NEWS

Featured on The Creators Project, Jul 21, 2014

Mythological Japanese Imagery Comes Alive In These Animated, Digital Paintings

Innovative digital art collective teamLab has produced a multitude of forward-thinking projects in today’s Japanese art ecosystem, including such eye-widening works as a projection mapped water simulations and a world of glowing, musical orbs. Recently, the group has begun to reach across the Pacific and establish a foothold among US art aficionados. That foothold has manifested in an show at the 25th Street Pace Gallery called Ultra Subjective Space—teamLab’s first ever exhibition within the United States. The exciting debu is full to the brim with flowing digital water, Edo period-inspired animated digital paintings, and serenely morphing abstract plants.
The Creators Project visited Pace Gallery to check out the work in person, and it was rather spectacular to behold. Each image dominated the wall it hung on, endlessly looping, yet never seeming repetitive. One of the pieces, Flower and Corpse Glitch, is a set of 12 interconnected digital frames drawing upon the Japanese Edo period ‘super flat’ aesthetic.
The European standard of linear perspective is absent from these compositions, allowing viewers to place themselves anywhere inside the scene, rather than being limited to a single point of view. The moving images of Flower and Corpse Glitch only enhance this effect, which teamLab likes to call ‘Ultra Subjective Space.’ Each frame captures a “film stor[y] based on the themes of: civilization and nature, collision, circulation, symbiosis,” according to teamLab’s website.
The Pace Gallery space includes four other works from teamLab’s repertoire: Crows are Chased and the Chasing Crows are Destined to be Chased as Well – Light in Dark, 2014; Ever Blossoming Life, 2014; Cold Life, 2014; and Universe of Water Particles – 2013. They each capture a celebratory perspective on nature, effortlessly combined with the sleek, clean, hi-tech texture intrinsic in their medium.
Ultra Subjective Space opened on July 17 and will be open to the public until August 15. In October, the Japan Society will host teamLab’s second ever U.S. exhibition entitled, Garden of Unearthly Delights: Works by Ikeda, Tenmyouya & teamLab, which will feature some of their cutting edge interactive pieces.
To see more of teamLab’s work, visit the Pace Gallery before August 15, or check out teamLab’s online sampling of the exhibition here and their website here.

Featured on The Creators Project, Jul 19, 2014

Digital Waterfall Projected On A Satellite Gives The Illusion Of Weightlessness

Japanese studio teamLab is examining the beauty of outer space right here on Earth—more specifically in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. The exhibit, entitled Universe of Water Particles Under Satellite’s Gravity, consists of two parts: a giant model of the ALOS-2 satellite and a stunning projection-mapped waterfall rendered in ridiculous detail.
teamLab constructed the physical ALOS-2 model to rest in the museum, but they also created a meticulous representation of the satellite in digital space, even down to the gravitational mass the satellite possesses. Once they had that rendered, the team stuck the satellite in a simulation of absolute zero gravity and added about one waterfall’s worth of H20 into their simulation. Their finely tuned physics engine calculates the rest, beautifully simulating how the water would cascade toward the satellite, since it’s the only source of gravity around. Back in the Museum of Contemporary art, the image of the waterfall is projected over the physical satellite, creating the wonderful illusion of weightlessness.
The creators compare the effect to traditional Japanese painting, writing that, “In traditional Japanese painting, oceans, rivers and bodies of water are expressed as a curvilinear series of lines. These lines give the impression of life, as though water itself were a living creature.” All the same, if Katsushika Hokusai saw this thing, he’d probably wet himself on the spot.
Universe of Water is the most recent in a teamLab series exploring aquatic aesthetic. You can see the others, including Vortex of Water Particles and The Waterfall of Saga Castle on the teamLab website.

Featured on ARTLOG, Jul 17, 2014

teamLab in NYC

If you are interested in the intersection of art and technology, then make Pace Gallery in Chelsea your first stop for the first ever US exhibition of the Japanese collective teamLab. Do not let collective deceive you. This group led by Toshiyuki Inoko is made up of over 300 “ultra-technologists;” a company, agency, and innovation lab all in one, teamLab works on dozens of projects at a time that include animation, sound, internet, interactive and immersive installations. At the exhibition’s opening, Inoko declared, “I just like the digital better than the phsyical.”
The works in the installation are undeniably Japanese, with influences from classical Japanese art, Japanese gardens, the Edo period, and Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, all the way to modern day anime. At the same time, as you lose yourself spinning through their 3D worlds or flying through the universe with the crows, you can’t help but feel like you are looking at the future of art.
Get a further glimpse of teamLab’s work on their Youtube page.
teamLab’s exhibition Ultra Subjective Space is open until August 15, 2004 at Pace Gallery’s 508 & 510 West 25th Street locations.

