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The World of Irreversible Change

teamLab, 2022, Interactive Digital Work, 6 channels, Endless, Sound: teamLab

The World of Irreversible Change

teamLab, 2022, Interactive Digital Work, 6 channels, Endless, Sound: teamLab

This work is both somewhere in time and here and now.

The world of the artwork changes with the real time of its location. Morning arrives in the artwork with the sunrise in the real world, and when the sun sets, evening begins. If it rains in the real world of the work’s location, it rains in the world of the artwork, and the flora that grow in the artwork change every day with each passing season.
The people’s lives also change continuously depending on the time of day and weather of the real world, and the festivals and events that are celebrated change with the seasons. Various stories take place every day, and the lives of people continue eternally.

The actions of viewers influence the world of the artwork. The people in the artwork respond when a viewer touches them, but if the interaction is limited, they return to their daily lives.
If the interaction is continuous, however, fights break out amongst the people in the artwork that are near to each other, leading to deaths. The fighting spreads throughout the city, which becomes engulfed in flames that last for over a year. As the city burns to the ground, the people in the artwork eventually die out.

In the ruined city where not a single person remains, the seasons still pass and the sun rises and sets with the time of the real world. After a few months, new flora begin to grow in the burnt ruins of the city.
The flora grow, bloom, and scatter repeatedly, changing daily with the real passage of time. The flowers and plants grow deeply over the course of a long period, and the flowers change throughout every year, continuing in perpetuity.

Once the world of this artwork begins to burn, the world from before can never be returned to.
The people who interact with the artwork cause this outcome.