Directed the visual presentation for ANTEPRIMA’s Fall-Winter 2024-25 Collection, unveiled at Milan Fashion Week. The collection’s theme of “cyberpunk” futuristic aesthetics and the brand’s philosophy of “universal elegance” were brought to life through a series of monitors installed along the runway.

About the Work “sonus-oleum ; Sonosorium” is a live installation in which visitors can experience works in different forms on each of the three floors of the ship-shaped facility (T-LOTUS M): B1F, 1F, and the rooftop. With the premise that “music becomes the energy that moves the ship,” the work explores the form of music born inside the ship through the following four formats. Live Performance 1 — The Birth of Music — This work begins with a live performance on B1F. The music is an original piece composed by Fumitake Ezaki specifically for this live installation. The performance is by Fumitake Ezaki (piano), Shuntaro Tsuneta (violin), Sonoko Muraoka (cello), and an automatic piano. The venue was designed with eight 3 m × 4 m screens installed on both sides of the performers, enveloping visitors in music and imagery. Real-time motion graphics synchronized with the instruments were projected onto the screens. The elements composing the real-time motion graphics are the piano’s output of keyboard input (88 keys), the strength and duration of pedal presses, and the hand movements of the violin and cello players captured using ring devices. The real-time motion graphics linked to the performers’ movements depict the energy of music being generated and floating upward to the upper levels. Interactive Installation — Variation through Images — The energy of the music born in the B1F live performance appears as bubbles within the interactive work on 1F. Seven 2.4 m × 2.4 m translucent screens were installed throughout the 1F space in alignment with the windows, and interactive visuals were projected onto them. When visitors touch the bubbles displayed on each screen, the bubbles split, and each note of the original piece transforms into a different timbre. Variations born from chance continue to be generated endlessly. Projection Mapping — Music Creates Wind — The variations generated on 1F rise further to the rooftop, where they create the wind that moves the ship. Using four large 30,000-lumen projectors, the wind stirred up by the power of music and striking the sails was projected above the visitors’ heads. Live Performance 2 — A Session with Returned Sound — In the second live performance held on B1F, the automatic piano played in real time the variations generated by visitors touching the bubbles on 1F, while Ezaki (piano), Tsuneta (violin), and Muraoka (cello) improvised along with it. The interplay of visitor-generated variations, improvised live performance, and real-time motion graphics evoked a new form of music. Through these four processes, this live installation created a landscape in which sound was “unlearned” and transformed into new sounds, continuing in circulation. The title “sonus-oleum ; Sonosorium” is a coined word combining sonus, meaning sound, and petroleum, meaning oil.

About the work A man trudges through the same place again and again in a dim wasteland, as if dragging his weary body behind him. His doubles, replicated like afterimages, drift through the air, forming a huge mass that hovers over his head. On the ground, tentacles cling to him as if to hinder his steps. Before long, the man collapses to the ground and sinks into a mental realm. A visual work that depicts modern people, constantly exposed to information and living alongside complex human relationships, in an unfamiliar brilliance. The contours and boundaries of the self, shaped by self-awareness, waver, mutate, and dissolve. It portrays human beings living through this cycle. Directed and produced by the unit of Ryo Kitabatake and Takuma Sasaki, winners of Best of Stash and the Telly Award Gold. Filmed at Dimension Studio in London using the latest volumetric imaging technology, with music by Max Cooper. Max Cooper How many artists over the past decade have, like Max Cooper, reexamined and expanded the relationship between electronic music, visual art, technology, and science? Through collaborations with artists and institutions across disciplines, including the Barbican Centre, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Dolby Atmos, Cooper works with a mixed-media approach to create immersive installations, psychoacoustics, visual art, and electronic music. Max Cooper▶ maxcooper.net/ Dimension Studio Dimension Studio is a London studio that provides innovative volumetric and real-time production for creating next-generation virtual production, digital humans, and XR content. With production studios based in the UK and the US, as well as mobile environments operating around the world, it is committed to bringing the virtual entertainment of the future to life. Dimension Studio▶ dimensionstudio.co/

When I looked at Jomon pottery with the naked eye, its distinctive protrusions and patterns made me imagine landscapes, natural phenomena, the forms and movements of living creatures, and even sounds and sensations. The way fragments of various kinds of information intermingle in it feels almost like a poem of the Jomon people. Could these not be related to life forms that the Jomon people ate in order to survive—that is, might they have felt prayer and awe toward the living beings they were given, and might that energy have given rise to the grotesque yet beautiful forms of Jomon pottery? This work was conceived and created based on these ideas.

KITCHEN & COMPANY, MIKATA, and WOW collaborated on the Teijin Group’s 100th anniversary project. Looking toward the next 100 years, they declared “FUTURE NAVIGATION” as a global message shared around the world. At the same time, they launched the “THINK HUMAN PROJECT” to explore ways to improve the future quality of life for people through nine experimental projects. WOW was responsible for directing and producing the TV commercial and OOH campaign for the “FUTURE NAVIGATION” declaration. To express a project that reexamines humanity from multiple perspectives, the visuals and story were built around the idea of reducing human beings to an unknown entity. What separates humans from objects? How should humans interact with their environment? What does it mean for human beings to live as human beings? Through a variety of angles and forms of expression, this work confronts these questions, which have no clear answers. By boldly yet delicately transforming sensitive motifs, it aimed to create a uniquely beautiful yet poisonous world.

