Kōdōsha is an immersive space inspired by the aesthetic and meditative atmosphere of traditional Japanese lighting culture, as well as contemporary audiovisual experiences such as those created by TeamLabs. The space is filled with Japanese lanterns, each hanging in mid-air within a bamboo arrangement. At first, all the lamps are dark.
Each lantern is equipped with ultrasonic sensors and reacts sensitively to the presence of people. When someone approaches a lantern and holds their hand beneath it, the lantern gently comes to life—it begins to shine brightly:
The light isn’t simply created—it is given.
In this way, the visitor becomes the source of light and can interactively play with it.
In addition, the lanterns respond with sound: each lantern has its own subtle tone or sound character that is emitted when it lights up. This creates a meditative, organic soundscape that changes depending on the visitors’ movements—a living composition of light and sound.
The distant of the hand was captured by an ultrasonic sensor and processed with an arduino. Each lamp had its own sensor, but each arduino processed the data from two lamps.
Credits
Jolanda Abasolo
Bernhard Thomas Bauer
Janah Helly
John Junxin Lim
Amon Brooklyn Cosmo Schilcher