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Featured on Digitalmeetsculture.net, 2015/07

About teamLab, Tokyo-based digital artist collaborative

Creatives from various fields unite to become ultra-technologists, for expanding art (and human relationships) through digital technologyteamLab, founded in 2001, is a collaborative, interdisciplinary creative group that brings together professionals from various fields of practice in the digital society: artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers and editors. Referring to themselves as “ultra-technologists” their aim is to achieve a balance between art, science, technology and creativity. teamLab believes that digital technology can expand art and that digital art can create new relationships between people. «Digital technology – the ultra-technologists say – releases expression from substance and creates an existence with the possibility for transformation». For example, digital technology enables more freedom for change and complex detail. Before people started accepting the concept of digital technology, information had to be embodied in some physical form for it to exist. The same applies to artworks. Creative expression has existed through static mediums for many years, often mediated by the use of physical objects such as canvas and paint, giving rise to the familiar adage of a painting coming to life. The advent of digital technology allowed human expression to become free from all these physical constraints, enabling it to exist independently and change freely.Expansion and Space Adaptability.«No longer tied down to physical specificity – teamLab ultra-technologists go on – digital technology has made it possible to expand artworks, an example being the use of projection mapping to create extensive art installations. Digital technology has also allowed to develop space adaptability, which provides us with a greater degree of autonomy within the space where the artwork is to be installed. Artists are now able to manipulate and use much larger amounts of space, allowing viewers to experience artworks more directly».Digital technology has allowed us to express change in itself«The ability of digital technology to enable change allows us to express much more than we were able to express before the arrival of the digital age. For example, digital technology enables artworks to express change in itself much more freely and also much more precisely. Artworks themselves can now show how one person is able to instigate perpetual change and how the viewers, as well as the environment where the artwork is installed, can also affect change on the artwork. By creating an interactive relationship between the viewers and the artworks, viewers become an intrinsic part of the artworks themselves».Changing toward a relationship between artworks and groups in order to influence the relationship between viewers«With interactive artworks the viewer’s actions and behaviour can decide the artwork at any particular moment. The border line between the artwork and the viewer has become more ambiguous. The viewer has become a part of the artwork itself. A particular moment in an artwork is determined by the presence and behaviour of the viewers, blurring the boundary between viewers and artworks. The artwork becomes an artwork by incorporating its viewers. For instance, in paintings before the digital era, artworks stand independently of the viewers, with a clearly defined boundary between the viewers and the objects being viewed. The viewer, as an independent person, is always facing against the artwork. Painting on the whole always remains the same, whether someone has seen it 5 minutes before or someone were to be standing right next to you at the same time.How does each viewer feel after seeing a painting? What do they think? These are important questions. An artwork comes to life based on its relationship with an individual. However, the incorporation of the viewer causes the viewer and the artwork to become more like a single entity, changing the relationship between the artwork and an individual into the relationship between the artwork and a group of people. Then the important questions become: Was there another viewer there 5 minutes ago? How is the person next to you behaving? At the very least, even when you are looking at the painting, you will start to wonder about the person standing next to you. In other words, the change in the relationship between artworks and people, the impact on the relationship between viewers has more potential to influence the relationship among viewers themselves than before».Through collaborative creation, we learn the experience of co-creation«In the information society, everything is connected by networks and society is changing more and more rapidly.Creativity is far more important than memorising historical dates or being good at doing calculations. Meanwhile current education is no more than extensive memorisation and practicing questions with one correct answer, where all other answers are wrong. An answer that had never existed until now may be the right answer.In the current education system, from a young age and without exception, the focus is on homogeneous development of individual ability, so that each individual has no weak points. Homework is done individually, tests are taken individually and entrance examinations are individually evaluated. In other words, working solo is completely drilled into students.Furthermore, many kids today are obsessed with their smartphones. Their brains might be connected with others through the smartphone, but physically they are engaged in completely individual activity.But in society, it is increasingly required to be able to achieve creative results as part of a team. Collaborative and creative experience, in other words “co-creative” experience, that is what we believe children may need now more than anything else. Using the latest digital technology, we want children to enjoy moving their bodies about freely in a shared space, interacting with each other, collaboratively creating in a “co-creative” experience. And we want them to become the kind of people who can enjoy creative collaboration. From this wish was born, “Learn and Play! teamLab Future Park”, an experimental project focused on the different relationships amongst people with digital art». Interactive digital installation Story of the Time when Gods were Everywhere is part of such project.In Story of the Time when Gods were Everywhere, when children touch the characters the world contained in those characters opens up and the story begins. The objects that are born from the characters influence each other and are influenced by children`s actions. Children using their bodies and changing the world together can create a story.

