Inspiring Space Experiences × Hiroshi Sugimoto

Creating "Art from Space perspectives"

STAR SPHERE will provide artists, creators, and members of the general public with opportunities
to create art in space using a satellite equipped with a camera made by Sony.
Our goal is to create new art based on "the space perspectives" by promoting creative activities.

As our first partner in this initiative, we have welcomed Hiroshi Sugimoto,
a world-famous contemporary artist who is involved in a wide range of artistic activities
with a focus on subtle photographic works and who has engaged in deep explorations of humanity and civilization.
Together with Sugimoto, we will explore the future of humanity and civilization from the space perspectives
and create art works based on "the space perspectives" utilizing our space camera.

Inspiring Space Experiences
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Hiroshi Sugimoto

Creative work utilizing our space camera

Hiroshi Sugimoto will be creating art as the first user of our space camera. Sugimoto has previously created conceptual photographic works focusing primarily on the concepts of "time" and "story." What kind of art will emerge when he takes control of the space camera?

"From Science to Fantasy" - A dialogue series exploring "the space perspectives"

Until now, space exploration has hinged on science. In contrast, this STAR SPHERE will promote the utilization of space focusing on sensibilities such as beauty and inspiration.
This is a shift in values regarding space, from science to emotion.
When the perspective is liberated, and people can once again perceive space not just though science but though fantasy and their emotions, how will humanity, art and culture, and society and civilization evolve?

Contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto designed the Enoura Observatory to be a "future historic site" that will last for ten thousand years and as a place where people can return to the origins of humanity and art and measure the distance between the world, space, and themselves. In this dialogue series, recorded at the Enoura Observatory.
Sugimoto looks at the theme of "from science to fantasy" in anticipation of creating art using our space camera. Sugimoto invites prominent figures from a vanity of fields to engage in deep explorations of "the space perspectives" that modern humanity in currently in the midst of acquiring, as well as the art, culture, society and civilization that will emerge from this acquisition.

Dialogue series
"From Science to Fantasy"

10/18/2021

Trailer

Amid the boundless ocean, giant trees suggesting the presence of divine spirits, unceasing birdsong, the rising moon, and the setting sun stands the Enoura Observatory, an art center that was conceived to serve as a historic site thousands of years into the future. A prophetic voice rings out from within its dark tunnel: "My aim is to paint a great picture that will follow the dreams of science, for it is the power of fantasy that is humanity’s sole saving grace." Contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto hosts dialogues with guests on the forthcoming changes to humanity that may be brought about by the space perspectives. This is the prologue to the series, which explains its concept.

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yusuke Muraki


Hiroshi Sugimoto: Born in Tokyo in 1948. Traveled to the United States in 1970 and has resided in New York since 1974. He has established himself in the global art scene through a wide range of activities spanning photography, sculpture, installations, theater, architecture, landscape gardening, writing, and cuisine. Sugimoto’s art focuses on the themes of history and the transience of existence. In his art, he seeks to serve as a conceptual bridge across the gap separating East and West through his knowledge of empiricism and metaphysics, exploring subjects such as the nature of time, human awareness, and the source of consciousness. His world-renowned works are housed in the collections of some of the world’s leading art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Key works include his Seascapes, Theaters, and Architecture series.


Yusuke Muraki: Space Strategic Producer, Space Entertainment Promotion Office, Sony Group Corporation
As a space engineer of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), he engaged in development and utilization of the International Space Station and earth observation satellites, and co-creation of space businesses with private sector. He is one of founders of STAR SPHERE, and in charge of business development and technical support in the project as an employee of Sony Group Corporation. He is the leader of the project "Inspiring Space Experiences x Hiroshi Sugimoto". He loves culture as a practitioner of Sado, Japanese tea-ceremony. His life work is promotion of space x art and culture.

