At Miraikan, an institution dedicated to advancing science communication through hands-on exhibits of cutting-edge science and technology, a new project took shape around the theme of “humanity’s unexplored frontiers.” WOW, tasked with planning, direction, and production, held repeated brainstorming sessions together with the Miraikan staff. Out of this process, two directions emerged: planetary exploration, reaching toward the far edges of the universe, and atmospheric phenomena, a reminder that even the world we live in still holds much that remains unexplained. Miraikan, a place of science communication, calls for not a mere attraction, but an experience that stirs viewers’ curiosity and invites them to think. With that in mind, this project adopted an approach that strips away excessive explanation and showy movement. Instead, it draws out the overwhelming scale, the sense of wonder, and the visual power inherent in celestial bodies and weather phenomena themselves: an approach designed to let viewers do their own thinking. To achieve a fusion of scientific insight and imagination, and to create an experience that leaves this kind of open space for reflection, WOW brought on two leading researchers as supervisors — astronomer Junichi Watanabe and cloud researcher Kentaro Araki — and shared the process of trial and error with them.

Voyage: Beyond the Unexplored, screened in the newly built Theater Room on the 7th floor, unfolds inside a space modeled on a spaceship lounge, depicting a journey from the solar system onward into unexplored territory. Supporting the scenery of this journey is a vast trove of scientific observation data collected by NASA and other organizations. Yet while this raw data carried a dynamism of its own, in its raw form it read more as research material than as something to be experienced visually. The challenge was how to elevate existing image data into something worth beholding. In pursuit of higher-resolution material, the team even reached out to museums overseas for source imagery, striving for a fusion of overwhelming realism and 3DCG expression.

In the Mars scene, for example, the distinctive patterns of the surface are based on actual observation imagery, while the blue sunset, in which the sky is faintly tinted by atmospheric dust, was recreated in CG based on observation data. Traces of human endeavors such as the flight of the Parker Solar Probe were likewise completed using CG technology.

As the journey moves beyond the solar system, the imagery steps past the limits of observation data and into a world of imagination. For the Jupiter scene, an approach that would send the viewer plunging through the planet’s center was considered at first, but on the advice of Watanabe, who noted that the high temperature and pressure at Jupiter’s core would make it difficult for a probe or spacecraft to pass through, the route was changed to skim the upper atmosphere instead. The atmospheric layers seen there were rendered so that their colors shift as the flight progresses, based on the compositional structure presented in COSMOS: Explore the Wonders of the Universe, supervised by Watanabe. The geysers on Jupiter’s moon Europa, where columns of water are thought to erupt as high as 200 kilometers from the surface, a sight humanity has yet to directly observe, were likewise elevated into a scientifically consistent depiction grounded in researchers’ expertise.

For the scenes transitioning between planets, abstract effects inspired by the composition and air currents of the next celestial body to appear were inserted. Rather than staying within mere recreation or simulation of reality, these function as a device for expanding the imagination.

To protect the sense of immersion in this visual experience, careful thought was also given to the explanatory text and credits that scientific content is required to include. Rather than simply overlaying the information as subtitles, it was designed as a “heads-up display” interface, as if projected onto the window of the spacecraft the viewer is riding in. By eliminating, as much as possible, explanatory elements that might pull viewers back into the real world and presenting information instead as part of the story itself, even this detail becomes an essential piece supporting the quiet journey through space. Guiding viewers through this journey is the narration of musician Ichiko Aoba. The overtone-rich resonance of her voice lends a poetic color to the vast space. Toward the end of the journey, the return from the far reaches of the universe to the familiar night view of a city is not simply a closing scene. It is a device that carries the viewing experience back into everyday life, leaving a lasting impact.

Sky: Cloud Journey, screened in the renewed Innovation Hall, stands in contrast to Voyage by dispensing with language altogether, letting viewers take in the dynamism of atmospheric phenomena with their whole body. Working under the supervision of Kentaro Araki, the challenge here was one of “shifting perspective” and “manipulating scale.” Beginning with sea fog at dawn, the journey passes through crepuscular rays, “angel’s ladders” of light, and rises above a vast sea of clouds. From there, the viewpoint moves into the interior of a cumulonimbus cloud, down to the microscopic world where tiny ice crystals grow into snow and rain, all depicted as a single, continuous cycle of water.

Among these, the process by which ice crystals grow inside a cumulonimbus cloud was uncharted territory, as no footage of this phenomenon has ever actually been observed or filmed. WOW enlisted the help of specialists capable of reading the mathematical formulas in academic papers and building them into algorithms, using them to mathematically simulate and visualize the growth of ice crystals. Araki himself took a strong interest in this fusion of rigorous, science-based programming and visual expression. It was the moment a micro-scale drama with no existing observation data was brought to life with overwhelming realism.

The deep sense of immersion is further heightened by 12.2-channel surround sound, ultra-high-resolution footage projected using multiple 4K projectors, and spatial staging that makes use of fog. On the audio side, concrete guidance, such as the note that “the sound of thunder shouldn’t be the boom of it striking the ground, but the rumble it makes in the air,” helped anchor the realism. In terms of spatial staging, the outlines of projected imagery would ordinarily break at the corners of a rectangular hall, but the presence of fog blurs those boundaries, creating the sensation of being inside a sky that stretches on infinitely. Rather than conventional chemical smoke, a special device that generates fog using only water was used to create this effect, a level of care fitting for a work built around the natural phenomenon of clouds. This seamless journey, moving back and forth between macro and micro scale, plays as a roughly five-minute looping video, and viewers are free to enter and leave at any time. Because the way it reads changes depending on where and when one views it, repeat viewings offer the pleasure of encountering a once-in-a-lifetime meteorological moment every single time.

Voyage: Beyond the Unexplored and Sky: Cloud Journey share a consistent theme at their core: curiosity expands the world. Clouds, fog, gas, flame: we are drawn, without needing a reason, to these ever-shifting, “formless things.” The sight of children cheering, wrapped in imagery and fog, speaks to the very curiosity that lives within all of us. The process of collaborating with researchers was, for WOW’s creators, a continual series of discoveries. Natural phenomena that had once been understood only vaguely gained a dramatically sharper resolution once seen through “a scientific eye.” Even something as small as a stock 3DCG cloud model from a production tool library drew feedback along the lines of “this shape isn’t scientifically possible.” This feedback pushed the work closer to a depiction rooted in the true nature of the phenomenon. Teaching complete knowledge or correct answers is not always the optimal path of science communication. By narrowing down the information conveyed and holding back excessive stimulation to preserve a quiet, open space, these viewing experiences are never simply a “one-and-done.” The sense of wonder sparked by overwhelming beauty and mystery gradually turns into a spontaneous desire to know more. Sights such as the city lights one sees after picturing the far edges of the universe, or the sky after rain once one has learned of the quiet workings of microscopic ice crystals, may look just a little different than they did before. An installation where scientific insight and rich imagination come together like this has the power to guide all who experience it on a journey of curiosity.