For British music fans, Bristol is known as a hub for the fusion of technology and reggae, dub, and hip-hop in the 1980s and 1990s, with legendary post-punk bands like Pop Group, Massive Attack, and Portishead performing in Japan last November, including Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER. A "Dublight" made from Bristol's street lamps is on display at the Oval Plaza, the second-floor entrance of Tokyo's Toranomon Hills, until March 21st. The piece, "Shadowing," was created by Chomko & Rosia, a design duo consisting of international artists Jonathan Chomko (Canadian) and Matthew Rosia (UK), who were invited to Media Ambition Tokyo 2016, an urban experimental event fusing cutting-edge technology with art. A human figure illuminated by a street lamp. However, even when no one is walking, their shadows appear and disappear. The streetlights remember the figures of those who have walked underneath them, projecting shadows at different times, leaving a shadow for the next person to pass by. The installation features a video version of musical echoes and delays, reminiscent of reggae's dub sound, which repeats and amplifies individual sounds.

The work won the Grand Prize in the 2014 Playable City Awards, sponsored by Bristol-based media center Watershed. In 2015, it was exhibited at York City's Illuminating York 2015 festival and nominated for Design of the Year 2015 by Sebastian Conran. It is currently on display at London's Design Museum.

"The inspiration for this work was to create something that would allow people to meet others who have walked the same place, even at different times," says Chomko. "Cities are made up of all kinds of people. I've been thinking about ways to use technology to communicate with strangers," Rogia said of the purpose of this piece. While the idea is akin to hacking a streetlight, Chomko says, "I'd love it if it could become like a streetlight from the future, and be put to practical use in advertising and installed in various cities." The two met in 2013 at the Benetton Group's Communication Research Center, with Chomko studying interaction design and Rogia studying architecture. "In the world of media art, the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Rhizomatiks is well-known, and Japanese technology is all high-quality, so I was a little nervous about bringing our experimental work to the table," Chomko said. "It would be interesting to use new technology to create something innovative within traditional Japanese culture," Rogia added. As the two spoke, an elementary school student on his way home from cram school peered into the circle projected by the streetlight, spinning endlessly with his shadow, unable to catch up.

【Event Information】
MEDIA AMBITION TOKYO 2016
■Toranomon Hills Venue
Toranomon Hills 2nd floor entrance, Oval Plaza
Address: 1-23 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo
<Exhibition>
Dates: February 26th to March 21st
Time: Sunset to 11pm
Admission Fee: Free

Text: Noda Tatsuya