31°34′50″N 130°39′29″E 

Arcus Project
Research Residency 
Ibaraki, Japan
2026

Spatial scans, bioplastic made from hot spring water

and volcanic ash, interior scan models



Tracing animism through water, Japanese onsen cul-

ture reveals how stones marked with ropes signal the

presence of kami, while legends of wounded animals

healing in thermal pools continue to persist. Water is

not a backdrop but an active agent: volcanic, miner-

al-laden, coloured by iron or sulphur, and behaving

differently from anything that comes from a tap.

Across multiple onsen sites, LiDAR scanning was

attempted to capture spatial conditions. The scans

failed. Steam density was too great to resolve. That

failure became a method: incompleteness as a record

of material resistance.


From collected onsen water, volcanic ash, and hydro-

phone recordings, biomaterials were cast into interior

models built from deformed floor plans, partial recon-

structions of places dissolving under tourism pressure,

abandonment, or geological force. The research asks

what artistic practice can do when matter refuses to

be fully represented, and whether that refusal is itself

a form of knowledge.   

Onsenscape

Arcus Project
Research Residency
Ibaraki, Japan
2026

The Legend of the Wounded Deer and the Onsen