This photographic series captures Tokyo’s sprawling cityscape of Sumida City as viewed from above, exploring the intricate interplay between human design and urban environments. From this elevated perspective, the meticulously organized city below—its asphalt roads, concrete structures, and geometric canals—reveals a near-orthographic quality, blurring the boundaries between reality and abstraction.

Each image underscores the pervasive control and specificity in urban planning, where every inch of space is engineered. Yet, amidst this complexity of human design, small rooftop gardens emerge—tiny oases of nature persisting within the dense expanse of technological and architectural dominance.

“末永くお幸せにね” – Be Happy Forever (okay?) by Robert Hamilton, 2024, Color, Stereo, 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Produced in Japan and Canada.

This film is a study of Western-style pre-wedding photography near Tokyo Station. Every night, several couples take turns striking similar poses near the front of Tokyo Station on Gyoko-dori Street. Pre-wedding photo shoots have been popular on social media for about the last five years. The photo packages often include a dress and tuxedo.

Blokker is a purpose-built camera that uses AI to occlude faces. This project is one of a series of works reflecting on surveillance, vision impairment and photographic memory.

It Took Forever to Fall Asleep by Robert Hamilton, excerpt, 2021, 1 hour, 47 minutes, black and white, stereo. Produced in Canada.

This film methodically illuminates a ghostly cityscape at night, frozen in time; a transformative reflection of the world during COVID. The film, produced during the COVID lockdown, is a steady, gradual exploration of a miniature landscape. The diorama suggests a reflection on identity and community – a fractured series of rough representations, tableaux and narratives. There is a deep sense of melancholy in these delicate and static constructions, with thematic parallels echoing events during COVID.

Pandemia by Robert Hamilton, 2021, 4 minutes, 4 seconds, colour, stereo. Produced in Denmark and Canada.

This work was produced during the pandemic while isolating at home. The video follows a boy’s response to COVID-19. The boy participates in his community’s “isolate, test, treat and trace” initiative, marked by red crosses on their homes. This work reflects on COVID-19, our relationship with the environment and sustainability. This work features minor digital image manipulation where symbolic red crosses were added to trees and homes.

An intense slow-motion video of a recreational dive competition becomes an absurd expression of privilege aboard a half-billion dollar cruise ship sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.

An ironic reflection on a theory of conscious agents – a formal theory of consciousness developed by Donald Hoffman. The video was shot in Hamilton, Ontario. Audio interview with Donald Hoffman graciously provided by the Dutch broadcaster VPRO, in their series “The Mind of the Universe.” The audio was edited and used under CC-BY-SA.