10/18/2021

Episode 0 "From Science to Fantasy"

We are currently confronted by global-scale challenges that cannot be solved with the existing state of science and technology, such as climate change, energy crises, and pandemics. Perhaps what we need to overcome these impasses is the power of fantasy to imagine the future without being burdened by conventional wisdom. The setting is the Enoura Observatory, an art center that was conceived to serve as a historic site thousands of years into the future. Contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto hosts dialogues with guests on the forthcoming changes to humanity that may be brought about by the space perspectives.

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Takamitsu Yamamoto, Mari Hashimoto


Takamitsu Yamamoto: Writer, Game designer, and Professor of Philosophy at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is also the author of many books--Kioku no Dezain (Design of Memory), Maruginaria de tsukamaete (The Catcher in the Marginalia), Bungaku-mondai (F+f)+ (What is Literature?), Shin-no Mondai (Mind-Brain Problem, with Hiromitsu Yoshikawa) and more.


Mari Hashimoto: Japanese art writer, editor and curator and is currently  Deputy Director of Eisei Bunko, a private museum of the Hosokawa family art collection. She has authored several books including Bijutsu de Tadoru Nihon no Rekishi (Tracing Japanese History Through Art), Kyoto de Nihon Bijutsu wo Miru – Kyoto National Museum (A Look at Japanese art in Kyoto – Kyoto National Museum), Kawari Kabuto – Sengoku no Cool Design (Fancy Helmets – Cool Designs from the Warring States Period) and more.

12/23/2021

Episode 1 "Looking out across the spacetime of the universe"

The light of the rising sun shines into the Uchoten Tearoom on the autumn equinox. So-oku Sen, fifteenth-generation successor to the head of the Mushakoji Senke school of tea ceremony, feels a divine presence in this light as he performs the procedure for making tea. The series "From Science to Fantasy" starts here, with the confined space of the tearoom, consisting of only two tatami mats, offering a fleeting glimpse of communion with the infinite cosmos.

The first episode’s guests are Junichi Watanabe, an astronomer who examines the world from vast temporal and spatial perspectives, and Yukinori Kawae, an archaeologist specializing in ancient Egypt, one of the oldest civilizations to be built by humanity upon the face of the Earth.

Ancient peoples who gazed up at the heavens and observed the movements of the stars and sun, developing long count calendars that greatly exceeded the lifetime of an individual, may have been much closer to the space perspectives than those of us living in modern times. Why, then, did so many of those civilizations eventually fall into ruin? Is it because the human species itself is still immature? How many tens of thousands of years will it take for humanity to be matured by the space perspectives?

These conversations freely traversing Earth and the universe across time and space set the tone for the productive path ahead that awaits the series "From Science to Fantasy."

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Junichi Watanabe, Yukinori Kawae, Takamitsu Yamamoto
Demonstration of tea-serving: So-oku Sen


Junichi Watanabe: Vice Director of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(General Affairs),Distinguished Professor, Professor of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. PhD. of science. Vice President of the International Astronomical Union(IAU). Main research field is the small celestial bodies in the solar system such as meteors and comets, together with outreach activities by communicating the latest astronomical achievements through lectures and writing. One of the members of the Planet Definition Committee in the IAU, who created a new category of dwarf planets, with Pluto in its seat. His books include "Ancient Civilization and the Mystery of the Starry Sky" (Chikuma Shobo), "The Day when the Second Earth is Found", "Introduction to the Latest Planets" (Asahi Shimbun Publishing) and others written in Japanese.


Yukinori Kawae: Archaeologist/Egyptologist, the 2016-class Emerging Explorer of National Geographic Society, and an associate professor of Nagoya University’s Institute for Advanced Research. Kawae started his academic career as a member of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc. Since the earliest stage of the introduction of 3D technology in the field of Egyptian archaeology, he became engaging 3D surveys of ancient megalithic structures. He is leading an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates computer science and applied mathematics to record pyramids at Memphite necropolis.


