teamLab Massless Beijing | teamLab

Life is an order of energy.
In this artwork space, like life, we created an order of energy. In doing so, a giant white mass is born, and emerges afloat.

The sculpture, a giant white mass, neither sinks down to the floor nor reaches the ceiling, floating as though transcending the concept of mass. The contour of this floating sculpture’s existence is ambiguous, becoming smaller when it tears and growing larger when the masses come together. People can enter this sculpture with their entire body, and even if the sculpture breaks, it naturally repairs itself like a living thing. But, as with living things, when the sculpture is destroyed beyond what it can repair, it cannot mend itself, and collapses. Even if people try to move or push this floating sculpture, they cannot do so. If they stir up the wind, the sculpture will scatter.

What is life in biological terms? Viruses, for example, are considered to exist somewhere between living and inanimate because they do not have cells, the smallest unit of biological life, nor do they have the ability to self-reproduce. What separates the living from the inanimate cannot be defined biologically to this day.

Objects like stones and man-made creations maintain a stable structure on their own. A stone can continue to exist in a closed box, sealed off from the outside world, but life cannot sustain its existence in such a box because it is not an independent structure that can exist on its own.

Life is like a vortex created in the ocean. The vortex cannot maintain a stable structure on its own; rather, it is created and sustained by water that continuously flows inwards and outwards.
The vortex is an existence within the flow, and its contour is ambiguous.

The same is true of life. It consumes external matter and energy as food and discharges it, sustaining its ordered structure as the energy dissipates. Life exists within the flow of matter and energy, and its contour, like a vortex, is ambiguous.
Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges in the flow of matter and energy, and its structure is the order of energy created by that flow.

In terms of material substance, the only things that exist in this space are ordinary soap, water, and air. The bubbles are soap bubbles.
Although life cannot be strictly defined with modern biology, everything that is structured upon cells, metabolizes, and self-reproduces, is conveniently labeled living things. In other words, all living things are composed of cells. All cells are surrounded by a cell membrane composed of a lipid bilayer with the hydrophilic part facing outwards and the hydrophobic part covered within the layers. Both the inside and outside of the enveloping membrane are liquid.
Soap bubbles are similarly enveloped by  lipid bilayer membranes, and the membranes of the bubbles that make up this sculpture are structurally identical to cell membranes. However, contrary to cells, the bilayer of the bubble membrane floats in and encloses air, so the hydrophobic part faces outwards, while the hydrophilic part is covered within the layers. In other words, if we consider cells to be pouch-shaped membranes in liquid, bubbles are pouch-shaped membranes in air.

The space is filled with soap bubbles to create a unique environment in which an order of energy is born. By doing so, an immense white mass emerges from this sea of bubbles that floats steadily in mid-air.
This sculpture is created from substances composed in the same ways as cells, the structuring units of life-forms, and the order of energy created from this unique environment.

A seasonal year of flowers bloom and change with time, life spreads out into the universe.
Lie down or sit still in the space and eventually your body floats and you dissolve into the artwork world.

Flowers grow, bud, bloom, and in time, the petals fall, and the flowers wither and die. The cycle of birth and death continues for perpetuity.
The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back; it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the artwork in real time. As a whole, it is continuously changing, and previous visual states are never replicated. The universe at this moment in time can never be seen again.

The seasons change gradually across the installation space.
A seasonal year of flowers blossom according to the changing seasons, and the place where they grow gradually moves.

The flowers bud, grow, and blossom before their petals begin to wither and eventually fade away. The cycle of growth and decay repeats itself in perpetuity. If a person stays still, the flowers surrounding them grow and bloom more abundantly. If viewers touch or step on the flowers, they shed their petals, wither, and die all at once.

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.

In spring in the Kunisaki Peninsula, there are many cherry blossoms in the mountains and canola blossoms at their base. This experience of nature caused teamLab to wonder how many of these flowers were planted by people and how many were native to the environment. It is a place of great serenity and contentment, but the expansive body of flowers is an ecosystem influenced by human intervention, and the boundary between the work of nature and the work of humans is unclear. Rather than nature and humans being in conflict, a healthy ecosystem is one that includes people. In the past, people understood that they could not grasp nature in its entirety, and that it is not possible to control nature. People lived more closely aligned to the rules of nature that created a comfortable natural environment. We believe that these valleys hold faint traces of this premodern relationship with nature that once existed, and we hope to explore a form of human intervention based on the premise that nature cannot be controlled.

In the same flow of time as in the real world, flowers change with the seasons.Flowers repeat the cycle of birth and death, proliferation and extinction, changing along with the seasons. When people touch the flowers, they fall and die. The flowers are also influenced by other works, falling and dying due to other works.
The world of the artwork is flattened through teamLab's concept of Ultrasubjective Space. Unlike when flattening by lenses or perspective, the viewer's viewpoint is not fixed, and the viewer's body is free to move. The wall on which the world of the work is depicted does not become a boundary between the people and the work; the flowers blur the boundary between the walls, and the world of the work is continuous with the space where the people's bodies are located.

