Hajime Sorayama: The Gynoids

In the late 1990s, Sorayama was approached by the Sony Corporation to design an organic robotic form. It became the famous “AIBO” dog, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and then Smithsonian Institute of Technology.

Intrigued by the effects of light on various metallic surfaces, and always ready for challenges to his technique and imagination, he began to produce a series of female robotic figures in the late 1970s; anatomically correct in form, but appearing to have been fashioned of molten silver.

The term “sexy robot” was coined to describe them. The term “Gynoids” was created by the female British SF writer, Gwyneth Jones, and developed by another British writer, Richard Calder. The word is a combination of “droid” (greek “in the image of”) and “gyn” (greek “woman”).

These female cyborgs of Sorayama combine elements both human and mechanical.

The soft, sensuous body parts are cleverly intertwined with inorganic, machine-like connections and protrusions to create entrancing images which embody complex and subtle tensions.

Author: Hajime Sorayama
Artist: Hajime Sorayama
Publisher: Treville, 1993 (Out of Print)
Number of pages: 108
Format: Soft Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 10″ x 15″ (260mm x 370mm)
ISBN: 9784845708239

Condition: used, some loose pages (used as posters)