Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life

teamLab, 2016, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life

teamLab, 2016, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

When no one is in the space, it is completely dark and nothing exists. When people enter the space and stand still, butterflies are born from their feet where they stand, or from their hands where they touch the wall. When people touch the butterflies themselves, the butterflies die.

The butterflies fly beyond borders and through other artworks, entering monitors or leaving rooms, dissolving the boundaries between artworks and flying through other works. By flying seamlessly through the other pieces, the artwork is freed from the concept of “frames” and blurs the boundaries between works. The butterflies are influenced by other artworks as they fly.

Only the butterflies born from people fly in this exhibition. If people kill more butterflies than they create, this artwork will cease to exist.

The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back: it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork: previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.