From August 3 to September 29, 2019, the light installation Emerge, which stirs deep inside a cave at the foot of a mountain in the Hama area, was exhibited at the Reborn-Art Festival held in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. This cave was built by the former Imperial Japanese Navy during the war to store torpedoes, and after several decades in the postwar years, the area around its entrance has become covered with vegetation, while the surface of the rock is mossy, creating an atmosphere that evokes a primordial sense of power. Emerge displays a variety of expressions in the darkness, sometimes violently tracing random paths, allowing viewers to feel “anima”—life dwelling within movement.

About the Work On July 19, 2019, Grand Cinema Sunshine, a large 12-screen cinema complex, opened in Ikebukuro. Grand Cinema Sunshine offers future-standard entertainment through facilities and services that go beyond the conventional standards of cinema complexes, including the state-of-the-art “IMAX® Laser / GT Technology,” the largest permanent cinema installation in Japan, and “4DX with ScreenX,” an immersive theater making its debut in Japan, as well as playful interior design that allows visitors to immerse themselves in the world of film. WOW was responsible for the direction of “Lumière,” the chandelier installed in the 4th-floor entrance lobby of the facility, and “Motion Ceiling,” the giant LED display covering the ceiling on the 12th floor. We also created a linked visual presentation for 47 vertical 55-inch signage displays installed on the walls and pillars throughout the facility, extracting the world of “Motion Ceiling.” Lumière We created a chandelier that serves as an icon of Grand Cinema Sunshine, as “a new art form incorporating contemporary interpretation and technology.” The surface of a 2.7-meter-diameter sphere made of stainless steel with a mirror finish was divided into 47 Voronoi sections, and by projecting images from four directions, the visuals displayed on the screen embedded at the center are repeatedly and intricately reflected. The chandelier’s design and structural concept were handled by Tofu Architects. Evoking a colossal kaleidoscope of light, the chandelier adds a dazzling presence to the entrance space of Grand Cinema Sunshine. Motion Ceiling Covering the enormous ceiling, approximately 31 meters wide and 10 meters high, is the art motion graphics work “Motion Ceiling.” Inspired by a beautiful ceiling painting, this work was created around three themes: “GEOMETRY,” characterized by nimble tile actions; “REFLECTION,” depicting a giant cloth gracefully fluttering in the sky; and “LIGHT,” which expresses a glittering city enveloped by countless particles. The LED display spanning the entire ceiling is so massive that it can also be seen from the surrounding streets. The presentation was designed with both the people relaxing in the café and lounge spaces and those viewing it from the nearby streets, looking up at it, in mind.

A 100th anniversary project for the Teijin Group, created through a collaboration between KITCHEN&COMPANY, MIKATA, and WOW. Looking ahead to the next 100 years, “FUTURE NAVIGATION” was declared as a global message shared worldwide. At the same time, the “THINK HUMAN PROJECT” was launched to explore ways to improve people’s quality of life in the future through nine experimental projects. WOW was responsible for directing and producing the TV commercial and OOH campaign for the “FUTURE NAVIGATION” announcement. To express a project that reexamines humanity from multiple perspectives, the visuals and story were built on the idea of reducing human beings to an unknown entity. What separates humans from things? How should humans interact with their environment? What does it mean for humans to live as humans? Through a variety of angles and forms of expression, this work takes on these questions, which have no clear answers. Sensitive motifs are transformed boldly yet delicately, aiming for a unique world that is both beautiful and poisonous. Teijin 100th anniversary website 100.teijin.co.jp/

On September 15, 2017, the Saturn probe Cassini plunged into Saturn and burned up in the atmosphere, bringing its “life” as a spacecraft to an end. Cassini continued sending data back to Earth until the very last moment, when its life burned out. This work is an exhibition that celebrates Cassini’s great achievements—beloved by many and making immense contributions to the history of planetary exploration—and invites visitors to experience its accomplishments as a visual work.

At Pitti Immagine Uomo, the men’s fashion trade fair held twice a year in Florence, Italy in January and June—hereafter referred to as Pitti Uomo—WOW unveiled a new installation inside Villa Vittoria near the runway and main venue of yoshiokubo, which presented its latest collection at Pitti Uomo. For this 92nd edition, yoshiokubo joined forces with the globally beloved Pokémon. WOW planned, directed, and produced an installation that served as a bridge between yoshiokubo’s worldview and Pokémon’s celebration of fashion.

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 interactive video installation inspired by festivals and traditional events long passed down in Tohoku. In this work, the mysterious act of “transforming” into something other than a human being can be experienced through interactive visual expression. Taking four traditional customs—“Namahage,” “Shishiodori,” “Kasei-dori,” and “Sotome”—as motifs, the work visualizes them with WOW’s own interpretation. When a mask is put on in front of the screen, the viewer’s silhouette changes into each of these forms, and the blessings these events bring to people are projected as animation. This is an attempt to let viewers enjoyably experience the mysterious power of “becoming” someone other than themselves, or something other than human. The work carries the wish that by engaging with the traditional culture born of Tohoku’s land and climate through a completely new form of expression, its value will be passed on to the next generation.