Matter is Void - Black in White

teamLab, 2022, Digital Work, Endless

Matter is Void - Black in White

teamLab, 2022, Digital Work, Endless

Through the artwork, Matter is Void, teamLab explores the notion of ownership.

This is an NFT artwork. There is only one NFT of this work, but it does not make it exclusive. Anyone and any number of people can download and own the artwork itself. In other words, whether or not someone owns the NFT of the work, it cannot be distinguished from the downloaded artworks and they are all real.

The artwork displays the words chosen by teamLab, Matter is Void. Only the NFT owner can modify these words, and those same words will be reflected in the artwork downloaded by people around the world.

Depending on the words chosen by the owner of the NFT, the value of the artwork will change. If the words rewritten by the owner of the NFT possess value, more people may choose to own the artwork; and if the words do not possess value, people may no longer choose to display the work. There may be great value in rewriting the words of an artwork that many people look at, and conversely little value in rewriting the words of an artwork that is not displayed anywhere. Depending on the words chosen by the owner of the NFT, the value of the NFT will also likely change.

Once the original words are modified, even if the owner of the NFT decides to change them back to “Matter is Void”, the words will appear differently from the original; the initial Matter is Void, once modified, will not be able to be seen in its original state ever again.


The letters of the words in this artwork continuously revolve and rotate. Depending on the angle we may be able to recognize the letters as they continue to rotate, and there will be moments when we can recognize the meaning of the letters as a whole, but once again, they will become indiscernible and the words lose meaning.The way in which the words revolve is visually perceived as moving simultaneously clockwise and counterclockwise, and depending on which movement is consciously followed, the words can appear to be moving in either direction.