The Ginza Sony Park Project hosted an exhibition in New York on the theme of manga, one of Japan’s iconic cultures. “MANGA in New York presented by Ginza Sony Park Project,” which ran from October 27 to November 5, 2023, combined manga with Sony’s technology to deliver a truly unique experience.

The exhibition space was designed to do more than just showcase manga for reading and viewing. It fully immersed visitors in the world of manga as they followed the narrative along the storyline. The venue was arranged to guide visitors to read from right to left, which is the direction in which Japanese manga is read. Also, no three-dimensional representations were used in the exhibition space, keeping everything in the realm of two dimensions, just like in manga.

For this exhibition, six groups of Japanese artists created six original manga titles, which were combined with various technologies developed by Sony. For example, Sony’s proprietary “Tensor Valve™” odorant control technology was used to produce smells linked with the manga’s world that the main characters travel through, adding a whole new dimension to the experience of reading manga. Another example is Active Slate, a floor-type haptics technology that enhances the sci-fi feel of manga. These technologies allowed visitors to experience the world of manga through bodily sensations, creating a space filled with creativity.

To contribute to the local community, we also held free educational workshops for children during the exhibition. The workshops given by Masanobu Hiraoka, one of the artists who participated in the exhibition, offered a valuable opportunity to learn about animation production and were highly popular among the children who participated and their parents as well. Along with the live-painting performance by the artist Katsuya Terada, in which visitors got a chance to see his creative genius up close, these artists’ free programs served to promote understanding of the diverse cultures overseas through manga and interactions with the artists.