Art Collective "WE" Represented by Satoshi Takamatsu
Announces Key Milestone with Axiom SpaceTo democratize the "experience of seeing the Earth from space", the art collective WE(Representative: Satoshi Takamatsu) plans to conduct a long-duration stay (30 days) inorbit by a private citizen to take ultra-high resolution photographs and videos together
with 360-degree VR videos of the Earth that approach the limits of human visual
perception. In January this year, "WE" completed a seat reservation agreement with
Houston-based company Axiom Space for a long-duration human spaceflight mission.
"WE" representative Satoshi Takamatsu has completed the initial payment to Axiom
Space and will be asking individuals, brands, and foundations around the world tosponsor and fundraise for the mission expenses.
Tejpaul Bhatia, Axiom Space Chief Revenue Officer, offered that Axiom Space is looking
forward to working with Satoshi Takamatsu on a future mission. He said, “With thisagreement as the initial foundation, we will work together to build a comprehensive
mission plan that supports an imagery-centered commercial astronaut effort on orbit forthe benefit of all.”

We have decided to call this mission WE, which is not a space project of a national space
agency, but a "space project of us, by us, and for us," and we have also decided to callthe community promoting this mission WE.

It is said that many people have an experience called the "overview effect" or "mind shift"when they look at the Earth from space. The experience varies, but it is said that many
people intuitively feel the importance of environmental issues and the sustainability of theEarth when they see the fragile Earth protected by a thin atmosphere. People alsostrongly desire a war-free Earth, given the reality of ongoing wars between nations on thesame planet from space.
WE is also an acronym for World Environment and War Ends. Our members are those
who share the two messages: we want to protect the global environment, and we want toeliminate war from the earth.
In order to create an overview effect without going to space, it is necessary to reproduce
an infinitely realistic "experience of seeing the Earth from space". In other words, we needto capture and display images that challenge the limits of human vision.
To film in space, multiple high-performance cameras will be stacked and operated
simultaneously to capture 300 million-pixel still images, 24K video, and 360-video
shooting to enable playback of more than 60 PPD (pixels per degree of view) on an HMD(head-mounted display) for VR. In addition, machine learning AI super-resolution is
performed in post-processing, and the target output is 600 million pixels for still images
and 48K for video.
WE representative Takamatsu, based on his experience in creating the world's first FIFAauthorized public viewing at the National Stadium for the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup,said: "Valuable content that so many people want to see can only be experienced by alimited number of people. We were convinced that there is great significance in providing
an infinitely realistic virtual experience to a large number of people there. This project canbe described as a ‘public viewing of the experience of seeing the Earth from space’".
Takamatsu also created the world's first commercial shot on the International Space
Station in 2001 for the Japanese brand Pocari Sweat, and in 2005, he conducted a twoyear campaign for peace with the Nissin Cup Noodle "NO BORDER". In this space project,
WE will integrate his experience shooting commercials on the International Space Station,
the eight months of cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia, in 2015, and his subsequent
experience as a photographer and artist.
Furthermore, WE representative Takamatsu said:
Until now, the only people who have seen the Earth from space have been approximately
600 astronauts from various countries and a small number of space travelers. The
miraculous blue planet is floating and slowly rotating in the jet-black space.
Seeing the planet Earth changes people’s hearts and minds.

They are awakened as “Earthlings” beyond nationality, ethnicity, culture, and religion.
They feel the Earth as if it were a single life form.
And witnessing that the earth is protected by a fragile and thin atmosphere.
Intuitively understand the earth’s environmental problems.
This mental transformation is called The Overview Effect by psychologists.
Millions of photographs of the Earth have been taken, but few are as moving. This isbecause no mission was ever planned to capture the visual experience of astronautsaccurately and reproduce it on Earth. The purpose of photography was not to "reproduce"
but to "record".
The world is now in the throes of a new space age. Space utilization is advancing rapidly,in 10 years, 600 civilians may have experienced space. But that would only be 600
astronauts and 600 wealthy individuals. It is wonderful, but will it change the“consciousness of people on Earth”? Will it give children “dreams that light up their eyes”?
Suppose private citizens and private companies cooperate to go to space. Shouldn’t wegive back to society the dream of “the Earth from space” through technology in areas thatgovernments and space agencies have not focused on?
“WE” want to reproduce the “Earth seen from space” as it is on Earth.
I would like to be the first photographer in space and share that visual experience with all
people on Earth. The overwhelming visual experience of viewing a 10-meter photo output
size and 100-meter video display size at close range and a VR experience that is
indistinguishable from reality is made possible by ultra-high-pixel photography.
We will be able to feel this planet as our home only when we leave the earth and look at
it from the outside. War is happening inside the home. Non-renewable environmental
destruction is continuing at home. Humanity’s great challenges will be impossible to solve
without fostering a global consciousness that transcends national boundaries.
The desire to leave our home planet beautiful for future generations by “seeing the Earthfrom space” spreads through our hearts. Although we can understand the importance ofsustainability by reading books about it, it is difficult to grasp the Earth as a living organism
intuitively. It is only by “seeing” that we can feel the Earth and think about its future. Thisproject is also a project to educate people about sustainability through visual experiences.
For now, only a limited number of people will be able to experience the adventure of going
into space on a rocket that rises with a roaring sound. However, the visual experience ofseeing the Earth from space can be shared.
This project can only be realized by astronauts with a single mission: to capture the visualexperience of the Earth from space and reproduce it on Earth.

I am not a NASA astronaut, nor a JAXA astronaut, nor a space tourist who goes to enjoy
space for his sole enjoyment, but I am an artist and photographer with a mission to sharethe space experience with everyone. I want to work off the planet as a "WE Astronaut"who carries out missions to share the space experience with everyone. This will be mygreatest contribution to society and my greatest dream. And I believe this mission will
overlap with someone else's dream and benefit all of humanity.

About WE:WE is an art collective established by Satoshi Takamatsu in 2022 for the space mission.
For more information about "WE", visit www.missionwe.com
For more information, please contact WE PR team at:
we-pr@vectorinc.co.jp

About Satoshi Takamatsu:
Born in 1963, artist and photographer. After graduating from the School of Science andEngineering at the University of Tsukuba, Takamatsu joined Dentsu, the largest
advertising agency in Japan. In 2005, he founded GROUD, a creative agency, andbecame CEO and Chief Creative Officer. Takamatsu has won many international
advertising awards, including Gold Lions at the Cannes Advertising Festival. In 2002, heorganized public viewings of the World Cup at the Tokyo National Stadium, the first of its
kind to be officially endorsed by FIFA. He was also the first in the world to organize thefilming of a TV commercial on the International Space Station for a Japanese beverage
brand in 2001. Other commercials filmed in space include "No Borders", with an anti-war
theme, and "Freedom", with themes of planetary sustainability and opposition to a futurecontrolled society, both for the Cup Noodles brand. Although they were productadvertisements, these works conveyed strong social messages. Takamatsu announced
his retirement from the advertising industry in 2015. He then spent eight months in Star
City, Russia, undergoing astronaut training. He is currently a representative of Space
Films and works as a photographer and artist. In 2014, Takamatsu presented his works
at the exhibition "Mission [SPACE x ART] - Beyond Cosmologies" at the Museum ofContemporary Art Tokyo. In 2020, he organized his personal exhibition "Failure." In 2022,
he founded an art collective, WE, for the space project.

Cosmonaut Training in Star City in 2020

Solo Exhibition in 2020