This work starts when the shoal of fish from The Way of the Sea enters the Crystal World space inside teamLab Borderless. The work ends when the shoal of fish leaves the space and disappears.

This interactive installation uses an accumulation of light points to create a sculptural body, similar to the way distinct dots of color form an image in pointillist painting. Here, fish depicted by light points swim freely around the space. People are immersed into the shoal of fish due to a visual illusion created by the shoal’s continuous, dynamic behavior, dissolving the boundary between their bodies and the artwork world. As the shared world of the artwork changes due to the presence of each person in the space, perhaps people will feel a sense of unity as they dissolve into the artwork as one.

The movement of thousands of fish is beautiful and mysterious, appearing like a single giant life form. The shoal has neither a leader nor mutual consensus, but it is said that the fish move on the simple basis of; if my neighbor moves, then I move too. However, the biological mechanism that causes hundreds of fish to move at the same time remains a mystery. It seems there is a universal principle that humans have yet to understand. Likewise, the arrangement of color of the shoal is not predetermined. Influenced by people, the fish move, based on a primitive rule unknown to humankind, which in turn creates a complex and beautiful coloration in the space.

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, so previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.