Autonomous abstraction.
The dots of light blink and change color in cycles unique to each dot. A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs between dots that are close to each other, and their hues and the rhythm at which they blink gradually synchronize. When people touch them, the rhythm of the blinking hues change and are randomized, but the dots close to each other once again cause a spontaneous order phenomenon between them.
The dots of lights emit a tone each time they blink. The tones can be heard continuously throughout the space; what sounds like music is solely created by the continuous tones produced by the blinking lights.

A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs when different rhythms influence each other and synchronize. Examples include when the pendulums of two clocks gradually begin to swing together; when many fireflies gather in one tree and all start blinking at the same time, creating a larger light as a whole; or when the cells that make up the heart synchronize and tremble simultaneously to create the pulse of the heart. This can be seen in various systems, from physical phenomena, neurophysiology, to ecosystems. Although the individual parts do not have the ability to observe the whole, the phenomenon of self-organization is the creation of an ordered and larger structure, resulting from the autonomous behavior of each individual part influencing each other. This phenomenon is also known as spontaneous order.

It is believed that entropy (a measurement of the lack of order in a system) in the universe will steadily increase (the law of increasing entropy) and that entities with form eventually collapse. Despite that, it is a wonder that the sun was created and the planets were born, that life was formed and societies exist. However, the reason why the universe, life, nature, and society continue to be maintained in spite of this may be because order is continuously formed on its own through the shared phenomenon of self-organization in the midst of disorder. In other words, the universe and our own existence are a continuous order created by the same phenomenon.

Although self and nature seem distinct, they are actually a single entity, inseparable from each other. The opposite of division is not unification, and we might  realize that existences that appear to be distinct are actually part of a single whole.The blessings and threats of nature, as well as the blessings and threats of civilization, are continuous. Neither is there a source of absolute malice, nor can it all be dismissed idealistically. Nonetheless, we seek to affirm life in all aspects. Life is beautiful.
In this artwork, 生 (sei), the character that signifies life, is written three-dimensionally using Spatial Calligraphy. Spatial Calligraphy is a form of calligraphy drawn in space that teamLab has been exploring since it was founded. The artwork reconstructs calligraphy in three-dimensional space to express the depth, speed and power of the brush stroke, and that calligraphy is then flattened using the logical structure teamLab calls Ultrasubjective Space. The calligraphy shifts between two and three dimensions.
The space of a traditional artwork, framed by a lens or perspective, appears to be on the other side of the artwork’s surface: the surface becomes a boundary, and the space where the viewer exists is separated from the artwork space. However, one of the characteristics of Ultrasubjective Space is that the artwork surface does not become a boundary. Thus the space in which the artwork exists, transcends the boundary of the artwork surface and is perceived as though it exists three-dimensionally in the same space where the viewer stands. The artwork space is continuous with the viewer’s physical space.

Rapidly Rotating Bouncing Spheres are spheres that bounce when people step on them. The spheres rotate at high speed, but when people approach them, they stop rotating and become easier to step on.
When people bounce on the spheres, the spheres shine. If they bounce on spheres of the same color in succession, the spheres will pop and particles of light spread out into the space. If people bounce on more spheres of the same color in succession, caterpillars are born. 
The caterpillars move out of the room towards the Balance Stepping Stones in a Flutter of Butterflies space. They make their way through the Balance Stepping Stones in the Invisible World, where if people step on the Balance Stepping Stones, the caterpillars nearby are blown away.

Balance Stepping Stones are stepping stones that wobble in various ways when people step on them.

When people step on the Balance Stepping Stones, butterflies are born and they flutter around the space. When people touch the butterflies, they die.
The flutter of butterflies changes with the seasons, with the flow of time in the real world.

سطح "القفز المتواصل" عبارة عن سطح مرن يمكن للأشخاص القفز عليه، والغوص فيه أو القفز أعلى من المعتاد.  
عند الوقوف على سطح "القفز المتواصل"، يغرق السطح تحت قدميك، مما يؤدي إلى تشكل تشوهات في المكان والزمان. ويجذب هذا التشوه غبار النجوم من الكون ويولد نجومًا جديدة. وإذا قفزت فوق أحد النجوم، يبدأ ذلك النجم بالتحرك، وإذا طاردت النجم وواصلت القفز فوقه، سيكبر النجم. ويؤدي القفز على مذنب أثناء مروره فوق النجم إلى انفجار المذنب ونمو النجم بشكل أكبر بكثير. وعندما تنتهي حياة النجم، يعود إلى غبار نجمي ويتحول إلى لبِنات لنجوم جديدة.ويصبح النجم العملاق والثقيل في النهاية ثقبًا أسود يبتلع جميع النجوم والغبار النجمي المحيط به.

