“BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE LAB.” is an initiative that explores the yet-unseen potential of triangular pieces. Driven by pure curiosity, it engages in ongoing research and collaboration with creatives and specialists to shape future design.

The project “LAB. 01 BEYOND THE DIMENSIONS” began with the question: “What would BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE’s triangular pieces become in four-dimensional space?” This collaboration with Shoya Dozono, an artist who creates visual works centered on higher-dimensional spaces, emerged from that open inquiry.

Here, the notion of the fourth dimension refers to the mathematical concept of four-dimensional Euclidean space. This is a space in which, in addition to the three familiar dimensions of height, width, and depth, another independent axis is introduced, so that position is defined by four coordinates. Such a space cannot be directly “seen”. However, Dozono renders it perceptible by projecting the fleeting trajectories of triangular forms rotating within four-dimensional space.

By setting triangular pieces in motion in four dimensions, projecting them into three-dimensional space, and ultimately rendering them as two-dimensional graphics, this work passes through multiple dimensions as a form of visual expression. It is a study of one possible way of perceiving a world that cannot be seen.

Points, lines, surfaces, and forms.
What kind of world lies beyond the three-dimensional space we perceive?

Products by BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE are composed of multiple triangular pieces. On a flat surface, a triangle is merely a geometric form; yet within the structure of a bag, these pieces interact with one another, revealing dynamic, three-dimensional expressions. In their behavior emerges a distinctive beauty, born from the moment the geometric structure materializes as a physical object.

I am an artist who has long explored higher-dimensional spaces as a central theme in my visual practice. For over a decade, I have conducted research and created works that visualize the motion of geometric objects in four-dimensional Euclidean space through computer programming.

We cannot directly “see” four-dimensional space. So how might it be perceived? One method is projection. In our world, when light is cast onto an object, a shadow is formed and this is the result of a three-dimensional object being projected onto a two-dimensional surface. In the same way, by casting light onto an object in four-dimensional space, its shadow can be projected into three-dimensional space. The higher-dimensional forms we perceive appear in this way, as shadows.

In this project, we brought together the geometric elements that compose BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE bags and the methods of higher-dimensional art that I have been developing. By treating the triangular pieces as geometric objects moving within four-dimensional space and projecting their motion into three dimensions, we render them visible both as graphic works and as physical products.

This is a step in the exploration of discovering the potential beauty that lies beyond the three-dimensional world we cannot directly see.

Shoya Dozono
Artist / Designer / Programmer

Born in 1988. He completed a master’s degree at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in 2014. His work explores scale and dimension in visual art, from outer space to high-dimensional space. As a programmer, he has collaborated on projects with DUMB TYPE, Hiroaki Umeda, and Kenta Kojiri. His work has received awards at Ars Electronica and the Japan Media Arts Festival, among others. He served as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto Seika University until 2025.

Developed through this initiative, “LAB. 01” is a tote bag from the “LUCENT” series, produced to a newly conceived specification and printed with graphic works created by combining the geometric elements of BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE with the higher-dimensional art techniques researched by Dozono. Advanced inkjet technology faithfully reproduces the delicate lines that make up the graphics. Each graphic, born from triangular pieces of varying individual shapes, creates an exquisite harmony while presenting a different expression on the front and back.
The new specification of the “LUCENT” series, developed through “LAB. 01”, has reduced the usual spacing of approximately 2mm between triangular pieces to approximately 0.8mm through intricate handwork. It preserves the distinctive BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE structure—which transforms from flat to three-dimensional as items are placed inside—while enabling bold, continuous graphic expression.
The bag comes in two colors: WHITE, which faithfully reflects the works created for this exhibition, and BLACK, an inversion of that image. Each color offers a different sense of depth and visual experience.

Can human beings perceive four-dimensional space?
This abstract yet fundamental question has long fascinated not only mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and psychologists, but artists as well. It was precisely from this question that Pablo Picasso introduced revolutionary concepts such as multi-perspectivity and simultaneity into Cubism, while the Surrealist master Salvador Dalí embedded the unfolded net of a four-dimensional hypercube into one of his religious compositions. Moreover, Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions, a textbook by the mathematician Esprit Jouffret concerning techniques for depicting four-dimensional objects, exerted a notable influence on the early Cubists. Historically, four-dimensional space has continually provided artists with a source of fresh inspiration.

Even today, the relationship between four-dimensional space and art remains alive and uninterrupted. In this lineage, Shoya Dozono has developed a body of work distilled into graphics that are at once minimal, rigorous, and stripped of superfluous ornamentation. These works are generated by rotating the iconic triangle of BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE within four-dimensional space and projecting the resulting trajectories onto a two-dimensional plane.

Within the three-dimensional space of our everyday experience, there exists only three rotational degrees of freedom. In the terminology of aviation, these are known respectively as yaw, pitch, and roll. In four-dimensional space, however, the rotational degrees of freedom double to six, suddenly making them far more difficult for human beings to control intuitively. In this sense, four-dimensional space is vastly more expansive, liberated, and untamable.

If one could intuitively perceive this unruly four-dimensional space, it would imply a profound expansion of the fundamental capacities of human cognition. To approach this possibility, Dozono proposes a methodology grounded in three key concepts: motion, projection, and shadow.Through these works, we invite you to experience the freedom inherent in four-dimensional space, and to release the full potential of your own sensibility.

Yutaka Ishii
Mathematician / professor of mathematics at Kyushu University

Born in Yokohama in 1970. He graduated from the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University in 1992 and completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, the University of Tokyo, in 1997. After serving as an assistant professor and associate professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Kyushu University, he became a professor there in 2018. During this period, he also held positions as an invited associate professor at Université de Paris-Sud (Orsay) and as an invited professor at Université de Rennes. Motivated by his mathematical research in higher-dimensional complex dynamics, he has recently been working on the visualization of fractal sets in four-dimensional space using virtual reality.