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teamLab: Exploring the Confluence of Art and Tech

August 2022

 

Recently, the ABA team has had many member questions about product innovation and how to attract younger or new audiences to their art forms. (ABA Members, you can see the compilation of arts innovations and lessons learned we gathered for one member here - requires login). As part of that work, we explored some groups on the forefront of interdisciplinary art and technology innovations. Here we profile one of the fastest growing: teamLab.

teamLab was founded in 2001 in Tokyo, Japan and are known for their large-scale interdisciplinary art works. This international art collective has specialists ranging from artists to programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects working together. They are represented by three galleries on different continents, with works featured in the permanent collection of many contemporary art museums in the U.S. and Australia, and there are several permanent exhibitions to their credit.

Below, we look at three of their projects exhibited across the world, as they redefine and reinterpret the relationship between art, technology, humans, and their environment.  

 
 
A woman stands in a dark room with her arm raised in front of a large illuminated mural featuring the images of various animals
 
 

Past: The Life of Animals in Japanese Art

 

When: Jun 02 - Aug 18, 2019
Where: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

 

In a modern digital adaptation of Ito Jakuchu’s painting style, teamLab created virtual plants and animals moving in a virtual space, creating a new visual expression through pixel art. This digital art is a result of complex mathematics and programming which creates the sense of movement and abstraction. The artwork moves on two different time-axes interacting with two different colors in the moving space which is abstracted by the fixed squares on-screen. This artwork also interacts with the visitor in real-time and the squares change color to reflect the visitor within the artwork, making them a moving part of the work itself, creating a human shadow in the life of animals.

 
 
Woman in white walking through a lush garden of greenery and deep purple flowers
 
 

Present: teamLab Planets

 

When: July 7, 2018 – End of 2023
Where: Toyosu, Tokyo

 

teamLab Planets requests you to enter barefoot in this museum consisting of four massive exhibition spaces and two gardens. Visitors walk through these immersive artworks which aim to dissolve the boundaries between oneself and the world.

There are interactive digital installations and light sculptures rendered in real-time by a computer programme based on the interaction the visitor is having with the artwork. An app allows for digital interaction with the light sculpture, and the digital artwork titled “Universe of Fire Particles Falling from the Sky” can be “taken home” via this app.

 
 
Woman walking through a dark room with many iridescent amorphic light sculptures
 
 

The garden spaces are inspired by Zen gardens. The Floating Flower Garden is an interactive kinetic installation in the garden area filled with live orchids that float above the visitor. The strength of the orchids’ aroma changes based on the time of the day and the activity of the pollen-carrying insects. The Moss Garden of Microcosms is filled with ovoids that interact with the sunlight by changing color, these can be knocked over by visitors (or strong winds) and emit sound that is resonated by neighboring ovoids. The garden space transforms under the influence of the weather and the people, making the environment and the people a part of the work.

 
 
Architectural rendering of a building with a flowing form
 
 

Future: teamLab Phenomena

 

When: Opening in 2024
Where: Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi

 

This unique project is under development as a permanent independent space with site-specific artworks created by the interaction of the environment with the objects placed within the space. Elements like air, water and light will be used to create artworks resulting from their transformative interaction with their environment.

The purpose of this project is to raise awareness about the environment. The artworks aim to blur the boundaries of independent existence of artworks. So much so, that if visitors “destroy” the artwork, it still continues to exist. However, if the environment changes, the artwork “disappears.”

An integral part of this project is the architecture of the building designed by the architects at teamLab exploring the concepts of “internal” and “external” in relation to living beings. The architects focussed on creating an organic shape to emulate the characteristics of a living being. They hope to create an experience where the visitors are unable to grasp the scale of the space, therefore creating a unique experience for each visitor in relation to the architecture.

To learn more about teamLab and their projects, see their website here.