Japanese

Following its preview in 2005 in prototype form at the Umeda Sky Building, Touch the Light made its official debut at the 2006 Osaka Renaissance of Light grounds in Nakanoshima. The mini liv-lit set up in the riverside park at the Nakanoshima Library is a 1/100th scale model of the liv-lit on the Kepco Building. When someone touched the mini liv-lit, that hand motion was reproduced in colorful hues on the liv-lit on top of the Kepco Building. Touch the Light is interactive lighting; light that projects people's surprise and amazement. This year over 5000 visitors, among them couples and families with young children, took the opportunity to experience the installation. Each had their own approach: some touched the mini liv-lit with quick light strokes as if playing the piano, others tried embracing it. Their comments also varied: "If it weren't for the queue, I'd just go on touching and touching..." "It's astonishing!" "The sound is lovely." "Yay! My friends in another part of town actually saw the colors from my touch!" Touch the Light embodies the wish on the part of the KEPCO project team at the planning stages of the KEPCO Building (competed December 2004) that the building illumination be for the enjoyment of the people in Kansai. The lighting known as liv-lit reflects the movements of the wind usually from sundown to 11 pm. Touch the Light adds the element of people's movements, as a lighting system for special events. In 2006, the KEPCO Building and liv-lit were awarded the 24th IEIJ (Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan) Light and Lighting Design Award.

When people touched the mini liv-lit, that hand motion was reproduced instantly in colorful hues on the liv-lit on top of the Kepco Building a kilometer away in the distance.