Mari Hashimoto: Japanese art writer, editor and curator and is currently  Deputy Director of Eisei Bunko, a private museum of the Hosokawa family art collection. She has authored several books including Bijutsu de Tadoru Nihon no Rekishi (Tracing Japanese History Through Art), Kyoto de Nihon Bijutsu wo Miru – Kyoto National Museum (A Look at Japanese art in Kyoto – Kyoto National Museum), Kawari Kabuto – Sengoku no Cool Design (Fancy Helmets – Cool Designs from the Warring States Period) and more.


So-oku SEN: He accepted the role as next 15th headmaster of Mushakouji-senke in 2003 and succeeded the name "Sooku" as heir to the headmaster. Finished his Master’s degree at Keio University, Graduate Studies Program (in the History of Medie-val Japanese Paintings). Had the experience of working out of New York as a Japan Cultural Envoy from 2008 to 2009. He is active inside and outside of Japan to deepen his investigation and practice on chanoyu culture. He is the author of Tea – Seeking the Missing Link to Rikyu (Shinchosha) and What if Rikyu invited you for tea? Learning the paradox of hospitality from Chanoyu (Kadokawa Shoten) and others.
Not only in tea ceremony utensils, he is well studied in Antique and Con-temporary Art. He acts as part time lecturer at Meiji Gakuin University (Japanese Art History).

05/27/2022

Episode 2 "Images of Space & The Boundaries of Imagination"

The tearooms of the Sengoku period may have seen tea ceremonies hosted by Japanese Christians with Jesuit missionaries invited as guests. Inspired by this fantasy, Hiroshi Sugimoto has placed a copperplate etching by Rembrandt, which he likens to Japanese paintings of the Buddha descending from heaven, in the alcove of the tearoom where he receives guests along with an image (bust) of Christ from the early 14th century.

From the ancient to the modern and from mythology to science fiction, the depictions of space that humans have crafted through words and visuals can be said to demonstrate the limits of that person or society’s powers of imagination. So, how does one surpass these limits to reach something new? How far can cameras mounted on satellites expand these limits? The second episode of our series examines the theme of "images of space and the boundaries of imagination." This time, we are joined by Momoe Kanazawa, a historian who specializes in Romanesque art, and Toh EnJoe, an author known for works filled with linguistic experimentation, for a conversation that exhaustively explores the richness and naivety of human fantasies of outer space.

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Momoe Kanazawa, Toh Enjo


Toh Enjo: Literary and speculative fiction author.
Godzilla S.P scriptwriter
2010: Noma Prize for New Writers for Uyūshitan 2012: Akutagawa Prize for "Dōkeshi no chō (Harlequin's Butterfly)" 2012: Nihon SF Taisho Special Award for Shisha no teikoku (The Empire of Corpses) (with Project Itoh) 2013: Seiun Award Japanese Long Form for Shisha no teikoku (with Project Itoh) 2014: Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation for Self-Reference ENGINE 2017: Kawabata Yasunari Prize for Literature [ja] for "Mojika" 2018: Nihon SF Taisho for Mojika


Momoe Kanazawa: Prof. Momo Kanazawa
An Art Historian (esp. Romanesque Art), born in 1968 in Tokyo, raised in India and educated in the U.K. She has a double PhD, one as a biologist and the other as an art historian, both from the University of Tokyo. She has been teaching at Tama Art University since 2020. Her major publications include Cosmographica Romanica: Reading Tapestry of Creation in Girona (Tokyo, 2008/Shimada Kinji Memorial Prize) and Romanesque Art: The Revolution (Tokyo, 2015/Suntory Prize for Arts and Sciences). She has published articles on Romanesque art in Spain, France, and Switzerland in Kogei Seika (Shinchosha, Tokyo).


Takamitsu Yamamoto: Writer, Game designer, and Professor of Philosophy at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is also the author of many books--Kioku no Dezain (Design of Memory), Maruginaria de tsukamaete (The Catcher in the Marginalia), Bungaku-mondai (F+f)+ (What is Literature?), Shin-no Mondai (Mind-Brain Problem, with Hiromitsu Yoshikawa) and more.

