Arts PhD Student Project: Lumenfall

Lumenfall by Hanae Utamura is a poignant and meditative performance that brings together film, sound, movement, and storytelling. The work explores the deep memory of the Earth and the ocean—from ancient geological time to the lasting impact of nuclear histories in the Pacific. 

Utamura invites us to consider how memory lives not only in people, but in water, land, and the spaces we inhabit. Drawing inspiration from both quantum physics and Onmyōdō—an ancient cosmology that sees the universe as an ever-shifting web of relationships—Lumenfall unfolds as an immersive and poetic experience that asks how history, environment, and human presence remain deeply intertwined across generations.