# surreal.red

> Personal portfolio of **Xu Cong (許聰)** — creative coder based in Chiba, Japan. Software, installations, and small tools: interactive installations, new media art, creative software, and brand projects since 2011. Trilingual: Chinese, Japanese, English.

## About

- Name: Xu Cong / 許聰 / 许聪
- Role: Creative coder — software, installations, and small tools
- Based in: Chiba, Japan (works with clients globally)
- Current: Team Leader and Product Owner of Re:Earth at Eukarya (3D GIS / WebGIS platform officially adopted by Japan's PLATEAU initiative across ~20 municipalities)
- Previously: Co-founder of Levitate Studio (2014-2017, Shanghai); independent artist (2012-2014); interactive designer at Rexgo (2011-2012)
- Education: MFA in Inter Media Art, Tokyo University of the Arts (2020); B.Eng. Industrial Design, Wuhan University of Technology (2011)
- Profile page: https://surreal.red/about/

## Works, lab tools & talks


- [Re:Earth Visualizer](https://surreal.red/en/work/2020-re-earth-visualizer/) — 2020, tags: software, commercial. Open-source 3D GIS platform built from zero since 2020 with a small team at Eukarya. Officially adopted by Japan's MLIT PLATEAU initiative; runs daily across ~20 municipalities. visualizer.reearth.io · reearth/reearth-visualizer.
- [cog viewer](https://surreal.red/en/lab/cog-viewer/) — 2026, tags: lab, software. Browser-based viewer & analyzer for Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs. COG-aware fetching, multi-band compose, histograms, elevation profiles. Drop a URL or local .tif and inspect — then copy a Python snippet to continue in Jupyter.
- [csv doctor](https://surreal.red/en/lab/csv-doctor/) — 2026, tags: lab, software. Browser-based CSV cleaner & WebGIS converter. Auto-detects encodings, normalizes Unicode, exports to GeoJSON / CZML / KML. All processing local — files never leave your browser.
- [STAC Lens](https://surreal.red/en/lab/stac-lens/) — 2026, tags: lab, software. Browser-only viewer and health checker for any STAC catalog or API — the shape of the data, where the metadata contradicts itself, and what the API actually does when asked. Paste a URL; nothing is uploaded.
- [City-Scale COPC & COG — Kofu City, from File Distribution to Cloud Services (一整座城市的 COPC 与 COG —— 甲府市，从文件分发到云服务)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/cng-japan-2026-copc-cog-kofu/) — 2026, tags: talk. Can a delivered point-cloud dataset become something people keep using? Kofu City — 212 km², 9.6 billion source points — re-published as one COPC file and two COGs: no downloads, about $3 a year to keep online, and one STAC URL as the front door.
- [Beyond the Map — Designing GIS to Help People Understand the Places They Live (Beyond the Map —— 让人理解自己居住之地的 GIS 设计)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2026-beyond-the-map/) — 2026, tags: talk. Three stories — a flood, a festival, a classroom — about designing GIS for understanding rather than information. The role of geospatial products is not to give people answers, but to create the conditions in which people can discover how their world works.
- [Cloud-Native 3D Buildings — PLATEAU, from Downloads to Data Services (云原生的 3D 建筑 —— 把 PLATEAU 从下载变成数据服务)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/stac-japan-2026-cloud-native-buildings/) — 2026, tags: talk. A personal experiment in making PLATEAU's 3D buildings cloud-native: GeoParquet + FlatCityBuf under one STAC catalog, the same city 13× smaller, one block's full 3D for 2.2% of the file — and an honest ending about when 3D even pays.
- [GIS as a Communication Tool — Lightweight WebGIS for Citizen Workshops (GIS 作为沟通工具 —— 面向市民工作坊的轻量 WebGIS)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2025-gis-as-communication/) — 2025, tags: talk. GIS is still often treated as a professional, technical domain — but local governments increasingly need it as a medium for dialogue with citizens. Case studies from our team's attempts to design lightweight WebGIS apps that fit into short, real-world citizen-participation workshops.
- [The Problem in Open Data Is Not the Data, but the Operations (Open Data 真正的难题不是数据本身，而是运营)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2025-open-data-operations/) — 2025, tags: talk. Open Data in Japan is growing, but daily operations — structuring, updating, and cross-team management — remain challenging. A look at what those operational challenges actually feel like, and one lightweight, open-source approach our team has been exploring to make Open Data more usable and sustainable.
- [Designing a Modern WebGIS — Complex Operations, Simple Interface (设计一个现代 WebGIS —— 把复杂操作收进简洁的界面里)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2024-designing-webgis/) — 2024, tags: talk. WebGIS tools sit at an awkward intersection: they need the full power of professional GIS — layers, geometries, styling, 3D, real-time data, plugins — while staying approachable to non-specialist users in education, planning, and disaster prevention. A walk through the interface decisions our team has been making while building a modern WebGIS.
- [Create Interactive Web Maps — A Hands-on Workshop (制作交互式 Web 地图 —— 一场动手实操工作坊)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2024-interactive-maps-workshop/) — 2024, tags: talk. A 4-hour hands-on workshop on building interactive web maps and extending them through plugins — designed to scale progressively from non-technical map-makers in the first half to plugin developers in the second.
- [A No-Code 3D WebGIS in the Browser (能在浏览器里跑的 no-code 3D WebGIS)](https://surreal.red/en/talk/foss4g-2022-no-code-3d-webgis/) — 2022, tags: talk. A 4-minute lightning talk introducing a new open-source, fully browser-based, no-code 3D WebGIS — and the design bets underneath it: no install, no platform-specific build, plugins that load at runtime, and a stack chosen so the codebase is something outside contributors can actually engage with.
