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Expo 2025: Wakayama One Hundred Views — “Blending, Connecting.” - 映像作家: YusukeMurakami
Audio visual performanceCodingEventExperienceGenerative ArtInstallation

Expo 2025: Wakayama One Hundred Views — “Blending, Connecting.”

2025
00:01:00
Description: Set against Wakayama’s profound history and magnificent natural scenery, this 30-minute audiovisual installation explores the theme of “mixing and binding” — the fusion of different religions and genres, as seen in shinbutsu-shūgō. It offers a visual and musical experience projected onto eight totems, each 4 meters high, evoking the towering ancient trees of Kishu, and reflects Wakayama’s “spirit of tolerance” found in places such as Koyasan, the Kumano Sanzan, and in the thought of Minakata Kumagusu. Drawing inspiration from the Kumano pilgrimage, the work portrays Wakayama’s character — its acceptance and coexistence beyond differences in religion, social status, nationality, and ideology — as a journey through future, past, present, and once again into the future. This journey is an experience of “rebirth,” a space where Japanese tradition and digital expression, the real and the virtual, the West and the East intersect, reflecting the spirit of shinbutsu-shūgō.
There, Minakata Kumagusu’s belief that “truth lies in between the two” comes alive. Drawing inspiration from the Kumano pilgrimage, the work portrays Wakayama’s character — its acceptance and coexistence beyond differences in religion, social status, nationality, and ideology — as a “journey of rebirth” through future, past, present, and once again into the future. Symbolic order of the Kumano pilgrimage and its blessings Kumano Hongu Taisha — Future Kumano Hayatama Taisha — Past Kumano Nachi Taisha — Present Kumano Hongu Taisha (Return) — Future / Rebirth The video installation is composed of these four parts. 01. FUTURE The opening moment where anticipation and spirituality intersect.
Through flickering light, pulses, and shifting colors, it depicts a world on the verge of creation. 02. PAST A journey into the origins of Wakayama.
Tracing the land’s deep memories through historical elements such as volcanic activity, nature, and mandala scrolls. 03. PRESENT A chapter that moves through the diverse landscapes that could be called the hundred views of Wakayama.
It captures the culture, daily life, and beauty alive in modern Wakayama. 04. FUTURE / RESURRECTION A dreamlike finale centered on the theme of “rebirth” leading into the future, using reverse-playback imagery.
As a symbol that transcends the boundaries of religion, gender, and nationality, totems appear and visually embody the “spirit of tolerance.” About the event movie The five great elements of esoteric Buddhism at Koyasan — fire, water, wind, void, and earth — are translated into visual expression,
making visible the flow by which they merge to form the universe.
It conveys the spiritual depth of Wakayama in a visual and sensory way. What does “Mixing, Binding.” mean? The word “musu,” found in Takamimusubi-no-Kami and Kamimusubi-no-Kami, two of the three creator deities in Japanese mythology,
means “to give birth” or “to produce,” and represents the power to generate new life and relationships.
As seen in words such as musuko and musume,
“musu” has long been a core concept in Japanese, meaning “generation” and “bonding.” Shimenawa and shide, seen at shrines and sacred sites, are symbols of “binding” that sanctify space and invite the gods. We chose this “musu (Musubu)” as the theme of this work because it is a word that symbolizes the spirit of Wakayama, which has passed down Japan’s oldest culture to the present day.
Komyaku’s Dancing Garden, Komyaku’s Farewell - 映像作家: hirai
3DCGCo-CreationGenerative ArtInstallationProjection mappingReal-time Graphics

Komyaku’s Dancing Garden, Komyaku’s Farewell

2025
00:01:41
This work is a video piece that was exhibited and screened as part of an ambient projection-mapping presentation at the EXPO Hall “Shine Hat” and the Popup Stage East Outside at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. Taking as its motif the “EXPO 2025 Design System” IDs, affectionately known as “Komyaku” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, and with Kohta Hikichi, a representative member of the team that created it, serving as an advisor, we drew on the expertise in artificial-life ecological systems that HiRai has long been researching to create a real-time video simulation system and visuals. In producing the video, we referenced the design system’s history of being prototyped based on metaballs, and developed a real-time simulator in which the Komyaku behave as if they were alive while retaining the identity of the design itself. By using GPGPU to calculate the interactions among large numbers of Komyaku in real time, we built a system that can be flexibly expanded to support a wide range of possibilities, including interaction and the generation of one-of-a-kind videos. At the Popup Stage East Outside, we also took advantage of the architectural characteristics of a structure in which the projected image is interrupted by support columns, and created visuals that made it look as though each steel beam were packed full of Komyaku. We pursued video production that made the most of the characteristics of the projection surface. The name “Komyaku” naturally spread as a nickname referring to the IDs that make up the design system. Taking into account this derivative, fan-created cultural expansion, this work intentionally uses the term “Komyaku.”

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