Karyn Nakamura

Biography

Karyn Nakamura (born 2001, Tokyo) is a Tokyo-born, New York-based artist and engineer whose research-driven practice explores the technical infrastructures underlying systems of perception, communication, and visual forensics. She studied art, design, and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Science, and has since built a career bridging fine art installation with rigorous technical production. Nakamura is a recipient of the Schnitzer Prize and the Wiesner Award, was named a 2024 Steve Jobs Archive Fellow, and has been included on the DAZED 100 list recognizing emerging cultural talent. Her exhibitions and installations have appeared internationally at venues including SHOWstudio, the Singapore International Festival of Arts, mother's tankstation, Foreign & Domestic, and even inside an abandoned pub designed by architect Frank Gehry. Alongside her artistic practice, Nakamura conducts research in artificial intelligence and computer vision through the Human AI Collaboration Lab and SITU Research, and was previously affiliated with MIT's Civic Data Design Lab. She also works as a technical production consultant and engineer, realizing ambitious large-scale installations and productions for clients such as Google and Audio-Technica. Working under the online moniker frog_spit_simulation, Nakamura merges poetic inquiry with technical possibility, treating engineering systems, sensors, and data infrastructures as both subject and medium. Her interdisciplinary approach positions her at the intersection of art, technology, and forensic investigation, using technical fluency to interrogate how perception itself is constructed and mediated.