About

Rei Sato works across five things — archiving, imagining, branding, planning and researching — moving between them in the field of culture.

Raised in Shibuya, a place where many cultures cross, Sato wrote a thesis in 2018 envisioning a future city that merges subculture with the urban environment, The Creation of a Fusion of Art and the City: The Future of Shibuya. In 2019 it received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award and the Gold Prize in Humanities and Social Sciences at the Obunsha National Science and Arts Competition, followed by the Wacom Award at the WIRED CREATIVE HACK AWARD 2019.

Starting as a tutor at a university-entrance prep school, Sato went on to design curricula, launch a new campus and train its teaching team — learning direction on the ground. At Musashino Art University (Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences), Sato practised SF prototyping and art-based research, treating video as a building material that makes space appear through the act of looking.

At Loftwork, Sato directed XR public art and festivals, event experiences for the IP industry, and future-foresight and rebranding for a watchmaker. At knot, Sato led creative direction for Park in Park at MIYASHITA PARK and for brand events and commercial spaces. Sato now oversees the creative of several brands at ViON, directs the cultural magazine TOKAI KIKO, and continues scenography and video direction with the R&D collective Electronic Music Society.

With still and moving cameras, Sato also stands in exhibitions, live shows and performances to record each place along with its atmosphere — editing those records not as documentation but as works that can be revisited, keeping the activities of artists and makers on file.