teamLab: Dance! Art Exhibition, Learn & Play! Future Park | teamLab

Pointillism uses an accumulation of distinct dots of color to create a picture, here light points are used to create three-dimensional objects. This interactive artwork expresses the universe through accumulated light points.

People can use their smartphones to select elements that make up the universe by dragging them and releasing them into The Crystal Universe. Each element of the universe sent into the work influences that of other elements and is influenced by the presence of people in the space.

This artwork is forever evolving, changing moment to moment due to the people in the space.

When no one is in the Butterfly House space, it is completely dark and nothing exists. When people enter the Butterfly House space, butterflies emerge from their bodies, and flutter from their feet to the floor. If people touch the butterflies they scatter.
The butterflies fly into the displays or out of the space, transcend the boundaries of other works, and fly into the other artworks. Then, when they enter another space they continue as a new artwork. The butterflies fly seamlessly between other works, blurring the boundaries between them.In the Borderless World, the butterflies are all created solely by the presence of people in the Butterfly House. If the number of butterflies that die when people touch them is more than the number people create, this artwork will cease to exist.When this artwork disappears, butterflies no longer enter the other spaces, and the artworks of butterflies in each space will no longer appear.

A calligraphic series of brush strokes modeled in virtual 3-D space forms the character 生 (Japanese/Chinese for life) which transforms into a tree. As time passes, various life forms begin to grow from within the tree.
 
This artwork was created by peeling away the surface of the artwork Life Survives by the Power of Life, 2011.
 
In computer graphics, and similarly in this digital work, wireframe models created with high levels of data are rendered as 3-D objects. When the surfaces of these computer-generated images are peeled away, their underlying mesh-like structures are revealed. Expressed by the intricacy of this work, teamLab exemplifies 3-D rendering in its stripped-down state while maintaining a highly complex and elaborate construction.

Nature brings us both blessings and disaster, and with the progress of civilization there are benefits and negative implications; nature and civilization are always connected. There is no absolute evil or true beauty. There is no easy way to understand, no simple way to arrange our feelings and our sensitivities. We must face every situation as it comes, to not despair, to face forward, and to go on with life.

teamLab has been working on the Spatial Calligraphy series since the collective formed. Spatial Calligraphy offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese sho (calligraphy) in an abstract space. It reconstructs Japanese sho in three-dimensional space and expresses the depth, speed, and power of the brushstroke. Butterflies, birds, animals, plants, and flowers appear from the calligraphy expressing the passing of the seasons. According to Zen Buddhist writing, “In all living things Buddha nature dwells.” All things are impermanent and the natural appearance of things is the Buddha nature. What we put into shape is that which we, the living, think is the heart of life.

Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) was an early modern Japanese painter who was active in Kyoto in the mid-Edo period. Jakuchū has left us with a unique style of painting in which the surface is made up of a grid of tens of thousands of squares that are individually colored. Nirvana was inspired by the screen paintings Birds, Animals, and Flowering Plants and Trees, Flowers, Birds and Animals.

Jakuchū’s square paintings remind us of computer-generated pixel art. It has been proposed that Jakuchū’s squares pictures were inspired by industrial production constraints in the designs of Nishijin (traditional high-quality silk fabric that is woven in Nishijin, Kyoto). Pixel art was also born from functional limitations. Those functional limitations no longer exist but pixel art is still a very popular form of expression. This is perhaps why we feel an intuitive digital sense to Jakuchū's square works. The colors of Jakuchū’s work are the result of the optical phenomena of visual mixing of color combinations within the squares. It appears as if Jakuchū understood optical mixing of colors at a time before Impressionism and Pointillism.

This artwork was created in a virtual 3-D space in which 3-D animals move. The space was then converted into what teamLab calls ultrasubjective space. Then,  the color in the 3-D space is split by the color pattern of the squares. For example, if the pattern of a square is colored in red and blue, that part corresponds to purple in the three dimensional space.

The squares of the screen are fixed while the space continues to move, and thus the color inside the squares is on a different time axis to the space. Seen as a whole from a distance, brilliantly shining  colors occur, and the world of plants and animals in the space will move at a slow time axis. When viewed up close, the colors divided by the finely drawn patterns of each square will change on a rapid time axis. Two time axes co-exist in this work.

In addition, parts of the image squares are filled in with the most frequent color in the squares, forming an abstract world. The plants and animals move in space, but are abstracted by the fixed squares on-screen, creating a new visual expression through pixel art.

Graffiti Nature is created by you. The more animals and flowers that you draw and color, the more this nature world expands around you. Your drawing is somewhere in Graffiti Nature. Can you find it? Animals are eaten by other animals, but if they do not eat they will die and disappear. When the animals that you draw eat other animals, their numbers increase. Butterflies increase in places where there are flowers. All are part of one ecosystem. If you step on Crocodiles too much they will die. If you stand still flowers will blossom around you. If you walk around, the flowers will scatter. Search for your animals, and whilst making the flowers bloom, explore the world that everyone has created.

Sketch Town is a town that grows and evolves according to the pictures drawn by children.

After the 2-D drawings of the cars, buildings, UFOs, and spaceships are completed, they are scanned, become 3-D and enter a virtual 3-D townscape. Every component of the town has a role to play; for example, the fire trucks and cranes serve to protect the town. Children can interact with the final townscape by touching individual components to alter their behavior.

Rolling a light-ball changes its color and sound. Combined, the light-balls form an orchestra!

 The overhead light-balls communicate with those on the floor, as one is touched,  the surrounding balls will be affected, changing the color of the entire space. Roll the light-ball in front of you and it will change color and release sound. In the same space participants use their bodies, interacting with the different-sized light-balls to change the color of the space and to make music.

When people touch the characters that represent mountains, trees, birds, etc., that are projected on the wall, the world of the characters appears and a story is born. The objects that emerge from the symbols influence one another and are influenced by the actions of other people. For example, a bird lands on a tree, a sheep runs away from a dog, and a sheep dances as a child approaches it.

Create a city where trains, cars, boat and planes run, by placing connecting blocks on the table.The same type of blocks can connect to each other, allowing vehicles to run along roads and train tracks created by the connections. The vehicles will evolve as you connect more blocks. What you see in the air is the view from a helicopter. You can change the helicopter's flight route with the yellow cube connecting blocks.