Shoran project
daisy* | Masato Inagaki
Artwork Description:
Shoran Project is a realtime interactive installation that reinterprets the Edo-period picture scroll Kidai Shoran through contemporary computational systems. Using realtime computer graphics, autonomous crowd simulation, and game-engine technology, the work transforms the historical panorama of Edo into a continuously evolving digital environment populated by countless autonomous citizens. The simulated city functions as a computational microcosm composed of interconnected lives, movements, and social relationships. Individual actions accumulate into emergent collective behaviors, allowing the environment to evolve organically through realtime interaction rather than fixed cinematic sequences. No moment within the city is ever repeated, creating a living system suspended between historical memory, artificial life, and contemporary digital space. Rather than preserving history as a static archive, Shoran Project reconstructs cultural memory as an active and continuously transforming experience. Inspired by the visual language of traditional Japanese emakimono scrolls, the work combines panoramic spatial perception with contemporary realtime rendering techniques, creating an unstable boundary between historical representation and computational simulation. In some exhibition formats, visitors themselves enter the simulated Edo environment through digital avatar integration, becoming part of the evolving social landscape. Through this interaction, the distinction between observer and historical space gradually dissolves. By merging Japanese cultural memory, autonomous systems, and realtime simulation, Shoran Project explores how collective history and human presence can be reimagined within contemporary computational environments.
Project Collaborators:
Masato Inagaki ｜ Director / Artist Project Management Tadamitsu Kurihara ｜ Shuji Ota Character Modeling and Rigging Takahito Asakino ｜ Tomonori Kaju ｜ Camila Desiree Lopez Pazos ｜ Ryoya Nonaka ｜ Matthieu Claude Tessier ｜ Saori Yoshihara Animation Takahito Asakino ｜ Norihito Ishinaga ｜ Yusuke Sekine Camera and Spatial Layout Tadamitsu Kurihara Background Painting Makiko Horiuchi Set Modeling Saori Yoshihara ｜ Yoko Yamashita Lead Programming Masaki Katsukawa Realtime Systems Programming Shun Suzuki ｜ Hetian Jia ｜ Ryotaro Ito Technical Advisor Yuzuru Mizuno Assistant Production Kasumi Arai Frame Fabrication Asaofutsuundo Co-Project Planning Isshindohonpo
