News

Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. will exhibit at Milan Design Week, one of the world's largest design events to be held in Milan, Italy from April 14 through April 19, 2015. This is the second time Aisin has exhibited at Milan Design Week, following its debut last year. Aisin is committed to offering products with highly appealing designs in fields ranging from automotive accessories (door handles, spoilers, and so forth) to lifestyle-oriented products (sewing machines, beds, and more). In the future, Aisin intends to continue participating in Milan Design Week, presenting designs that address new developments in society and contribute to lifestyle improvements for people worldwide.

■Exhibition Theme: "Imagine New Days"

"Imagine New Days" is a design project that envisions the lifestyles of the future.

For this exhibition, Aisin engineers and designers team up with internationally active creators to present two personal mobility devices, presenting a vision of a future lifestyle in which the relationship between people and modes of transport brims with excitement that transcends the merely utilitarian.

In this collaboration with designers Setsu and Shinobu Ito, Aisin's advanced sensor technologies are applied to the theme of mobility in two different contexts, public space and indoor space, opening up new possibilities for enrichment of people's lifestyles both physically and mentally.

Another collaboration, with Future Robotics Technology Center of Chiba Institute of Technology (fuRo), one of Japan's top robotics design teams, presents an entirely new vision for personal mobility fusing robotics technology with Aisin's state-of-the-art mobility technology.

Aisin is also proud to present an entrancing kinetic installation by artist Ryota Kuwakubo, employing automotive parts and robot arms to express the creative power of Aisin in visual terms.

■Exhibition outline

■Exhibition Theme: "Imagine New Days"

Dates: April 14-19, 2015

Venue: Lounge, Superstudio Piu

Address: Via Tortona 27, Milan, Italy

Venue area: 380m2

Participating creators: Ryota Kuwakubo, Setsu & Shinobu ITO, Future Robotics Technology Center of Chiba Institute of Technology (fuRo)

About Milan Design Week
One of the world's largest design-related events, Milan Design Week is also known as Milano Salone, short for Salone del Mobile Milano (Milan International Furniture Fair). It is held every April in Milan, Italy, for the 54th time this year. Last year over 1,300 companies and organizations participated and approximately 312,000 people visited from throughout the world, with the cutting-edge design and interior exhibits drawing considerable global attention.

■Creator Profiles

Ryota Kuwakubo (Artist)
Ryota Kuwakubo is an artist, Associate Professor at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences, and Instructor in the Department of Information Design at Tama Art University. After studying contemporary art, Kuwakubo worked with high-tech art collective Maywa Denki on the project Bitman in 1998, and commenced producing his own art making innovative use of electronics. His unique style, which has been called "Device Art," shines a fascinating light on phenomena arising in the nebulous zone between digital and analog, human and machine, and the transmitters and receivers of information.

Setsu & Shinobu ITO
Setsu and Shinobu Ito established a design studio in Milan in 1997, and apply their innovative approaches to design in a wide range of fields from architectural and interior to product and package design. Their work ranges from Italian furniture, daily articles, lighting, and crafts to Japanese high-tech products and packaging, as well as development and consulting on interiors, architecture, and spatial design for clients around the globe.

Future Robotics Technology Center of Chiba Institute of Technology (fuRo)
fuRo (Future Robotics Technology Center) is a robotics technology research center established by Chiba Institute of Technology, the oldest university of technology in Japan. A total of 20 researchers, led by robot creator Takayuki Furuta, Ph.D., engage in sophisticated R&D covering all aspects of robotics, from mechanical and electrical circuit design to advanced artificial intelligence and sensing technologies. Its team won in all four categories at the RoboCup 2014 robotic soccer tournament in Brazil, and its other achievements include development and delivery of the only robot capable of navigating all five floors inside the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station reactor buildings, and the only robot to complete its mission three years in a row at the autonomous robot competition Tsukuba Challenge.