Japanese

	Kansai Electric Power has been an integral part of the Kansai community for many years. When it came to constructing new headquarters, our aim was to create not just a building belonging to some company, but a new public asset for the city of Osaka. Thus we came up with the idea of creating a unique lighting display that reflected our engagement with the community and the environment. The Live Reflector embodies this concept. The Live Reflector is a new approach to urban lighting that reflects the surrounding environment in real time. The "liv-lit" lighting system first of all reflects wind. It is a program we've dubbed "Wind is Blowing" that depicts the actual movement of the wind at any given moment. The wind links the natural world we know as Earth. Liv-lit reflects that world as it is, including when the wind drops, or fierce winds blow. Liv-lit also reflects people. Whenever someone touches the 1/100 scale mini liv-lit, a shadow of their hand motion appears in realtime on the liv-lit on top of the Kepco Building. This interactive illumination event was staged to coincide with Osaka Renaissance of Light 2005. 　 The Nakanoshima Meeting Place on the third floor of the Kepco Building plays music created in realtime by the wind, and shows projections of liv-lit using live computer graphics. Liv-lit: lighting that coexists with the environment, and with people, lighting up Nakanoshima, Osaka - every night.		Rows of white light move along the face of the light wall crowning the building at the same speed as the wind. The lighting is active from sunset to midnight.

	Lighting designer President, Lighting Planners Associates (LPA) Designer/producer of a broad spectrum of lighting applications: architectural, urban, and environmental. As head of LPA has acted as exterior lighting consultant for the Kepco Building, including participation in the 1999 concept meetings in the early planning stages.		Kansai Electric Power is a company of major importance in the Kansai area. A few years ago, at a concept meeting with Kepco and Nikken Sekkei and including Shinya Izumi, Kazuko Fujie and Eiichi Asai, we discussed the need for "a landmark that would make people in Osaka proud to call Kepco their own", that would "fuse science and art" and be "unlike anything else in the world". I often say that when it comes to light, quality is more important than quantity. One can draw an analogy with food, and the idea of eating good food rather than just lots of food, in other words, allocating top priority to providing a taste of the quality of light. Rather than lighting up the building in a dazzling display, the "liv-lit" system is designed to give the viewer a feeling for the subtle texture of light. It's the result of obsessive attention to what makes up the quality of light. Working in lighting, it often occurs to me that nothing I do can compare with natural light. In other words there is little point in using artificial light to imitate natural light. The challenge of designing the perfect lighting calls for a bold, playful shift in thinking. The "liv-lit" system does not imitate natural light, but it does depict shifts in nature. My hope is that as well as providing modern lighting, it will inject a new energy into the chaotic mix of lighting that illuminates the traditional working-class streetscapes of Osaka.
	Planning director President, Living World Involved in a variety of design projects including Websites and displays for art galleries and museums. Developed the idea of the "Live Reflector" based on the results of the Kepco/Nikken/LPA concept meeting. Produced the liv-lit system in cooperation with Kepco staff and a variety of specialists.		My first approach from Kepco was a request to think about lighting for the top of the Kepco Building, for which the basic design had already been completed. Most of the information flooding our cities is high-impact information designed to catch people's attention, or secondary information modified by someone at some stage. There were already plenty of huge LCD and plasma displays in Osaka playing a constant stream of music clips and commercials, plus not a few examples of attractive building lighting. If a company like Kansai Electric Power intended to build a new landmark for the city, I thought it would be a good idea to do something different. At times I have gazed out over the city just as the sky blazes momentarily in an amazing sunset, to see so many people with eyes glued to their mobile phones. All so absorbed in the everyday minutiae of human affairs, it does seem rather a shame. Given this opportunity, I conceived of using light to create something like an open window. And so programmers, engineers, musicians and designers joined forces to move people for a moment, by reminding them that the wind is blowing: reminding them of nature, obvious but irreplaceable.