| Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University

Akira Nakayasu

Professorat Kobe Design University
Japan

Akira Nakayasu (born 1973) is an interactive artist, projection designer, and an educator based in Kobe, Japan. He graduated from Kyushu Institute of Technology, where he earned Bachelor of Engineering in 1996, and received Ph.D in Design from Kyushu University in 2013. As an educator, He is currently Professor at Kobe Design University. He works across digital media art and robotics, and often collaborates with the theatrical world, contemporary music and dance. He recently focuses on a life-like expression using robotics, and is inspired by a wiggling tentacle of the sea anemone and by grass blowing in the wind. His works always use proprietary developed shape-memory alloy actuators to realize a life-like movement.

Journal Articles:
Art Gallery

Proliferating Possibilities: Speculative Futures in Art and Design Art Gallery

July 2019
Art Papers

Animated Robotic Sculptures: Using SMA Motion Display to Create Lifelike Movements

August 2020