About
DEMO.lab
DEMO.lab is a site of practice for rethinking urban and architectural space through moving images.
Cities do not exist as pre-given or completed forms. They emerge through the continual arrangement and rearrangement of countless fragments and relationships. Yet we often perceive them as continuous and coherent entities. What lies at the point of departure, however, is the absence of relationships—or a condition of disconnection.
We use moving images as a device for engaging with situations in which relationships must be formed within this condition of disconnection. The act of filming is not a means of distancing oneself from space or time. Rather, it is a way of entering into a relationship with them.
Within this process, the body moves back and forth between autonomy and responsiveness to external conditions.
The images recorded as fragments are not merely raw materials. Each is a trace of how
a relationship with space has been formed. By reconnecting these fragments, we do not represent the city. Rather, we regenerate it as an arrangement of relationships.
DEMO.lab WORKSHOP
The workshop is not a place for acquiring technical skills.
It is a practice that asks how relationships emerging within a city can be taken up and brought into visibility as moving images under conditions in which relationships must be formed.
DEMO.lab WORKSHOP is composed of participants (members), tutors who support the production process, and guests who contribute critical perspectives.
Through a process that includes guidance sessions, fieldwork, discussion, interim reviews, editing and reconsideration, and final critiques, participants place themselves within the city and respond to landscapes, sounds, and events through the movement of their gaze and bodies.
The fragments gathered through this process are accumulations of relationships that have not yet been assigned meaning. Through dialogue and editing, these fragments are connected.
Editing is not simply a matter of joining pieces together. It is an act of reorganizing fragments into a spatial configuration under conditions in which relationships must be forged between them.
The moving images generated through this process do not describe the city. Rather, they bring urban and architectural space into being through the arrangement of relationships.
Profile
Jun Ono | Architect / Director of DEMO.lab
Born in Tokyo, Japan.
In 2004, he completed the Master's Programme at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA School) in London, receiving the AA Diploma. While studying there, he was a member of Professor Pascal Schöning's unit, where he explored methods of reconstructing the underlying structures of cities and architecture through moving images.
Building upon this experience, his practice has developed toward understanding space not as a fixed object, but as something generated through time and relationships. In 2013, he founded the Hamamatsu Urban Architectural Film Laboratory, which was renamed DEMO.lab in 2018.
He currently teaches as a visiting professor lecturer at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture and Komazawa Women's University. His work spans education, research, and practice, with workshops serving as a central platform for exploration.
Collaboration
DEMO.lab conducts workshops within schools, universities, and extracurricular educational programs.
Thinking about urban and architectural space is not something that can be acquired solely
as knowledge. It emerges through direct experiences of engaging with space and assuming a relationship with it. Particularly at a young age, such experiences can become formative moments that fundamentally shape how one relates to space in the future.
We welcome opportunities to collaborate with educational institutions, organizations,
and communities in opening up this practice to wider audiences. If you are interested in working with us, please feel free to get in touch.
Contact
DEMO.lab
Email : demolabassoc@gmail.com