- [Deep Simulator (深渊模拟器)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2020-deep-simulator/) — 2020, tags: software. A metagame and multimedia installation offering six mysterious instruments, each a doorway into a different mode of perception. Free download for Windows, macOS, Linux.
- [fur (毛)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2020-fur/) — 2020, tags: installation, object. Soft grey masses covered in fur confront a pair of electronic eyes — when data grows fur, abstract systems acquire an emotional skin.
- [The Development (显影计划)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2020-the-development/) — 2020, tags: installation, interactive. A canvas under total surveillance where the brush automatically retracts from forbidden zones — the act of forbidding speech has already said everything.
- [bots](https://surreal.red/en/work/2018-bots/) — 2018, tags: installation, object. Nine enormous inflatable forms abstracted from molecular models, translating the invisible volume of data into a physically enclosing spatial experience.
- [Candy Wrapper (糖纸)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2018-tangzhi/) — 2018, tags: installation. A week of social media consumption algorithmically converted into colored fragments — three small screens displaying what remains after the content dissolves.
- [Buddha Online (万佛神殿)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2017-buddha-online/) — 2017, tags: installation, software. A solo exhibition in Shanghai, 2017. Thousands of Buddha images fed into a DCGAN neural network — exploring how AI perceives the spiritual and sacred.
- [InterSpace](https://surreal.red/en/work/2016-interspace/) — 2016, tags: performance. A 30-minute experimental audiovisual performance — real-time visuals shifting between narrative, pure structure, and gravitational particle systems, with live electronic music and guitar.
- [Slip-On DIY](https://surreal.red/en/work/2016-slip-on-diy/) — 2016, tags: software, interactive, commercial. An HTML5/WebGL mobile tool for Vans that captures hand-drawn designs on paper and maps them onto a 3D shoe model in real time — draw, scan, wear.
- [Anomaly (不规则)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2015-anomaly/) — 2015, tags: object. Sponge sculptures in forms stranger than meteors — materialising the alien beauty of science fiction into everyday space.
- [Blossom](https://surreal.red/en/work/2015-blossom/) — 2015, tags: installation, interactive. An interactive installation where body movement triggers organic visual forms inspired by nature — fibrous petals, energy currents, and abstract floral structures bloom and dissolve in real time.
- [Ignite Your Body](https://surreal.red/en/work/2015-ignite-your-body/) — 2015, tags: installation, interactive, commercial. An immersive particle space for the Puma IGNITE launch — four Kinect-driven interactive stages transform body movement into energy storms, nebulae, vector fields, and floating orbs.
- [Karesansui @ KeeClub (枯山水 @ KeeClub)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2015-karesansui-keeclub/) — 2015, tags: installation, object. Algorithmically generated sponge modules applied to the facade of a 1920s neoclassical villa in Shanghai, merging digital pattern with architectural heritage.
- [Buddha Space Digital Theatre (Buddha Space)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2014-buddha-space/) — 2014, tags: installation, interactive, commercial. A 16-projector immersive digital theatre narrating the story of the Buddha — walls, floor, and columns become a continuous canvas that responds to visitors' movements through position tracking.
- [Karesansui (枯山水)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2014-karesansui/) — 2014, tags: installation, object. Hundreds of black sponge forms arranged like stones in a zen dry garden — some rooted to the floor, others lifting onto the wall, a landscape caught between stillness and the moment before motion.
- [Free Your Run](https://surreal.red/en/work/2013-free-your-run/) — 2013, tags: installation, interactive, commercial. An interactive window installation for Nike's Shanghai flagship store — Kinect tracking translates passersby's movements into a real-time responsive 3D shoe and kaleidoscopic visuals.
- [meta meta](https://surreal.red/en/work/2013-meta-meta/) — 2013, tags: installation, performance. An audiovisual series exploring data as visual substance — polygon meshes and crystalline structures emerge, fragment, and decay, questioning whether visualised data brings us closer to truth or further from it.
- [meta structure](https://surreal.red/en/work/2013-meta-structure/) — 2013, tags: installation, object. A 10-metre metal and acrylic installation translating computational data fragments into an enterable physical structure. Part of The Screen Generation exhibition at chi K11, Shanghai.
- [Time Refactoring (时间重构)](https://surreal.red/en/work/2012-time-refactoring/) — 2012, tags: installation. Projection mapping on the 12×38m facade of Shanghai Art Museum, visually reconstructing a century of architectural transformation through expressionist montage.


## Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions and installations — https://surreal.red/exhibitions/

## Features

- Trilingual content, one URL per language: Japanese at the root (https://surreal.red/), Chinese under /zh/, English under /en/
- Work filtering by tag (installation, interactive, software, object, commercial, performance, lab, talk)
- Light and dark themes, following the OS preference by default

## Keywords

new media art, interactive installation, creative coding, projection mapping, generative adversarial networks, DCGAN, real-time graphics, augmented reality, VVVV, TouchDesigner, Kinect, product design, UX design, 3D GIS, WebGIS, WebGL, open-source software, cloud-native geospatial, COPC, Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF, STAC, point cloud, PLATEAU, Tokyo designer, 媒体艺术, 新媒体艺术, 互动装置, メディアアート, インタラクティブインスタレーション

## Contact

- Email: lavalselike@gmail.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/rednotfound