SELECTED WORK
The Beauty of Emptiness
2026 · 00:40
2026 · 00:40
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VISUAL FRAGMENTS
SOMNIGRAPHIA
Somnigraphia is an ongoing audiovisual project by Japan-based artist Kazuya Ueda.
I create short, non-narrative works combining generative moving images, original music, poetry, and extensive editing.
Rather than treating generative systems as automatic filmmaking machines, I work with the unexpected images, errors, discontinuities, and strange movements they produce. Through selection, rejection, repetition, rhythm, sound, color, and editing, these fragments are shaped into new audiovisual forms.
The works move through dreams, memory, beauty and unease, childhood, artificial landscapes, and the uncertain boundary between reality and imagination.
I create short, non-narrative works combining generative moving images, original music, poetry, and extensive editing.
Rather than treating generative systems as automatic filmmaking machines, I work with the unexpected images, errors, discontinuities, and strange movements they produce. Through selection, rejection, repetition, rhythm, sound, color, and editing, these fragments are shaped into new audiovisual forms.
The works move through dreams, memory, beauty and unease, childhood, artificial landscapes, and the uncertain boundary between reality and imagination.
SOUNDWORKS
The musical branch of Somnigraphia grew from soundscapes created for visual poetry.
Under the name Chachanica and the Velvet Schule, these works weave fragments of dreams, memories, and unobserved worlds into sound.
Under the name Chachanica and the Velvet Schule, these works weave fragments of dreams, memories, and unobserved worlds into sound.
WORDS
Prose poems, dream records, fragments of fiction, and other texts form another layer of Somnigraphia.
THE ROSE THAT BURNED INSIDE A USB DRIVE
Takuji Ōte is blending perfume inside a banana. Behind him, Donkey Kong is throwing barrels at fairies. I gave Takuji a USB drive containing a complete anthology of ambient music dropped by a comet from outer space—it looked like one I had seen for sale at an airport in Thailand.
He vanished into smoke together with the perfume of roses. At that moment, a DeLorean with an uncollapsed wave function came swerving out of a Calpis bottle, trailing flames, gunsmoke, and a VR headset, and took a sharp turn toward the attendant’s platform at a public bathhouse.
He vanished into smoke together with the perfume of roses. At that moment, a DeLorean with an uncollapsed wave function came swerving out of a Calpis bottle, trailing flames, gunsmoke, and a VR headset, and took a sharp turn toward the attendant’s platform at a public bathhouse.
DREAM SUMMON & HIACE
I realized I was dreaming inside a dream. So I thought: why not summon a woman? It was my dream, after all.
The place looked like an abandoned factory. No one was there. Just pieces of metal lying on the concrete. The sky was blue, but something about it felt frightening, ominous—as though there might be a grave somewhere nearby.
Then the girl I had imagined appeared by a water tap. Or was it a boy? A transformed boy? A transformed girl? Strange. Black tracksuit, glasses, smiling at me. Who was this person?
I was about to speak when two Toyota HiAce vans came up the hill. Why? Why now? This was supposed to be my dream. Had I lost control of it?
The place looked like an abandoned factory. No one was there. Just pieces of metal lying on the concrete. The sky was blue, but something about it felt frightening, ominous—as though there might be a grave somewhere nearby.
Then the girl I had imagined appeared by a water tap. Or was it a boy? A transformed boy? A transformed girl? Strange. Black tracksuit, glasses, smiling at me. Who was this person?
I was about to speak when two Toyota HiAce vans came up the hill. Why? Why now? This was supposed to be my dream. Had I lost control of it?
ABOUT KAZUYA UEDA
Kazuya Ueda is a Japan-based audiovisual artist and writer, and the creator of Somnigraphia.
Born in Yokohama, Ueda studied aesthetics in Kyoto.
His audiovisual practice explores generative imagery, and his work has been presented in AI art and audiovisual contexts in Japan.
CONTACT
For screenings, exhibitions, collaborations, and other enquiries, please use the contact form below.
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