Coco Sato is an award-winning Japanese artist based in the UK. Her work uses origami to change the way people see the world. The next part of the world she will be working in is here at Machines Room, as our newest Maker in Residence.
Coco is best known for translating traditional Japanese aesthetics into art forms with a uniquely modern edge. Using paper, fabric, food or simple electronics, she creates artworks and public origami installations that celebrate people, play and adventure.
Born in Tokyo and graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in London, her work is inspired by everyday life in her native Japan and her sincere desire to dissolve boundaries and foster understanding between different cultures. Her work explores the balance between nature and technology and is motivated by a belief in the power of individuals coming together to make a statement, create a movement or bring about positive change. She shares her art and skills through social media and video tutorials, and aims to encourage more women and young girls into the world of technology.
With collaborators in the worlds of science, engineering and design, her work has evolved to encompass ‘Roborigami’ – giant interactive robotic origami installations, ‘Resogami’ – resonant meditative LED light installations, ‘Electro Origami’ – wearable electronic craft, and ‘Zenogami’ – a playful mindfulness origami app.
At Machines Room she will share her knowledge of origami and its intersections with technology. She has already participated in one of our Arduino workshops, where she began developing a new interactive meditative sculpture:
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Her works have been featured by media around the world including Channel 4, Marie Claire, Creative Boom and Design Milk and she has created original, high impact marketing campaigns for global brands such as Victorinox, ASICS, Shiseido and House of Fraser.
Coco has also acted as principal artist at international cultural festivals, leading audiences to create evolving, large scale public installation art. In 2011, Brighton Festival commissioned her to create a Peace Lotus Installation. In addition to the public art installation, she created an origami video tutorial for the festival guest director, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was living under house arrest in Burma. The tutorial showed Suu Kyi how to fold an origami peace lotus which was then sent to Brighton and included in Coco’s installation.
She has travelled internationally to present her work and regularly speaks at events and lectures in art and creativity. Coco was one of the four main cast members of the Channel 4 TV craft show Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas 2016. Her book Creative Origami and Beyond was published globally by Walter Foster Publishing, US in 2016.
