Photos ©Flower Robotics, Inc / SGI Japan, Ltd; Photos by Masao Okamoto

When Maria the robot made her debut in Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent movie Metropolis, the reviews might have been mixed, but it sparked a revolution in the public imagination. Osamu Tezuka, the Astro Boy creator, said that his manga was inspired by a movie poster he saw of Maria, and director George Lucas based his Star Wars ’droid C3PO on the character. In the Robot Hall of Fame, established by Carnegie Mellon University in 2003, Maria looms large. Her descendents include Unimate, the first assembly-line robot arm, invented in 1954, Honda’s ASIMO (1986) and Sony’s robot doggy companion, AIBO (1999). Although these bots and others are helping close the gap between fiction and reality, there are still galaxies to cross.

No matter; Japan’s robots are hot. Japanese booths dominated the bi-annual 2007 International Robot Exhibition, held to record-breaking attendance at Tokyo Big Sight earlier this month. And drawing some of the biggest crowds was a “pain-feeling” robot created by a professor at Nippon Dental University.

Merging clunky robot technology with the art of cool design requires a maestro, and 38-eight-year-old architect/designer Tatsuya Matsui is the man holding the techno-art baton. After graduating from the College of Arts at Nihon University in 1991, Matsui worked for architect Kenzo Tange before moving on to France as a researcher for IBM/Lotus. He then returned to the Japan Science and Technology Agency, where he designed two award-winning humanoid bots.

Matsui’s Daikanyama-based Flower Robotics, founded in 2001, produces some of the most innovative robot designs today. His Posy ’bot earned celebrity status after appearing in Lost in Translation in 2003, while 2005’s Palette mannequin, with moving arms and head, has been displayed in Louis Vuitton’s Paris store. Matsui’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale Architecture and in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Through January 27, the Art Tower Mito in Ibaraki is holding a retrospective of Matsui’s diverse work. With attractive, easy-to-read charts and maps, the show first examines the history and location of design communities that were critical to his aesthetic—Silicon Valley near San Francisco and Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany—along with the inner workings of the Flower Robotics office.

Displayed in pieces and their entirety, the robots then take center stage. Glistening under the spotlights, the U.T. (“Upper Torso”) Palette mannequins, adorned with jewelry as if in a shop display and fitted with infrared sensors, turn their heads to follow your movement. Fascinating but eerie, the robots’ potential use in security and surveillance become glaringly obvious. Further on are an array of other robots and a series of photographs showing the range of Flower Robotics projects.
Back at the start of the show, a standstill Posy is displayed at the entrance in her own brightly lit box-like room. This robot was developed by Matsui as the company’s mascot, a cute symbol of the potential for robotics to better humanity as “weapons of peace.” Though Posy is fashioned after a 3-year-old flower girl at a wedding, it’s difficult to imagine her childlike allure. Some interactive movement might have helped plant that seed of imagination and possibility where, as Matsui says, “people and robots can communicate with each other.”

The designer’s vision for his creations is clear. “When I say I’m a ‘robot designer,’ I’m not talking about the stereotypical social misfit who sketches robot manga,” Matsui told BusinessWeek in 2006. “This isn’t about science fiction. By the time I’m 60, my dream is to have Posy dance on the same stage as a ballerina at the opera house in Paris.

If that happens, it will represent a true convergence of art and science.” Perhaps a revamped, peace-focused 21st-century Maria could join her.

Art Tower Mito, until Jan 27. See exhibition listings (other areas) for details.