As a choreographer and dancer, Hiroaki Umeda has combined his artistic and technical skills throughout his work. But with various installations, extracted from his performance work, he offers audiences a new experience to discover.

In his search to find a way to offer the public a previously unknown sensory experience, Umeda has been working on a series of installations since 2010 that centre on optical illusions and physical immersion. His works, which combine physical and visual sensations, have brought him such awards as a Mention of Honour from the Ars Electronica Institute in 2010.

Haptic Installation

The dance version Haptic was created on the basis of Umeda’s thoughts considering ‘colors as a form of haptic stimuli.’ By filling the stage with extreme shades, the artist challenges the audience’s body— the receptive apparatus of light—to the critical point. Deriving from the same concept, Umeda investigates further in this installation, the possibility of physically perceiving colors.

Holistic Strata Installation

This installation was developed from a dance version of Holistic Strata. Through the accurately programmed space of optic stimuli, which encompasses the spectators from all directions, Umeda attempts to on the audiences’ bodies sometimes forcefully and other times delicately to share the very core of their bodies. The spectators of this immersive installation will be experiencing rather than viewing: they will be experiencing the choreographed space. Video here

split flow

Through the dynamic intervention of the body into the static space, a different reality comes into existence. Umeda demonstrates through this piece that there exists a reality that can only be visualized when movements interfere into space.

kinesis #1 - screen field

A field of screens lures the audience into a constant security to fall in and out of. The playful static, combined with a lively tempo, breaks what might be an expected apathy of attention.

Intensional Particle Dome Installation

An encompassing experience where the participant observes the dome above of them where various lines of light cut through one another.

Mold 1 Installation

A video installation in which Hiroaki Umeda experimentally choreographs a digital object. In fact the approach he takes in the installation is not far apart from the one in his dance performance. He explores a digital version of his dance performance. video here