PORTFOLIO

Drawing on the vanitas tradition of 17th century still life painting, this series employs artificial intelligence to generate novel orchid species that contain subtle skull forms within their structure. The skull, a classical symbol of mortality, emerges through the natural forms of the flowers, creating a contemporary meditation on impermanence in our age of rapid technological change. The work represents a significant technical achievement in controlling Al-generated forms. As the technical lead of Studio Pollen, through extensive experimentation with a custom Al model, trained on hundreds of orchid specimens from the Kew Gardens database, I developed new methods for guiding the generation process. This allows for the deliberate emergence of skeletal forms while maintaining authentic botanical characteristics. The series reflects on adaptation and transformation during periods of technological upheaval. The orchids - among nature's most diverse flowering plants with over 28,000 species - represent resilience and flourishing amid chaos, while the subtle skeletal elements serve not as morbid symbols but as reminders of transformation, speaking to how technological advancement necessarily involves the evolution of existing forms into new manifestations.

This series explores the intersection of Zen Buddhist practice and artificial intelligence by generating novel orchid species arranged in the form of Enso - the circular symbol traditionally created with a single brushstroke that represents both completion and endless potential. Using our custom Al model trained on Kew Gardens' specimens, we guide the generation process to "grow" these botanical circles, each composed of dozens of imaginary orchids from the first letter of the botanical alphabet. The work creates a dialogue between traditional spiritual practice and contemporary technology. Just as the Enso embodies the paradox of perfection in imperfection, these Al-generated forms embrace both precision and unpredictability. The orchids, bound by botanical authenticity yet free to evolve into new forms, mirror the Zen understanding that structure and spontaneity are not opposing forces but complementary aspects of creation.

Created on the day of profound personal loss, this improvisational audiovisual piece explores the ethereal journey of consciousness transitioning between worlds. Through real-time manipulation of Al-generated imagery, the work manifests as a visual meditation on departure, depicting the soul's passage amidst a constellation of emotions - love, grief, and the profound complexities of letting go. The fluid interplay between symmetrical and asymmetrical forms creates a dynamic visual language that responds intimately to the ensemble's musical performance. This work represents a convergence of artificial intelligence and human improvisation, where pre-generated Al imagery becomes raw material for spontaneous visual composition. The real-time manipulation of these elements, responding to and dialoguing with live music, creates a unique temporal document where personal loss transforms into collective experience. This approach challenges traditional boundaries between predetermined and spontaneous artistic expression, suggesting new possibilities for Al's role in processing and expressing profound human experiences.

This audiovisual improvisation explores the metamorphosis of organic forms through Al-generated imagery, beginning with detailed orchid structures that gradually transcend their botanical origins. The visual journey mirrors the music's progression, initially anchored by an intense rhythmic bass clarinet solo, where twin orchid forms undergo unsettling transformations that challenge our perception of natural beauty. As these forms twist and mutate, they create a dialogue between the familiar and the uncanny. The piece evolves into an exploration of emergent complexity, where the initial orchid forms dissolve into kaleidoscopic mandalas of biological elements - roots, moss, and intertwining vines rendered with photorealistic precision yet divorced from natural context. This transformation echoes broader themes about the nature of growth itself: how it can be both beautiful and disconcerting, predictable yet capable of surprising divergence. The work suggests new possibilities for understanding organic forms through the lens of artificial intelligence, while questioning the boundaries between natural and artificial creation.

This series explores the intersection of digital sculpture and photography through hyperrealistic renderings of forms that evoke blown glass. Created through procedural generation, these pieces appear as fluid glass structures, their surfaces simultaneously reflecting and refracting light while incorporating transformed elements from previous photographic works. The resulting forms hover between the familiar and the abstract, playing with our tendency to find recognizable patterns in random structures a phenomenon known as pareidolia. The work challenges traditional boundaries between photography and digital art by approaching 3D space with a photographer's eye, seeking out precise moments where light, form, and perspective align to create compelling compositions. By manipulating the physical properties of the digital materials to behave like both glass and water, the piece creates an uncanny tension between stability and fluidity, solid and liquid states. This exploration of materiality and perception questions our understanding of what constitutes photographic reality in an age of procedural generation and artificial intelligence.