Featured on OPENING CEREMONY, Jul 16, 2014

Big In Japan: TeamLab's Digital Installation Takes Flight

Big In Japan: TeamLab’s Digital Installation Takes FlightChelsea’s Pace Gallery, host to Tara Donovan: Untitled, will debut another large-scale installation this evening: Ultra Subjective Space. A direct import from Japan design group teamLab, five high-definition monitors flirt with one another to comprise a video loop titled—are you ready for it?—Crows are chased and the chasing crows are destined to be chased as well, Division in Perspective — Light in Dark, 2014. Phew. Dissimilar to its name, artgoers will actually remember the show. Press notes call the collective’s US debut “an all-encompassing experience of spatial perception,” which loosely translates to a futuristic ride at Tokyo Disneyland (but in this go-around, psychedelic brushstrokes meet Space Mountain).
Riffing off the whiz-bang choreography of the popular anime, “ITANO CIRCUS,” in teamLab’s take, missiles and lasers are eschewed for multiplying crows, the avian pest equivalent to American pigeons. We watch as the birds’ flight paths splice together to eventually crash and splatter into kiku (the chrysanthemum widely used at funerals in Japan). If it weren’t for the soaring music, this could be somber, but at the gallery preview last night, 37-year-old teamLab founder Toshiyki Inoki explained to Opening Ceremony that it’s not meant to be sad; the symbolism of fight-or-flight should stoke romance in a “what has been will be again” type way. Maybe we’re a bunch of anonymous birds; maybe we’re a bunch of flowers. Whatever we are, these staggered visuals come in the spirit of wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in the imperfect—or even (gulp) the morbid.
Ultra Subjective Space runs through August 15

Pace Gallery New York
508 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Featured on Sankei News, Jul 10, 2014

花と人、コントロールできないが共に生きる　「チームラボ」国東半島芸術祭に出展

サイエンス、テクノロジー、アート、デザインなどのスペシャリストで構成するウルトラテクノロジスト集団「チームラボ」が１０月４日から大分県豊後高田市、国東市で開かれる「国東半島芸術祭」に新作「Ｆｌｏｗｅｒｓ　ａｎｄ　Ｐｅｏｐｌｅ，Ｃａｎｎｏｔ　ｂｅ　Ｃｏｎｔｒｏｌｌｅｄ　ｂｕｔ　Ｌｉｖｅ　Ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ（花と人、コントロールできないけれども、共に生きる）－Ｋｕｎｉｓａｋｉ　Ｐｅｎｉｎｓｕｌａ」を出展する。(Excerpt from text)

Featured on Fashion Headline Japan, 2014/06/10

Kohei Nawa and teamlab for the SPACE × ART Exhibit in Tokyo

The “mission [SPACE × ART] - beyond Cosmologies” exhibit has opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Until Aug 31. (Excerpt from the text)

Featured on Sankei News, Jun 6, 2014

幻想的…滝の３Ｄ映像が人工衛星を包む　チームラボ、ミッション〔宇宙×芸術〕展

ウルトラテクノロジスト集団「チームラボ」が「憑依する滝、人工衛星の重力」など３点を出品する「ミッション〔宇宙×芸術〕―コスモロジーを超えて」が７日から東京都現代美術館（東京都江東区）で始まる。６日の報道向け内覧会にチームラボの猪子寿之代表も出席し、作品への思いを語った。(Excerpt from text）

Featured on SHISEIDO TOKYO TREND REPORT, May 2014

teamLab’s Sketch Aquarium

In making things that combines science, technology, design and art, one of the IT companies most notable in Japan now for doing so is teamLab. “Learn! Amusement Park of the Future”, a project created by them for children, was held in various parts of Japan, garnering rave reviews. In this project, children are encouraged to move their bodies in front of the latest technology-leading device to experience the creation of an art space. Sketch Aquarium is one representative attraction of the project.
Against the wall of a dim hall is an undersea world of swaying seaweeds and beautiful coral reef. Paper drawings of sharks, jellyfish, and squids, among others are prepared for them to use crayons to colour as they wish. By scanning their works, the creatures that they have just designed will start to appear in the sea on the wall, swimming around freely. The fish respond to touches and it is possible to make them change their swimming direction and feed them. Besides the children, the accompanying adults also become engrossed, colouring the fish themselves, pointing to them and teaching after they are scanned in, enjoying each other’s works, and so forth, making the scene bustle with life. A never before seen virtual aquarium filled with colourful fish swimming has finally appeared.

Featured on i-D, Apr 24, 2414

The top 5 best events from the Milan Furniture Fair - Salone del Mobile

The top 5 best events from the Milan Furniture Fair – Salone del MobileI covered the 2014 edition of the Fuorisalone from top to bottom, from the white smooth space to rough and dusty concrete or the space with soft LED reflections. Digital was competing with kids drawings, and memories were buried one after another by technology innovations. Past and present were mixing everywhere in the city.
Nostalgia of the past and new challenges made this design week exciting.
Here are 5 examples that are mixing both of these concept very well.

Sketch Aquarium
TeamLab presented an aquarium in which fish drawn on paper by children swim freely, creating colorful shapes that then swim along with those drawn by other children in a large aquarium. Fish of the same shape create crowds, and when children come close to the aquarium they can also feed their fish.

Featured on Sankei News, Mar 21, 2014

日本郵便「ＫＩＴＴＥ」が開業１周年　デジタルアート展など開催

The top 5 best events from the Milan Furniture Fair – Salone del MobileI covered the 2014 edition of the Fuorisalone from top to bottom, from the white smooth space to rough and dusty concrete or the space with soft LED reflections. Digital was competing with kids drawings, and memories were buried one after another by technology innovations. Past and present were mixing everywhere in the city.
Nostalgia of the past and new challenges made this design week exciting.
Here are 5 examples that are mixing both of these concept very well.

Sketch Aquarium
TeamLab presented an aquarium in which fish drawn on paper by children swim freely, creating colorful shapes that then swim along with those drawn by other children in a large aquarium. Fish of the same shape create crowds, and when children come close to the aquarium they can also feed their fish.