Featured on Creative Boom, July 12, 2015

A floating garden in Japan where hanging flowers move skyward as you approach

A floating garden in Japan where hanging flowers move skyward as you approach12th July by Katy Cowan in ArtJapanese art collective teamLab have created an incredible floating garden installation featuring over 2,300 living flowers in bloom at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo.Speaking of the project, TeamLab said: “When a viewer gets close to this flower-filled space, the flowers close to the viewer rise upwards all at once, creating a hemispherical space with the viewer at its centre. In other words, although the whole space is filled with flowers, a hemispherical space is constantly being created with the viewer at its centre and the viewer is free to move around wherever they want. If many viewers get close to one another, the dome spaces link up to form one single space.”Within the interactive floating flower garden viewers are immersed in flowers, and become completely at one with the garden itself. Find out more at teamLab. And make sure you watch the video below.

Featured on beautiful lands, Jun 13, 2015

Sketch Town

A town in outer space that grows and evolves with the pictures that children draw. Children are free to color in or add designs to pictures of things found in the town; cars, buildings,etc., as well as UFOs and Spaceships. Then the 2D pictures of cars, buildings etc enter into the town, they become 3D and move around and come to life in the town. As the different pictures enter the town different scenes evolve. You can enjoy interacting with the pictures: touch a car, for instance, and it will speed up.For more information about this and other projects of teamLab, please visit its website.

Featured on beautiful lands, Jun 12, 2015

Circulum Formosa

By using the endemic species of Taiwan as the main content, teamLab in Japan designed an infinite circulation to express and appreciate the values of their homeland, Formosa Taiwan. It is an interactive digital installation based on a gigantic LED sculpture measuring 17m wide x 17m highRain falls from the skies; the rain creates waterfalls; the waterfalls then turn into rivers, helping the flowers grow and blossom on the land. Birds gather near flowers and trees, flying into the skies where the clouds form and float away. Everything is connected in a cycle, but no events are ever repeated in exactly the same way.Neither a pre-recorded animation nor on loop, the work is being rendered in real time by a computer program. It continuously changes its appearance in line with the influence of external data such as the viewers’ behavior, the time of day, season, temperature, weather, and various other parameters within the CTBC Financial Park.For more information about teamLab and its projects, please visit its website.

Featured on artlyst, Jun 12, 2015

Pace Art & Technology Programme To Be Launched In 2016

Pace Art & Technology Programme To Be Launched In 2016Pace Art & Technology, founded by Pace President Marc Glimcher, is the gallery’s new programme dedicated to collaboration with interdisciplinary art groups, collectives and studios whose works explore the confluence of art and technology. The program is an expansion of Pace’s longstanding commitment to artistic approaches that emphasise digital and technological methods.(Excerpt from the text)

Featured on the creators project, Jun 11, 2015

An LED Waterfall Roars to Life in Taipei

Dynamic, hued landscapes controlled by different factors, like viewers’ movements, or the temperature outside, emerge in “ultra-technologists group” teamLab’s magnificent interactive art installation at the CTBC Financial Park in Taipei. In a video released on their YouTube channel yesterday, the towering LED sculpture in the shape of ChinaTrust’s “Double-C Logo” cycles through a collection of visuals, including long strings of neon blue water with the consistency of angel hair trickling down a giant screen wall. The waterfall cascades down through a tall cherry blossom bonsai tree and onto a stage of glass panels, warping around the viewer’s stance. “Everything is connected in a cycle, but no events are ever repeated in exactly the same way,” teamLab explains in Circulum Formosa’s video description, channeling the complexity of the natural forces the piece imitates.The installation’s visuals are accompanied by sounds of running water and the ambient sounds of the outdoors. TeamLab has transformed the bank’s lobby into a surreal environment through a responsive interactive clash of audio and visual stimulation. On their website, the group explains their goals for the future: “We create works through ‘experimentation and innovation’ making the borders between Art, Science, and Technology, more ambiguous.” In this way, Circulum Formosa is the team’s latest expression of this ideal.https://youtu.be/ZpyxWMgCCug

