teamLab: A Forest Where Gods Live – earth music&ecology | teamLab

This work is a projection onto the surface of Mifuneyama Rakuen Pond. Using sensors, the water’s surface has become interactive, and the koi that are projected onto the surface interact with the small boat that floats on the pond. The koi do not have a predetermined action, each koi reacts in relation to the behavior of the koi that are close by to it, and each koi swims independently of the others. The koi gather around small boats that gently float on the water, when the boat moves, the koi disperse. The koi swim according to the behavior of the boats, and the influence of the other koi. The movement of the koi leaves trails that draw the artwork.

The large sacred rock (about 3m in height, 4.5m in width) of Inari Daimyojin shrine of Mifuneyama Park, was reproduced in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a waterfall was simulated to fall onto it. The waterfall was then projection mapped onto the rock in the actual Inari Daimyojin shrine.

The water is expressed as a continuum of numerous water particles and the interaction between the particles is calculated. Lines are drawn according to the behavior of the water particles. The cumulation of lines that represent the waterfall are then “flattened” in line with what teamLab considers to be ultrasubjective space.

The cherry blossoms and maple forest of Mifuneyama Rakuen shine brightly. Each tree’s light is autonomous, shining brightly and then fading as if it’s breathing.

As people pass nearby, the light of the trees changes color, and a tone specific to that color resonates out. The light of an individual tree spreads radially to the neighboring trees. In the same way that the light is transmitted between trees, the tone also propagates through each tree, spreading continuously.

If a wave of light comes from the other side, it signifies the presence of people there. People gain a heightened sense of awareness of the existence of other people in the same space.

This artwork makes use of a large rock (2.4m in height, 4.7m in width) that has been split by a maple tree growing from it. The light that draws the calligraphy is black, meaning there is no light, thus making it indistinguishable from the shadows of the maple breaking the rock. The calligraphy and the shadows become one, drawing the Enso.
Enso is the Zen practice of drawing a circle with a single brush stroke. This artwork depicts an enso drawn as Spatial Calligraphy. The brush stroke is suspended in space but the viewpoint changes to reveal the circle enso. In Zen, enso is a circle that has since ancient times been written with canes or sticks in midair. It is said to represent enlightenment, truth, the entirety of the universe, and equality. The circle also reflects the hearts and minds of those who view it, with its interpretation left to the individual. 
Spatial Calligraphy is calligraphy drawn in space, a form of calligraphy 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.

This artwork exists at the border between the garden and the forest of Mifuneyama Rakuen. The forest behind the artwork leads to the famous 3,000 year-old sacred Okusu tree of Takeo Shrine.When people stop inside the artwork, a new set of lines is born and spreads across the space.Through this artwork, the forest becomes a flattened plane.
The artwork is rendered in real time by a computer program. It is neither a prerecorded animation nor on loop, it is continuously changing. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.

About 1,300 years ago the monk Gyoki entered the caves of Mifuneyama and engraved Five Hundred Arhats into three caves, and carved the Three Buddhas in the far rock of the third cave. The water from the cave has long been used as a medicine water by many people.

When a cup of tea is made, flowers bloom inside the teacup. When the teacup is lifted, the flower petals scatter and spread outside of the cup. Flowers bloom infinitely as long as there is tea. The tea in the teacup becomes an infinite world in which the flowers continue to bloom. Drink in the infinitely expanding world.
Tea is a transformative entity, and the size of the flowers that bloom will change depending on the amount of tea. The artwork is born only when there is tea. Once the tea is drunk, the work no longer exists.
The flowers blooming in the teacup change with the passage of real time.
The artwork is forever changing and the picture at this moment can never be seen again.

Before the modern era in Japan, Kasane no Irome (nuances of layered colors) were seasonal colors created in silk. The complicated colors were the result of a combination of front and back colors (silk at the time was so thin that the liner was transparent, creating more nuanced colors), overlapping color gradations, complex weave colors, and combinations of warp and weft.
When a person stands still close to a lamp, it shines brightly and emits a color that resonates out. The light of this lamp becomes the starting point, and it spreads to the two nearest lamps. The light from the two nearest lamps transmits the same color to other lamps, one after another, spreading out continuously. The light transmitted from the lamp always resonates out as a bright light once, passing to close lamps, until all of the lamps have shone brightly once, and then returns to the first lamp. The light of the lamp in response to human interaction, divides in two, becomes one optical line through all of the lamps respectively, before finally, returning to the first lamp that was the starting point. People become aware of the presence of others in the same space.
All the lamps, seemingly scattered randomly, have a single connecting line (unicursal) that can be drawn. When drawing a line, the stroke (the same starting and ending points) is drawn from a lamp to the lamp that is the closest in distance in three-dimensions. By arranging the lamps in this way, the light of the lamp corresponding to the person is always propagated to the nearest lamp, and must always pass through all the lamps in the space in a single stroke, before finally returning to the first lamp that was its origin.
The arrangement of the lamps is mathematically determined to satisfy a number of restrictions outlined below. A large number of solutions were evaluated that take into account the variation and distribution in the height, the direction of the lamps, and the smoothness of the three-dimensional path (light trajectory).
The hanging lamps are arranged uniformly, in such a way that they form an orderly grid. This is the first constraint. The second constraint is that of the boundaries of the physical space: the distance between the floor and the ceiling, and the height and the width of the passages through which people can move. And the third constraint is that when a line is drawn from any lamp to another lamp in three dimensions, the starting point and the ending point must be connected as a single line (unicursal).
Since the arrangement of the lamps born from such a process seems to be random at first sight, the trajectory of the resonating light cannot be predicted: the light continues to the lamp that is physically closest, thus giving a natural feeling - like a fire burning. And since the light trajectory of the lamps is connected by a single line, the light born from any particular lamp and the light born from any other lamp will always cross each other.
The arrangement of the lamps is not only beautiful in a static way, but also in a dynamic way when activated by people in the space. It demonstrates the space of a new era that can be designed freely and change itself through digital technology, a space that adapts and changes due to the movement of the people in it. 
※The lamp are made of Murano glass (Venetian glass).