12/23/2022

Episode 3 ” Between the Macro and Microcosmos”

Partway through the "Winter Solstice Light-Worship Tunnel" is a "light well" for collecting light. The aperture in the ceiling allows rays of light on sunny days and drops of rain on rainy days to pour down to the bottom of the well, where they flicker amid the dim. The spectacle invites us to reflect upon our own inner microcosmos.
The fascination that we in the present day feel toward astrology is not because we anticipate predictions about the unforeseeable future. Rather, it is because astrology speaks to us about matters with which we are already very familiar—ourselves, whom we know so well. In other words, astrology tells us that our lives are not some product of chance with no particular meaning. Instead, we have our very own place within the colossal network of meaning that governs a universe that is infinite both temporally and spatially. The awe and excitement of this realization is akin to a religious experience, and it is this that draws people to astrology.

In our third episode titled "Between the Macro and Microcosmos," we speak with astrologist Ryuji Kagami about an old yet new "space perspective" realized by humans as they assigned meaning to the cosmos through their "emotions"—astrology, a means of finding connections between the external universe and the inner universe of individual "emotion" with which we lost touch after the advent of the philosophy of the European Enlightenment, with its many metaphors of dispelling the "darkness" of ignorance with the "light" of reason, against the backdrop of advances in modern science and rationalism.

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ryuji Kagami, Mari Hashimoto


Ryuji Kagami: Ryuji Kagami is an internationally known Astrologer.
He has been writing columns on astrology in various media since he was a teenager.
He has gained overwhelming popularity and support, bringing the British astrological tradition to Japan.
Besides publishing his own books, he has translated a wide range of books, from popular to academic.
He is also well versed in Jungian psychology and esoteric thought, holds MA degree from the International Christian Astrology. He is a visiting professor at Kyoto Bunkyo University and Heian Jogakuin University. He is a board member of the Japan Transpersonal Society. He spoke at various conferences including the Astrological Association of the Great Britain, the Federation of Australian Astrologers, as well as Japan Jungian Society.
His publications include "Astrology: A Cultural History" (Hara Shobo), "The Secret of the Tarot" (Kodansha), and as well as numerous translation works including James Hillman's "The Soul's Code," Liz Greene's "Saturn," Jung's "Saturn "Saturn" and "Jung's Studies in Astrology"、Maggie Hyde "Jung and Astrology".


Mari Hashimoto: Japanese art writer, editor and curator and is currently  Deputy Director of Eisei Bunko, a private museum of the Hosokawa family art collection. She has authored several books including Bijutsu de Tadoru Nihon no Rekishi (Tracing Japanese History Through Art), Kyoto de Nihon Bijutsu wo Miru – Kyoto National Museum (A Look at Japanese art in Kyoto – Kyoto National Museum), Kawari Kabuto – Sengoku no Cool Design (Fancy Helmets – Cool Designs from the Warring States Period) and more.

23/12/2022

Episode 4 “Playing “in” Space and Playing “with” Space”

In this fourth episode, information scientist Dominique Chen is invited as a guest to take on the theme of playing “in” space and playing “with” space. The word “play” has an extremely wide range of connotations, including not only games and amusement but also acting, music, and betting. As argued by the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, who said that “culture arises and unfolds in and as play,” play appears to be something intrinsic to humanity. That’s why Hiroshi Sugimoto became an artist out of an aspiration to do “things that aren’t useful to anyone and that you can’t earn a proper living by doing.” After all, “were humans born to play?” This line from a song in the twelfth-century anthology Ryojin Hisho, or “Songs to Make the Dust Dance,” compiled by the Emperor Go-Shirakawa, resonates intensely with Sugimoto. Chen responds that within this discussion abandoning pre-established harmony and without a clear destination, the process of transforming each other by listening to each other’s words and replying may itself be a form of play. The human conversation winds down, and as the sun sets, Ayako Tanaka stands on an optical glass stage. In this final act of “play,” the captivating soprano invites the gods to a playground illuminated only by the light of the moon.

