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Peace can be Realized Even without Order

teamLab, 2013-2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi, Voices: Yutaka Fukuoka, Yumiko Tanaka

Peace can be Realized Even without Order

teamLab, 2013-2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi, Voices: Yutaka Fukuoka, Yumiko Tanaka

An interactive installation composed of countless life-sized holograms.


The figures depicted in the holograms exist independently from one another. They play instruments and dance, and each individual is influenced by the sounds produced by the figures close to them. There is no lead figure that oversees the crowd, like a conductor in an orchestra, nor does a standard exist. However, spontaneous order phenomenon occurs as the figures influence each other, and their performances gradually sync, eventually achieving harmony. 


When a person enters the installation and a figure senses that person, the figure stops performing. The figure passes on this information to other figures close by. After a short period of time, the figure aimlessly starts playing music again, but the harmony has been interrupted by this disturbance. If, however, the viewer stays still or leaves, spontaneous order phenomenon takes place again, creating harmony within the group once more.


In Japan, there is a primitive dance festival called the Awa Odori Festival. Groups of people  play music and randomly dance around town. The groups are free to play their own music and  dance as they wish, but interestingly for some reason, the music forms a harmony across the whole town. This harmony is born from people subconsciously adapting their performances to the tempo of others that they happen to meet as they dance around town. There is no rule, but the body subconsciously adapts itself for the simple reason of it being pleasurable. Despite the seeming lack of order, once liberated, people experience an extraordinary feeling of peace - perhaps this is how peace was maintained back in ancient times.


With the introduction of the internet, people have become able to freely connect with whomever, whenever they like. The acceleration of this has resulted in the entire world being connected, and the way these connected individuals influence each other has become increasingly important. Contemporary reflections in this new era can be compared to primitive dance experiences, and make us feel the possibility of there being completely different methods of maintaining peace in the future.


The figures that appear in the holograms are anonymous and unknown. This helps the viewer to feel as though they are a part of the installation, and through this experience, perhaps in the future, people will be able to maintain peace in their own ways.