About the Work WOW presented its new art installation, Urban Reflection, at the Clock Tower, a symbol of Hong Kong, from November 8 to 19. Created in collaboration with the local creative agency Way of Difference for ART TECH PARK, a special section of JUMPSTARTER 2023 Tech by the Harbour, a tech startup event held in Hong Kong, the work visually expresses the city’s energy and diversity by symbolically depicting the growth of a city where East and West, urban life and nature, and different races and cultures merge. In a fountain pool with a 27.2 m × 5.4 m water surface, 42 two-sided LED displays approximately 4 meters high and 76 mirrors were installed. As a result, images of Victoria Harbour and skyscrapers were projected, beautifully blending Hong Kong’s neon lights with the radiance of its architecture. Against the backdrop of the skyscrapers stretching across the opposite shore, viewers were immersed in a world where the images on the LED displays were repeatedly reflected by water and mirrors. The installation visually conveyed Hong Kong’s energy and diversity while offering a vision for the future.

Responsible for the planning and design of “Reflective tree,” a Christmas installation placed at the entrance of Roppongi Hills West Walk. The approximately 7-meter-tall tree is composed of a column with 10 layers, about 500 branches, and leaves made from approximately 2,700 mirror-finish materials. As the layers rotate, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes alternately, the leaves, lit by colored illumination, reflect and diffuse the light, creating a variety of sparkling expressions. By allowing the brilliance of the tree itself and the leaves wrapped in layers of light to illuminate the space, the installation was designed to evoke the fantastical atmosphere unique to the Christmas season, day and night.

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.

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.

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/