التضاريس الرخوة هي عبارة عن منحدرات ناعمة جدًا ثلاثية الأبعاد. حيث تتدفق حبيبات مختلفة من الضوء من ارتفاعات عالية إلى منخفضة على طول التضاريس، فتشكّل طبقات تعلو بعضها البعض وتولّد نمطًا طبقيًا. وتنخفض الأرض تحت الأشخاص، فتتجمع حبيبات الضوء في هذه المناطق الغارقة، وعندما يسير الأشخاص، تنفجر الحبيبات وتتشابك، وتغيّر نمط الطبقة. 
ومع مرور الوقت في الواقع يتغيّر لون حبيبات الضوء من فصل إلى آخر.

All the various fish drawn by everyone swim around in this ocean.

Color in a fish on the paper provided and see the picture you have colored come to life, swimming out into the ocean in front of you together with fish drawn by other people. If you touch the fish, they will swim away. You can also feed the fish by touching the food bags.

Sometimes, the fish leave the room, transcend the boundaries between artworks, and begin to swim through the museum.

The tuna transcend the physical boundaries of the museum and swim out into the Sketch Ocean or Sketch Aquarium: Connected World artworks in other exhibitions. Similarly, tuna drawn in other exhibitions may appear and swim into the Sketch Ocean right in front of you.

هذا جدار موسيقي يعيش فيه الأقزام.
عندما يتم لصق لصاقات بأشكال مختلفة مثل الفطر أو حظائر الأغنام أو قضبان طويلة على شكل جليد على الجدار، تظهر هذه الأشياء في عالم الأقزام. ويلاحظ الأقزام هذه الأشياء ويبدؤون في القفز عليها.وبحسب شكل اللصاقات، ينزلق الأشخاص الصغار أو يقفزون أو يتسلّقون. وإذا تمت إزالة اللصاقة تبقى في عالم الأقزام لفترة أطول قبل أن تختفي.قُم بإلصاق لصاقات مختلفة على الجدار، وسيلعب الأقزام بكلّ سرور.
بذور ذات وجوه مبتسمة تسقط من الأعلى، وعندما تصطدم باللصاقات، يتم سماع أنغام متنوّعة بحسب نوع وموضع اللصاقة التي اصطدمت بها، ممّا يؤدي إلى تشكل نغمات موسيقية في النهاية.

When a cup of tea is poured, it begins to glow with its own unique rhythm and produces a tone. A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs between the teas close by as they influence each other, gradually syncing the rhythms of light and color of the teas.When you lift the tea to drink it, it shines brightly and the suns of the artwork Massless Suns and Dark Spheres resonate one after the other in response. As you finish the tea, the artwork enters your body and stops influencing its surroundings.
The light color of the tea is Dynamic Equilibrium Color, a new color concept by teamLab. When a person sees the tea in the cup from a distance, taking in its entirety, the color of the light does not appear to change; but when they look closely, observing the miniscule, the color of the light is actually continuously changing, and creating a new sense of time.
A spontaneous order phenomenon occurs when different rhythms influence each other and become aligned. Examples include when the pendulums of two clocks gradually begin to swing together, when many fireflies gather in one tree and all start flashing at the same time, creating a larger light phenomenon, or when the cells that make up the heart synchronize and tremble simultaneously to create the beating of the heart. The phenomenon of self-organization is the creation of a large structure with order resulting from the autonomous behavior of each individual, even though each individual does not have the ability to observe the whole. This can also be called a self-organization phenomenon.
It is believed that entropy (a measurement of the lack of order in a system) in the universe will steadily increase (the law of increasing entropy) and that entities with form eventually collapse. However, the reason why the universe, life, nature, and society are able to exist in spite of this may be because order is born by itself through the common phenomenon of self-organization in the midst of disorder. In other words, the universe and our own existence are a continuous order created by the same phenomenon.

*Location: Inside Sketch FactoryWe do not perceive the world we see, we see the world we perceive.
Spheres made of accumulated rays of light.The light radiates from the center in infinite fine rays, creating its spherical shape. The light source remains motionless, yet the countless lines emitting from it wriggle continuously.
The spheres have no surface boundary, and the perception of the boundary between the artwork and the body is ambiguous. When you try to touch a sphere, your hand goes into the sphere as it does not have a physical boundary. 
What is this sphere? Why do the rays of lines wriggle?Our world is within us.
And if we perceive these spheres made of accumulated lines, the world we perceive will expand, and we may see the spheres of accumulated lines in our daily lives. As the world you perceive changes, the way you see the world goes on to change.