Produced a holiday-season film for BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE. Rather than using cool, solid-looking CG, we explored a pop-inspired expression with warmth. By staging the character-like bags, “STREAK,” dancing joyfully, we expressed the excitement of the holiday season.

A concept movie was produced to showcase two new technologies independently researched and developed by DESCENTE: “Ori-eri” and “Terra Pattern.” By treating the collar as if it were architecture, wide camera angles and camera work were employed to highlight the collar’s sculptural beauty.

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.

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.

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.

About the Work Shibuya Stream, which opened on September 13, 2018, is a large-scale mixed-use complex built on the former platform and track site of the long-disused Tokyu Toyoko Line Shibuya Station, as well as the surrounding land. The project was launched with the concept of sharing to the world the new things and new experiences born from encounters, exchanges, and challenges here, and of creating a new current for the next era as a “sacred place for creative workers.” This project aims to foster new cultural creation in Shibuya and revitalize the area south of Shibuya Station. Targeting “creative people,” it was designed as a place where inspiration arises in everyday life. WOW was responsible for the environmental design and experiential design of the giant video wall installed at the entrance to the 100-meter-long second-floor through passage directly connected to Shibuya Station, as well as the large staircase leading toward Meiji-dori Avenue. Design Intent This facility, developed through public-private collaboration and also contributing to the restoration of the Shibuya River, serves as an icon for the area south of Shibuya Station, while taking care not to impose creativity or trends. In the second-floor through passage, an acoustic environment creates a “gentle boundary” that softens outside noise, and within that setting, a pseudo-natural environment formed by phenomenological visuals is intended to draw out the inner imagination of both daily users and visitors passing through. The overall design concept is called “INNER STREAM,” and it comprises three environmental installations. 1. Invisible Stream | Giant video wall installed at the second-floor entrance of Shibuya Stream The thinking process of creative workers, from their first idea to the final finish, is visualized as a flow: Invisible Stream. Centered on the theme of “Stream,” the work presents final visuals inspired by phenomenological motifs such as water, rivers, mist, and light, while also exhibiting various study processes in CG and programmable expression. By linking these elements to the viewer’s own imagination, the installation was designed to allow each person to experience a different visual encounter. 2. Fall Stream | Staircase space toward Meiji-dori Avenue with embedded video installation A visual composition in which sound seems to pour from a vortex of sound into the grand staircase. By using phenomenological motifs such as waterfalls and water, the work seeks to create a sense of unity with the Shibuya River and offer visitors a soothing spatial experience. 3. Barrier Stream | Acoustic environment of the second-floor through passage and grand staircase The acoustic environment was realized through a collaboration with evala [See by Your Ears], a musician and sound artist with the concept of “Sound Architecture.” The concept took inspiration from the Shibuya Stream space, where wind blowing through is especially striking. Sounds were devised to harmonize with this place, where outside sounds such as trains and cars can also be heard. Water sounds field-recorded at the Shibuya River were blended in throughout, and like a natural phenomenon in which trees sway and waves rise when the wind blows, new melodies are continuously generated so that no two moments are ever the same. By using speakers placed along the connecting passageways, the program blocks urban noise and creates an environment that enhances inner creativity.

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.