Cast：Hiroshi Sugimoto, Dominique Chen, Ayako Tanaka, Takamitsu Yamamoto


Dominique Chen: Born in 1981 in Tokyo, a French citizen. B.A. from UCLA (Design/MediaArts), M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Tokyo iii (Information Studies). Currently Professor at Waseda University, School of Culture, Media and Society.
Dominique has been active in promoting the Creative Commons license in Japan since 2004. In 2008, he co-founded Dividual, an IT startup in Tokyo, where he has been developing numerous web services and smartphone apps, two of which were awarded Best of AppStore from Apple in both 2015 and 2016. He was also certified as a “Super Creator” by the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (2009).
Dominique is also an author of several books on Open Source and Free Culture, Neo-cybernetics, and Philosophy of Information, and has translated books on Positive Computing, Reality Mining, and Technological Singularity.


Ayako Tanaka: She began her vocal studies in Vienna at the age of 18 with Milkana Nikolova, Maria Loidl and Silvia Gestzy. At the age of 22, she made her debut as a soloist at the Stadttheater of Bern, Switzerland, becoming the first and youngest soloist at the same theater.
She represented as Cover the role of Olympia in the opera "The Tales of Hoffmann" at the Vienna Volksoper.
In 2012, she performed the role of the "Queen of the Night" in Mozart's "The Magic Flute," a production officially sponsored by the Austrian government.
She made her UK debut as soloist in a subscription concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. After she sung in a Orff's "Carmina Burana" at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Composer Esteban Benzecry’s Piece "Five Circle Songs for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra," which was inspired by her voice ,won the Argentina Best First Performance Award and the released album received a 5-star rating from the BBC Classical Music magazine in the UK.
She made her Recital concert held on the grounds of the Louvre Museum as an official event of Japonisme 2018, a festival of Japanese culture and art held in Paris and throughout France to celebrate 160 years of friendship between France and Japan.
Also since her debut in Japan in 2014, she has been on annual recital tours throughout Japan and has made numerous media appearances, including NHK BS "The Human" and "Jounetsu Tairiku"
In 2019, she was selected as one of Newsweek's "100 Most Respected Japanese in the World". Born in Kyoto, Japan, lives in Vienna.


Takamitsu Yamamoto: Writer, Game designer, and Professor of Philosophy at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is also the author of many books--Kioku no Dezain (Design of Memory), Maruginaria de tsukamaete (The Catcher in the Marginalia), Bungaku-mondai (F+f)+ (What is Literature?), Shin-no Mondai (Mind-Brain Problem, with Hiromitsu Yoshikawa) and more.

04/07/2022

Episode 5 “Charting the Future of Space Perspectives ”

In the fifth episode of the series “From Science to Fantasy,” contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto is joined by JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui and Sony Chief Technology Officer Hiroaki Kitano to discuss the physical and spiritual transformations that space perspectives will bring for the future of humanity. What is the nature of the “consciousness” that makes humans, the perceivers of the cosmos, into what we are? As the sources of new inspiration who decide what matters, what kind of world will humans forge when we reach the limits of scientific and technical advancement and become capable of choosing a future other than destruction? Join us in this final episode of the series as we explore what lies on the other side of humanity’s dreams.

Cast: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hiroaki Kitano, Kimiya Yui, Izumi Masuda, Manami Hirai


Hiroaki Kitano Ph.D.: Senior Executive Vice President and CTO of Sony Group Corporation, KITANO is President and CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., CEO of Sony AI Inc., President of The Systems Biology Institute, and Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. He is also a Founding President of the RoboCup Federation, President of International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) (2009-2011), and Member of the AI & Robotics Council (2016-2018), and Quantum Computing Council (2019-2020) of The World Economic Forum, Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) (2021-).
He received The Computers and Thought Award from the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in 1993, Prix Ars Electronica 2000, Design Award 2001 from Japan Inter-Design Forum, and Nature Award for Creative Mentoring in Science (Mid Carrier) in 2009, as well as being an invited artist for Biennale di Venezia 2000 and Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2001


