young provided the theme song for the indie anime Senpai Club from Sweden, released music on U.S.-based indie music labels such as Future City Records and New Retro Wave, gaining a large fan base in the United States and Europe.

In 2016, she was selected as the ambassador for Japan at the "Adobe Max," a festival for creators hosted by Adobe.

In the same year, she joined an advertising agency as a new graduate.

She pursued two careers simultaneously, writing songs as an artist and working full-time as an office employee.

She released a theme song for the Swedish anime "Senpai Club" through the U.S. indie labels "Future City Records" and "New Retro Wave," which helped her gain a fanbase primarily in Europe and the United States.

In 2017, the band acted in the music festival "South by Southwest" in Texas.

In 2017, she achieved the milestone of performing at the South by Southwest music festival in Texas.

In 2018, Kusano was selected as a participating artist for the hackathon "Art Hack Day" that specialized in cross-disciplinary art.

She presented an art piece called "Singing Dream", a karaoke machine with artificial life.

She won the Special Jury Prize (Wada Ei Prize).

In the same year, she left the advertising agency and became a freelancer.

Since 2019, Kusano has been appointed as a part-time lecturer at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

She stand on the podium together with Sputniko! who is a contemporary artist.

In 2019, Instababy Generator, a co-created installation with Junichi Yamaoka that explores the future of designer babies, won an award in the Art Gallery at SIGGRAPH.

In October 2020, under the name of Emi Satellite, she released her first single "Glass Ceiling", an empowerment song resonates with the difficulty of being a woman and carries a message of moving towards the future.

In March 2021, Kusano released her second single "IPO".

The lyrics were inspired by the daily fluctuations of the stock market ups and downs.

At the same time, she exhibited her first NFT artwork, "Love Is an IPO," which was sold on the Foundation of NFT auction site.

In April 2022, Kusano co-founded NFT's art collection "Shinsei Galverse" with Ayaka Ohira, Devin Mancuso, and Jack Baldwin.

She serves as creative director.

The machine generated 8888 gal illustrations, including hairstyles, clothing, eye color and shape, and more.

The work was ranked #1 in OpenSea's "Top NFTs" ranking, 24-hour category, on April 14 and stayed there for several days.

The team's ultimate goal is to turn Galverse into an iconic IP, underpinned by a real anime production dreamed up and created in their native Japan.

As of April 17, the total transaction amount, including secondary market trades, reached over 3600 ETH (equivalent to more than 10.23 million US dollars).

In 2022, she actively gave lectures abroad, such as at Nft in Europe held in France, FOMOAsia held in Hong Kong in February 2023, and Non Fungible Conference held in Portugal in June 2023.

In November 2022, she participated as an expert in Web3.0 and related research seminars organized by the Digital Agency, a ministry of the Japanese government.

In May 2023, her AI artworks were selected for the "Bright Moments" digital art gallery from the United States, Japan Contemporary category, and 100 pieces were sold out within 24 hours

In June 2023, Kusano created an AI art cover for the fashion industry magazine "WWDJAPAN" using an AI that learned her own face.