In the second major experience of LIVE EARTH JOURNEY, visitors shift from the cosmic scale of Deep Vision to something more visceral, sensorial, and immediate. ANIMA! is a living ecosystem of sound, image, and vibration where the pulse of the earth becomes perceptible. The space demands physical, emotional, and sensory engagement.

Taking its name from the Latin word anima, meaning “life” or “soul”, this work embodies its etymology in full. It also alludes to the root of animation, a term close to Kawamori’s own lineage in anime and media arts, and one that captures the very essence of bringing something to life. ANIMA! is an attempt to restore our felt connection with the primal energies of the world, what Kawamori calls “the wildlife orchestra”. It is an act of reanimation through a full-bodied, collective experience that melds art and environment, nature and technology.

ANIMA! © Shoji Kawamori / Vector Vision

The installation occupies a vast, translucent space designed to dissolve the boundaries between physical and digital reality. Walls become membranes of light, the floor vibrates in resonance with movement, sound travels in three dimensions. Visitors participate in it like dancers in a ritual or musicians in an orchestra. As they move, the environment responds. Visuals shift and morph, sounds swell, echo, retreat. The floor hums with haptic pulses (generated by Sony’s cutting-edge vibrotactile and spatial audio systems) that are synchronized with real-time interaction. Every step, every gesture, becomes part of a greater rhythm, an embodied choreography with the world.

ANIMA! © Shoji Kawamori / Vector Vision

The music itself, composed by Yoko Kanno too, is a key to this emotional resonance. Known for her genre-defying compositions in anime and cinema, Kanno creates here a sonic world that is both whimsical and profound, drawing on natural motifs, tribal rhythms, and digital soundscapes. Her orchestration blends seamlessly with the visuals of swarming lifeforms, flowing energy and fragments of bioluminescent environments, and creating an ever-transforming canvas that reflects the audience’s collective presence.

ANIMA! © Shoji Kawamori / Vector Vision

As in all of Kawamori’s work, ANIMA! is not simply about future technology, but about ancient connections. By stripping away devices and allowing the body itself to become the medium of experience, he creates a space of communion that becomes a shrine of vitality, where each heartbeat, footstep, and breath contributes to a collective celebration of being alive.

In the context of Expo 2025’s broader theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, ANIMA! stands as a poetic and powerful response. It suggests that the future is about rediscovering what it means to feel, to move, to connect with others and with the more-than-human world. ANIMA! offers something radically simple and needed: a direct, joyous, embodied encounter with the rhythm of life.