Roppongi’s 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT to Host “Future Elements: Experimental Laboratory for Prototyping in Science and Design”

The exhibition “Future Elements: Experimental Laboratory for Prototyping in Science and Design” will be held at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT in Roppongi, Tokyo from March 29 (Fri.).

This exhibition introduces prototypes and robots created by researchers and creators who contemplate the possibilities for the future. These creations, presented as “fragments of the future,” aim to convey the joy of designing towards an unknown future. Design engineer Shunji Yamanaka serves as the exhibition director, showcasing prototypes, robots, and sketches created through collaborative efforts with various individuals in a university laboratory. The exhibition also features works resulting from collaborations between seven designer-creators and scientists-technologists.

Throughout history, cutting-edge science and technology have always been close at hand. Scientists’ new knowledge and technology have been delivered to people through design. The new lifestyles opened up by designers have consistently served as triggers for further research. However, the true interest of scientists lies in the pursuit of greater truths, while designers aim to create experiences leading to people’s happiness and the realization of a rich society. Consequently, these two paths do not necessarily align. Despite being in close proximity, there is an insurmountable gap between science and design.

This tension-filled relationship between science and design has brought about fresh encounters, conflicts, and dramas that seem like new beginnings each time. Throughout the ages, innovations such as automobiles, household appliances, computers, smartphones, and social media have transformed our lives.

This exhibition explores the budding “fragments of the future” arising from the current encounter between science and design. The exhibition director, Yamanaka, has been creating various prototypes that evoke a sense of the future in collaboration with researchers in advanced technology since 2001. After assuming the role of a professor at the University of Tokyo in 2013, he initiated the “Design-Led X (Value-Creation Design Project)” to give form to cutting-edge technologies that have not yet been practicalized and to explore the future alongside researchers.

In the special exhibition “Fragments of the Future,” Yamanaka’s activities form the core, gathering new “encounters” between researchers and creators. Researchers in advanced robotics, additive manufacturing, structural morphology, body augmentation, bioengineering, and designers and artists collaborate to forge fragments of the future. These pieces go beyond science fiction plots, offering fragments of real stories with textures and movements that allow shared experiences. The visitors are the ones who will connect the freshly born pieces from the laboratory to depict an unseen world.

Shunji Yamanaka