YUI Kimiya JAXA Astronaut: born in 1970 in Nagano. In 2015, he spent 142 days aboard the International Space Station as a Flight Engineer as part of the crew of Expeditions 44 and 45. During this stay, he controlled the robotics used in the capture of “KOUNOTORI5 (HTV5)” and conducted both Japanese and international scientific and medical experiments utilizing the space environment.
Currently working as Chief of the JAXA Astronaut Group, coordinating, directing, and supporting missions and mission preparations by Japanese astronauts.
©JAXA


Izumi Masuda: Izumi Masuda was born in Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, and graduated with a degree in vocal music from Kunitachi College of Music before completing a postgraduate course in opera at the same university. In 1997, she participated in a cultural exchange to New York, which was made possible by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Masuda performed in the musical Candide directed by Amon Miyamoto. In 2001, she released an album through Victor Entertainment entitled Pop Opera, featuring pop arrangements of classical music with new lyrics. She is regarded as a pioneer of the classical crossover genre.
Major works in which Masuda has performed include the NHK historical drama series Musashi; the TV drama series Haru and Natsu: The Undelivered Letters, which was specially commissioned to commemorate the 80th anniversary of NHK; the movie Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog; the online game Final Fantasy XI; the songs “Ai Suru Tabi ni Umare Kawatte,” “Yume,” and “Yume no Miyako” by the lyricist You Aku ; the Fuji Television drama series Yasahii Jikan; and a rendition of “Carmen” for a Kao Softymo TV commercial.
Masuda has produced several albums with a healing theme, featuring motifs based on imagery seen in dreams.
Releases include Heal My Heart, Red Swan, Romeo & Juliet, Yume, and Concert in the Magical Forest: Mozart for the Family.
Masuda has studied under Kyoko Ito, Chizu Sakai, Seiko Tanaka, and Daniel Ferro. She has a qualification in psychology and is studying Steiner education and anthroposophic music therapy. In concerts, she incorporates music on a lyre playing harmonics at solfeggio frequencies.


Manami Hirai: Manami Hirai is a graduate of Toho Gakuen School of Music and completed a postgraduate course at Toho Gakuen Graduate School of Music. While attending university, she also pursued studies abroad and earned diplomas in France and Germany.
She has been invited to various music festivals around Japan and overseas, earning her praise from audiences around the world.
Hirai was the soloist in the Hamamatsu City Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto.
She is an active performer, appearing in over 130 concerts a year including solo performances, chamber music, guest appearances with professional orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and performances organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
She has also performed cello solos in numerous musicals, including a 2017 production of West Side Story as part of a world tour to celebrate the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein. In the world of pop music, Hirai was the cellist on Arashi's live tours until the group went on hiatus in 2020. She has performed with many other famous artists from around the world including Sarah Brightman and X Japan's Yoshiki, appearing with them live, in music videos, and on music TV programs such as Music Station, FNS Music Festival, and NHK's annual “Red and White Song Festival.”
As a recording artist, Hirai has recorded music for movies, TV shows, commercials, anime, video games, and global theme park shows and attractions, and she is active in a wide range of genres besides classical music.
Since June 2018, she has appeared in the TV commercial for the "Wise Man's Dining" supplement manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical.
Major works in which Hirai has performed include Castle of Sand (a TV drama specially commissioned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Fuji Television, based on the novel by Seicho Matsumoto), the video game Dragon Quest X (conducted by Koichi Sugiyama), commercials (Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Coca-Cola, Gulliver, and more), and the movie Renewable Japan (co-written by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takashi Niigaki).
In 2019, Hirai's debut album Negai was released through T-TOC RECORDS.
Articles about Hirai have been featured in music magazines such as Sarasate.
She is the winner of the Audio Accessory Journal Award for Excellence in Recording.

