Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life Born from People

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless

Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life Born from People

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless

The butterflies in Flutter of Butterflies are born from people, they dance in the space, but if people touch them they die.


If there are no people in the Butterfly House it is dark space with nothing existing in it. When people enter the space and stand still a butterfly chrysalis appears on their body, the butterfly emerges and flies from their feet.

The artwork is born from a person, but they themselves may not realize, instead they will notice the butterflies being born on other people before realizing that they too are creating the artwork.


The butterflies transcend the boundary of the display and leave the space, transcending the boundaries of artworks, enter and fly around in other works. By seamlessly flying into other works they break the concept of the artwork frame, and make the boundaries ambiguous. The butterflies are affected by the conditions in other artworks.


Outside this space the the butterflies gather with those drawn by people in Graffiti Nature, and released from characters in Born From the Darkness a Loving, and Beautiful World, to make a Flutter of Butterflies.


In the Borderless World there are only the butterflies that are born in the Butterfly House, Graffiti Nature,  and Born From the Darkness a Loving, and Beautiful World. If people touch and kill too many butterflies then the work will cease to exist.


Neither prerecorded nor on loop, the work is rendered in real time by a computer program. The interaction between the viewer and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork; previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.