Daisuke Moriwaki

WOW was responsible for the planning, direction, and production of a permanent installation to be installed in the outdoor plaza, Sunken Square, of The MixC, a massive shopping mall in Shanghai. The installation consists of 20 towers, each approximately 2.3 meters tall, with glass tiled over LED, spanning more than 10 meters in width. It was placed within the existing overflow structure in the plaza so that it would harmonize with the environment. There are two types of presentation, themed around natural phenomena and Shanghai’s nightscape, and the projected images repeatedly reflect and refract through the glass. Like a landscape of nature in constant transformation, the appearance of the work continually changes depending on the surrounding environment and the viewer’s position. Video works are often considered best when they are high-resolution and have a clearly defined beginning and end within a fixed timeline. However, this work was born from the idea that human imagination may possess infinite resolution and an infinite timeline. When you carefully observe the rippling surface of water or the bottom of a river, you seem to see reflected images of the surrounding scenery repeatedly forming and falling apart, creating a mysterious sensation as if you were seeing abstract and representational landscapes over and over again. Based on such an experience, this work expresses, through a visual interpretation, the distinctive scenery created by the properties of light—reflection and refraction.

WOW was responsible for producing the year-round environmental visuals broadcast on the large outdoor vision installed at Shibuya Scramble Square (approximately 623.2 m² on the north side and 156.2 m² on the east side). Drawing inspiration from the many charms of the city as if drawing them up like a tree, the visuals were created around the theme of “accumulation, fusion, and dissemination.” They concretely express the appeal of the transformations that arise as people, buildings, and city lights intersect while rising upward. In addition to spring, summer, autumn, and winter, visuals were also produced for the Halloween and Christmas seasons.

As the countdown to 2020 began and Japan stood on the cusp of a new era, “Hikari no Gateway” was presented in the Marunouchi area of Tokyo, the gateway to Japan, as a “door to the new era.” WOW was responsible for the planning and direction of “Reflective Wall” and “Reflective Gate,” exhibited around the Marunouchi area. With “light” as the concept that illuminates people, the city, and the future, a fantastical space was created using mirrors. “Reflective Wall” is a work in which the city and people illuminated by light are reflected within a wall of mirrors arranged in geometric forms. “Reflective Gate” combines mirror structures configured like a gate with abstract imagery added as “light,” enveloping visitors in a dreamlike world from the floor to the ceiling as they step inside the gate. Various forms of “light” and one’s own reflection repeat endlessly within the mirrors, offering encounters with unfamiliar ways of seeing, with the hope that the experience would become nourishment for the future.

In September 2018, we produced a promotional video for “FUSIONKNIT,” announced by DESCENTE. “FUSIONKNIT” is an unprecedented knit product that DESCENTE created by fusing (FUSION) a variety of technologies and know-how to achieve the movement comfort required in sportswear. The video was structured to convey, in a light and intuitive way, the detailed expression of fabric knitted with changing patterns, the cutting techniques, and the process by which each part takes shape as a complex three-dimensional form.

An inorganic space composed of mirrors. Mirror balloons, filling the entire space, animate and float while endlessly reflecting light and objects. An installation work that depicts a living organism drifting and moving through the gently swaying balloons.

An experimental video installation work using 20 transparent organic EL displays.