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Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders in Layered Ultrasubjective Space

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless

Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders in Layered Ultrasubjective Space

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless

A Flutter of Butterflies expressed as countless semi-transparent images. The butterflies enter the space from outside, they propagate, and dance in the space, but if a person goes near the butterflies they die.

The butterflies in this space were drawn by people in Graffiti Nature, and released from characters in Born From the Darkness a Loving, and Beautiful World, they transcend the boundaries of other works, breaking the concept of an artworks frame, and seamlessly enter and fly in other works. The butterflies gather in other works and are their flight is affected by the conditions in those works.

A large number of screens are positioned in the exhibition space. The position of the screens is reproduced on a computer in a virtual three dimensional space, and then the space is “flattened” from multiple viewpoints into ultrasubjective space. The flattened multiple viewpoints are then positioned onto the screens. Ultrasubjective space allows for the area around the viewpoints to be cut out and the artwork to be exhibited layered within the exhibition space.

When a visitor passes a screen and becomes immersed in the flutter of butterflies, from another person’s viewpoint that person appears to be in the same relative position as the flutter of butterflies, both in the artwork and exhibition space. For the viewer that person has become a part of the artwork. In other words, when visitors are seen through the screen by others, they become a part of the artwork not only in the exhibition space but also in the artwork world.

The artwork is rendered in real time by a computer program. It is neither prerecorded nor on loop, it is continuously changing. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.