Deep-time Sculpted Existence
2026
People are usually unable to perceive the existence of periods of time far longer than their own lives, and that that time is continuous with the now. There is a cognitive boundary in people’s recognition of the continuity of time.
However, when confronting the exposed strata of a cliff edge, people realize that an endlessly long accumulated time is inherent within its overwhelming form and texture. Strata, cliffs, valleys, caves, waterfalls, and deep forests—here, the earth’s time, upheaval, erosion, the flow of water, and the activities of life overlap, rising as a colossal existence.
teamLab named this colossal existence that is carved by eternal time, Deep-time Sculpted Existence.
Deep-time Sculpted Existence is not humans sculpting the earth, but rather it captures the existence sculpted by the earth’s time, upheaval, erosion, and the flow of water, as a place where continuous life and the human present intersect.
This is a concept that extends the idea of Digitized Nature—where nature itself becomes art as it is, without being damaged—into the scale of geological time. Nature appears not only as space, but as an existence enclosing deep time. Deep-time Sculpted Existence opens up this existence as a place where time, life, the environment, and the body are continuous.
In Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Deep Time, a giant canyon of strata shaped by the Deep-time Sculpted Existence, flowers repeat the cycle of life and death, and the time of continuous life flows. The world of the artwork transforms due to the presence of people living in the now.
Entering the depths of the valley and wandering through it, the endlessly long accumulated time becomes apparent not as the distant past, but as continuous with this very moment. As the earth’s time, the time of continuous life, and the human present overlap, people physically realize that their own existence is part of a boundless continuity.
Deep-time Sculpted Existence presents existence sculpted by the earth’s time as a place where humans enter and physically realize the continuity of time. It explores dissolving the cognitive boundary toward time.
People do not view the world from the outside. They exist within a place where a long time, life, the environment, and the body are continuous, and within it, they perceive existence.
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Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Deep Time
teamLab, 2026, from the series <i>Ever Blossoming Life Waterfall - Deep in the Mountains of Shikoku</i>, 2016-, Interactive Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
The deep valleys and sheer cliffs of the Yoro Valley were formed over hundreds of thousands of years as the earth lifted layers of rock that had accumulated over 3 million years. The flow of water carved out the strata, exposing the memories of the earth.*
People are usually unable to perceive the existence of periods of time far longer than their own lives, and that that time is continuous with the now. However, when confronting the exposed cliffs of the strata, people realize that an endlessly long accumulated time is inherent within its overwhelming shape and texture.
We named this giant existence carved by eternal time, Deep-time Sculpted Existence.
Within this giant existence, flowers repeat the cycle of life and death, the time of continuous life flows, and it continues to transform due to the existence of people living in the present.
Entering the depths of the valley, wandering, and becoming one with this overwhelming existence, it becomes apparent that the endlessly long accumulated time is continuous with this very moment.
And when walking through the overlap of these two times, people physically realize that their own existence is part of a boundless continuity of a long, long time.
* In Yoro Valley, there is a geomagnetic reversal stratum that retains the clearest traces in the world of the reversal of the earth's magnetic field (North and South poles). Due to the historical value of this stratum, the geological age from approximately 774,000 to 129,000 years ago has been named, Chibanian (Chiba Age), the first geological age to be named after a place in Japan.
Ever Blossoming Life Waterfall - Deep in the Mountains of Shikoku
teamLab, 2016 - 2017, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
Flowers bloom and scatter for eternity onto a powerful waterfall and the rocks, formed of a long period of time, that surround it. A seasonal year of the the flowers of this region change over time.
Flowers are born, they grow, bud, bloom, and eventually scatter, wither, and fade away. The flowers are in a continuous cycle of birth and death, repeating forever.
Life has been created on an overwhelming scale and time span over billions of years on Earth, repeating on an eternal life cycle. However, it is difficult for humans to easily perceive this.
Rocks are inorganic and non-living, over the years the natural shape of the rock is modeled by the waterfall. As a result the rock can be thought of as a sculptural block that embodies the power of life.
Flowers Bloom under the Waterfall in the Gorge - Ōboke Koboke
teamLab, 2016, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
The world we know has been created by the powerful cycle of life, repeating endlessly on an overwhelming scale over billions of years on earth.
Water is the source of life. Flowers bloom and scatter for eternity on the surface of the water as the forcefully flowing river collides with the sides of the gorge. The flowers are born, they grow, bud, bloom, and eventually scatter, wither, and fade away. In other words, the flowers go through the cycle of birth and death eternally.
The waterfall falls over a cliff that has been formed over a long period of time by the strong flowing river that runs through the steep rock face of the gorge. The fall of the waterfall is physically calculated in relation to the actual cliff form onto which it is projected. The water is represented as a continuous body of hundreds of thousands of water particles. A computer calculates the movement and interaction of the particles to produce a simulation of water that flows in accordance with the laws of physics. Lines are drawn in relation to a selection of the particles, this collection of lines depicts a waterfall on the steep cliff of the gorge.
This artwork is in continuous change; over a period of one hour a seasonal year of flowers blossoms and scatters. Neither a prerecorded animation nor on loop, the work is rendered in real time by a computer program. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.