Tsutomu Miyajima

When you change your “point of view,” new things come into view, and the way you feel and think changes—something everyone has likely experienced. In this work, by changing viewpoints and focusing on a specific viewpoint alone, we challenged ourselves to intentionally reconstruct the scenery and create a sense of appreciation.

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.

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.

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/

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