This work is the first in a series which explores the self-similar and generative nature of the physical world and human consciousness. These images were created with a simple recursive algorithm which arranges the most basic geometric forms— lines, circles and squares—on a canvas. What emerges are mandala-like forms of great complexity and hypnotic beauty. Mandala have been utilized in various spiritual traditions across the globe to the interrelatedness and interplay between the mind and the world at large. In Tibetan Buddhism the mandala is at once a map of the body, a map of consciousness and a map of the universe. It's principle brings awareness to the feedback loop of sensory input, mental activity and our actions, which alter the world we perceive. From this interaction of conscious agents and dynamic physical processes, phenomena become increasingly complex yet ordered, creating an existence that is self similar but never the same.

This exhibition brought together twenty photographers capturing parallel moments of daily life across the globe during a ten-day period. Street photography from ten international cities spanning North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia was presented alongside ten perspectives on life in Kyoto. As co-curator, photographer, and exhibition designer, I worked on the spatial conception of the show, which centered on a large-scale 4x4 meter video installation where the photographs were projected in dialogue with one another. The visual narrative was enhanced through an original soundscape created in collaboration with contemporary composers, including residents from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, creating an immersive experience that revealed universal aspects of human experience across diverse cultural contexts.

This mixed reality performance project merged traditional Noh theater with cutting-edge technology, featuring three performances by a 10th generation Noh master. As artistic director, I led the digital preservation of cultural artifacts through high-resolution 3D scanning of 300-year-old Noh masks and conducted motion capture sessions to document the master's movements. The project involved developing new approaches to user experience design that would respect the ancient art form while creating novel ways for audiences to engage with Noh theater. This collaboration between Kyoto City, Ritsumeikan University, the Japanese Ministry of Culture, and the Katayama Noh Family was developed by an international team of artists, animators, and developers under my direction.

A visual exploration of Zen temple spaces using multiple photographic techniques, created to accompany a dialogue on virtual reality and Buddhist concepts of consciousness. The series combines 360-degree panoramic photography, projected into two dimensions, with traditional architectural photography and digital scanning. These images of Kyoto temples create deliberate distortions that echo the article's themes of perception and reality.

A series of stereoscopic 360° documentaries preserving restricted areas of UNESCO World Heritage sites and National Treasures across Japan, including rarely-seen sections of Amanosan Kongoji, Ninnaji, and Hiraizumi. Beyond architectural documentation, the project captured living cultural heritage through immersive recordings of ancient ceremonies that are rarely witnessed by outsiders. At Motsuji Temple, we documented the dramatic Matarajin Fire Festival, where participants in traditional loincloths carry giant torches from the town center to the temple. The ceremony culminates in a ritual firewalk, as the men become embodied representatives of the trickster deity Matara. The project also preserved the Chusonji Rice Offering at the medieval Honedera Village Manor, a ceremonial event that maintains the agricultural traditions of this Important Cultural Landscape where Japan's medieval rural environment remains intact.These VR documentaries represent the first comprehensive digital preservation of these ceremonies, some dating back to the Heian period, creating an immersive record of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage for future generations.

VR exhibition at Kyoto Nuit Blanche Art Festival in collaboration with photographer Reylia Slaby which featured 3D scanned heritage sites in Kyoto, Japan. the exhibition took place at Yuuhisai Kodokan in Kyoto, Japan, which was part of the VR experience. As the user enters the virtual space they find themselves in the same cha-shitsu, sitting in the same place. The kakejiku is blank, but an invisible hand begins writing characters in light on the scroll, which flow out into the room and through the open door. As the viewer turns to watch this, they become aware that the garden of the exhibition space has been replaced with two scenes, the famous steps of Anrakuji Temple on a rainy night, and the brilliant Shigemori Mirei garden at Daitokuji's Zuihoin Temple on a late summer afternoon. They are then transported to each of these scenes to witness the subject of Slaby's photograph frozen in the moment.