# surreal.red

> Personal portfolio of **Xu Cong (許聰)** — designer, media artist, and creative technologist based in Chiba, Japan. Working across 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: Product Designer, Media Artist, Creative Technologist
- Based in: Chiba, Japan (works with clients globally)
- Current: COO and Product Designer at Eukarya, working on Re:Earth (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

- [Re:Earth Visualizer](https://surreal.red/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/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/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.
- [Deep Simulator (深渊模拟器)](https://surreal.red/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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 (zh / ja / en) per work
- Work filtering by tag (installation, interactive, software, object, commercial, performance)
- Terminal-style alternate interface at https://surreal.red/port/ — the portfolio as a TUI with themeable palette (DOS, IBM 3270, amber CRT, phosphor, Nord, Solarized, Gruvbox) and ASCII image rendering (half-block color or character ramp)
- Press `~` on any page to open the terminal interface

## 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, WebGL, open-source software, 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/lavalse