Zeroichi Arakawa

Zeroichi Arakawa is a doctoral student at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), Japan, and a smart contract engineer with experience across multiple blockchain platforms. He writes poetry in code and creates artworks that explore the structural and critical possibilities of programmable systems. His work, including the code poem DeepSea (selected for the first Japan Generative Art Award, 2024) and the smart contract series BUGCAT, examines how code’s operative structures can function as sites of aesthetic encounter. His artistic practice draws on the traditions of Japanese concrete poetry, particularly the work of Seiichi Niikuni, and on the engineering practices of smart contract auditing and verification. His research centers on verification poetics: how the practices of tracing, testing, and auditing code constitute distinct modes of reading. His work has been exhibited at YCAM (Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media) and NEORT++, and shown at BYOD² (Bring Your Own Data & Display, Tokyo) and the “Computational Poetry” exhibition he co-curated in 2025.