Design Year Book

Sensing Nature: Snow by Tokujin Yoshioka

Posted: 31 May 2011 09:02 AM PDT

Snow is part of the exhibition 'Sensing Nature' which rethink how the innate human ability to perceive nature (to sense nature) and the Japanese view of nature exist in our urbanized and modernized world. The exhibition attempts to stimulate our sense of nature through large-scale installations with visitors' physical experiences with their entire bodies.

In Snow, Tokujin Yoshioka continues to create spatial works that integrate artificial materials, giving the viewer the sensation of experiencing light, snow, storms and other natural phenomena.

An expanded installation of a project first realized in 1997, Snow features fine feathers that are blown up by air and shower down, evoking the real experience of nature and the snowscapes of our memories. The effect is similar to looking at, or walking through a snowstorm. In this work, Yoshioka continues to explore the potential future of design and how it will incorporate natural principles and effects while utilizing scientific technologies.