Featured on designboom, Apr 30, 2015

first look inside the japan pavilion at expo milan 2015

ahead of the opening of expo milano 2015, designboom visited the vast site to go behind the scenes of the japanese pavilion. responding to the overall theme of ‘feeding the planet, energy for life’, japan joins expo milano 2015 with the aim of proposing its food culture as an example of a healthy, sustainable and balanced diet. in addition, the country also sees the event as an opportunity to promote its image following the devastating 2011 earthquake, encouraging tourism and business opportunities. designed by architect atsushi kitagawara, the pavilion contains installations by high profile japanese creatives nendo and teamlab.the pavilion fuses traditional culture with advanced technology, employing a compressive strain method in which joints consist only of carved wood, without metal couplers. the use of timber as a renewable resource also connects the scheme to issues of forest maintenance and protection. the three-dimensional wooden grid symbolizes the origin of japan’s seasonal variation – envisioned as a ‘bowl of diversity’.under the theme of ‘harmonious diversity’, creative studio teamlab showcases two art exhibits within the pavilion. the interactive installations are spread across two rooms, comprising an immersive projection space that requires the visitor to wade through a technological expanse, to a digital waterfall of information, relaying descriptive knowledge about japanese food.as part of the pavilion, japanese studio nendo has designed a sloping dining table accompanied with a set of matching chairs. the 24 seats align themselves with the height of the table, which ascends gradually so that items placed on its surface do not move. the individual pieces of cutlery and tableware have also been designed by nendo.

Featured on designboom, Apr 21, 2015

teamlab's immersive installations infill the japan pavilion for expo milan 2015

teamlab’s immersive installations infill the japan pavilion for expo milan 2015teamlab’s immersive installations infill the japan pavilion for expo milan 2015 all images courtesy of teamlabunder the theme of ‘harmonious diversity’, teamlab showcases two art exhibits within the expo 2015 milan japan pavilion. the interactive installations are spread across two rooms, comprising ab immersive projection space that requires the visitor to wade through a technological expanse, to a digital waterfall of information, relaying descriptive knowledge about japanese food.rice fields are the backbone of japan’s food culture. in order to demonstrate the importance of paddy fields for the japanese people, both traditionally and culturally, teamlab describe the necessary relationship between humans and nature. the exhibition space is infilled with an interactive art installation comprising a sea of screens resembling ears of rice. these screens have been installed at varying heights throughout the room — spanning from visitors’ knees to waist — creating an interactive projection space that seems to spread out infinitely.the projected images that make up ‘harmony‘ change with visitors’ movements as they meander through the vast expanse, making them both appear and feel as if they are wading their way through rice fields. as they wander around, people can experience the passing of nature that is characteristic of japan across the period of a whole year.teamlab expo exhibitsjapan pavilionthe exhibition space is infilled with a sea of screens resembling ears of riceteamlab expo exhibitsjapan pavilionvisitors appear and feel as if they are wading their way through rice fieldsjapan, as a country surrounded by mountains and sea, undergoes many changes with the passing of seasons. rivers can drastically change in volume from the melting snow in the spring to the typhoon season. ‘diversity’ uses the image of a waterfall to represent water, a symbol at the heart of japan’s food culture.the artwork seeks to convey large volumes of information related to the great variety of japanese food. in order to achieve this, the ethnologically-enhanced installation comprises a gigantic waterfall that can be viewed from a 360 degree circumference. the interactive display visualizes individual images of food: visitors can touch the images that flow down the length of the waterfall and transfer the digital pictures onto their smartphones. the photos are accompanied by detailed information about the origin and importance of the food, which they can then take home with them. teamlab expo exhibitsjapan pavilion‘diversity’ uses the image of a waterfall to represent nature and the origins of lifeteamlab expo exhibitsjapan pavilionthe artwork seeks to convey large volumes of information related to the great variety of japanese foodteamlab expo exhibitsjapan pavilionvisitors can touch the images and transfer the image to their smartphone