Oribotics - the art/science of robotic origami

ATOMU = astro boy

June 17, 2005 on 11:29 am | In References |

While looking in the famous book shop district of Kanda - close to Jimbocho station in Tokyo I found an 8 story building full of second hand books. On the 4th floor there was a shop specialising in Manga. The first thing I saw was a full set of Hayao Miyazake’s NAUSICA - (for only 2800 yen!) a story of post apocalyptic earth with a heroine named after the Nausica from the Odyssey of Homer. A fascinating read, far more in depth than the animated version, which covers about a quarter of the story conveyed in the books. I was unable to do anything but read for the whole day. It was quite a luxury but very necessary #^_^#.

In the same bookstore I discovered a whole section on Astro Boy (ATOMU) as he is known in Japan. I bought the first book for 200 yen. This has a high degree of significance to my stay here in Tokyo. The area we are staying in is called TAKADANOBABA, and is the birth place of Astro Boy - in the comic he was made in a laboratory here.

The most poignant thing I read in the book was the first line - Naze ningen ha roboto wo tsukuru no ka - literally - why did humans robots make ? or in better english - why did humans make robots? The author then goes onto ask and why did humans make robots to work for them? He then writes ‘I dont know…’

The first part of the astro boy story outlines a possible reason. It shows the tragic and immediate death of a young boy who looks like astro boy. In the previous page he is driving a car and runs headlong into an oncoming truck. The pages I have photographed here show the father devistated, and his first instinct is to create a new son - as a robot.

So the stories motivation for creating a robot is thru one of loss. That of the loss of a son. Though this does not explain the reason for the creation of robots in general, but rather the creation of a particular robot to replace a loved son.

In considering this story, and in considering my own motivation to create a robotic flower - in the case of oribotics - I am beginning to think of my flowers as a replacement for the loss of nature in the urban environment, and in wider consideration, the loss of nature as an environment which we inhabit as a global society.