[Professor Hirokazu Shimo Profile]

Born in Osaka in 1960, lives in Tokyo. Dropped out of Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, majoring in oil painting. Professor at Kobe Design University.

In 1994, he learned 3DCG after winning an award at the Sony Music Entertainment DEP.

The company releases ``incarnatia'' (1997), a game based on Dali's painting world. Since then, he has been working on private animation production and presenting it at Siggraph and other venues. ``Punched Person'', which was exhibited at Roppongi Art Night 2018, was recommended by the jury in the art section of the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival and was selected as the runner-up of the 21st CS Design Award. His works using the unique technique SSF (shim style Fantasmagoria), which he announced in 2019, attracted a lot of attention, including "Captive Person" at Roppongi Art Night 2019.

"Benten-sama", which was presented using SSF at a solo exhibition in 2022, was viewed more than 10 million times on SNS, and was exhibited as a symbol of the "Bentensha Book Fair" held at Minna no Mori Gifu Media Cosmos in 2023. It caused a huge response. Additionally, the fictitious book ``Fakebook,'' which uses image generation AI and was presented at the same exhibition, was also well received.

[SSF=Shimo Style Fantasmagoria
(Shimo style phantasmagoria)]

A technique that creates the illusion that the subject exists through frosted glass, even though it is a video.

By playing an image shot through a frosted glass plate through a hollow polycarbonate plate, the phenomena in the image are refracted on the hollow plate. As a result, the viewer perceives that the image they are seeing is influenced by an actual board, which results in the loss of the visual sensation and the illusion that the subject is real. In previous exhibitions, we have confirmed that all audiences experience the illusion.

Additionally, because it is difficult to tell whether the video is real or a video, it is often rated as ``scary'' regardless of the content of the video. I believe that the reason why ``Benten-sama'' became a hot topic is because, in addition to the video content and size, it was perceived as a ``mysterious thing'' that is difficult to determine whether it is real or unreal. It does not require any special equipment and is made up of commonly available materials and equipment, so it has a wide range of applications.

[Haunted House Producer: Hirofumi Gomi]

Born in 1957 in Nagano Prefecture.

In 1992, he created "Maro Akaji's Panorama Mystery House" at Korakuen Amusement Park (now Tokyo Dome City Attractions), and since then, he has been creating haunted houses for nearly 30 years, totalling over 100.

By bringing back the "cast" to the haunted house, the original fun has been revived, and by adding the elements of "story" and "mission," it has been transformed into Enter that adults can enjoy as well.

His representative works include ``Panorama Ghost Museum - Baby Hell,'' a haunted house where you walk around holding a baby, ``A City Near Tokyo - The Cursed House,'' which is a relocated real abandoned house, and ``The Black-haired House of Horror,'' where you walk through a haunted house by combing a ghost's hair. There are ``The House of Leg Cutters,'' where you take off your shoes to experience it, and ``The Horror Hide-and-Seek Mansion,'' where you find a boy who has been hidden for 10 years.

In 2018, he opened a permanent haunted house called "Onryo Zashiki" at Tokyo Dome City Attractions. His books include "Why do people get scared?" (Media Factory), "Why do people line up at haunted houses? - A business plan idea that attracts customers with "fear"" (Kadokawa One Theme 21), the novel "Possessed Teeth - The House of Mitsu Number Seven" (Gentosha Bunko), and the novel "Connecting with Fear - The Woman with Cursed Hair" (Gakken Plus).