Creation of "Art from Space perspectives" to leave our emotional legacy for the future and space

From the dawn of humanity to the modern day, humans' thoughts have turned to space, resulting in the creation of various forms of art and culture. Along with daily life and animals from 20 thousand years ago, the ancient Lascaux cave paintings depict constellations. These paintings not only reveal the environments in which ancient human beings lived, but also provide valuable clues for those of us in the modern day to understand what they revered and found beautiful.

In the 60 years since humanity first reached outer space, a variety of images from space have been delivered back to us. Just as ancient people bequeathed their legacy to us though the Lascaux paintings, in addition to the data records that we leave behind, works of art created from our emotions will become valuable legacies for future human beings and the extraterrestrial life that we may encounter someday.

While inheriting the continuing legacy of art and culture from the perspective of looking up at outer space from the ground, which dates back to ancient times, one of Sony’s purposes in launching the Star Sphere project STAR SPHERE to unleash the space perspectives of space was to create new art and culture based on those perspectives.

In doing so, the first person who came to mind was photographer and contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Sugimoto is involved in a wide range of artistic activities with a focus on subtle photographic works and has engaged in deep explorations of humanity and civilization. We wondered if he might be willing to make art using the Sony space camera. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if he could explore changes in humanity and civilization from the space perspectives of space? These thoughts inspired us to reach out to him, and our collaboration began in June 2018.

The setting is the Enoura Observatory, which was designed by Sugimoto as "an observatory where visitors can measure the distance between the world, space, and themselves," as "a locus for disseminating art and culture inside and outside Japan where humanity and art can return to their origins," and as "a future historic site that will last for ten thousand years."

Here at the Enoura Observatory, together with Sugimoto, we will engage in deep explorations of the space perspectives of space and create works exemplifying art and culture from those perspectives.

Message from Mr. Sugimoto

"From Science to Fantasy"

This is the story of how Hiroshi Sugimoto, an artist who is continually creating the Enoura Observatory as his life's work, joined forces with Sony, JAXA, and the University of Tokyo, who want to help guide humanity into space, in the first attempt at entrusting an artist with the space perspectives. Ahead of the 2022 "space odyssey" when the satellite will be launched, I will host "idea sessions" to help us once again look back on the historical process that has brought humanity to this point in time and consider where we should head in the future.
Quite unlike the previous century when the future seemed so bright and hopeful, in this era, our very environment, the conditions of our survival, are becoming threatened. I would like us to use ventures into space as speculative journeys to explore the future of civilization and the state of technology.

Profile

《海景》Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987
《放電場》Lightning Fields 128, 2009
Opticks 008, 2018

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Born in Tokyo in 1948. Traveled to the United States in 1970 and has resided in New York since 1974.

He has established himself in the global art scene through a wide range of activities spanning photography, sculpture, installations, theater, architecture, landscape gardening, writing, and cuisine.

Sugimoto’s art focuses on the themes of history and the transience of existence. In his art, he seeks to serve as a conceptual bridge across the gap separating East and West through his knowledge of empiricism and metaphysics, exploring subjects such as the nature of time, human awareness, and the source of consciousness.

His world-renowned works are housed in the collections of some of the world’s leading art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Key works include his Seascapes, Theaters, and Architecture series.

《海景》Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987
《放電場》Lightning Fields 128, 2009
Opticks 008, 2018

Enoura Observatory / Odawara Art Foundation

Official site>

The Enoura site, situated on a hilly citrus grove in the Kataura district of Odawara, offers breathtaking panoramic views of the Bay of Sagami. The facility was envisioned by contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto as a forum for disseminating art and culture both within Japan and to the world and comprises a gallery space, two outside stages, a tea house, and other features that make the entire premise into a truly magnificent landscape.
The foundation exhibits a selection of Sugimoto’s artworks in the 100-meter gallery and presents events and programs on the outside Stone Stage and Optical Glass Stage. The Odawara Art Foundation looks forward to welcoming many guests to Enoura Observatory.

Inspiring Space Experiences × Hiroshi Sugimoto

Creating "Art from Space perspectives"