The Way of the Sea in the Memory of Topography - Colors of Life

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

The Way of the Sea in the Memory of Topography - Colors of Life

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This work begins when the shoal of fish from The Way of the Sea enters Memory of Topography, a space that consists of different elevations. The work ends when the shoal of fish leaves the space and disappears.

The shoal of fish rendered in light swim freely around the space. They sense people’s presence and try to avoid colliding with them. People who enter this space are assigned a certain color, and when a fish passes by a person, it takes on the same color.

The artwork and the canvas that mediates it have been separated, and the canvas has become transformative. With the visual illusion created by the continuous dynamic movement in the work, the viewer becomes physically immersed in the shoal of fish, and the boundary between the viewer and artwork dissolves. 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.