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

Masses (Megaliths) of different space-times are clustered in the bath house ruins.The forest surrounding the bath house ruins is home to 3,000-year-old trees, and it changes daily with the imperceptible, slow flow of time, repeating every year, as a space where the endlessly long time accumulates. The ruins from ages past scattered in the forest and the Edo-period garden which remains today each have their own respective space-times. The bath house was made in modern times, but after just a short period, it was abandoned, becoming a space-time where time had stopped completely. And this group of megaliths is also a mass made up of compressed space-times where the flow of time varies. Here, various space-times intersect and overlap.
Each megalith is surrounded by similarly standing megaliths, the space-times of which are all connected. 
The artwork is continuously rendered in real time by a computer program. It is neither prerecorded, nor on loop. As a whole, previous states never recur, and the artwork is continuously changing due to the movement of people. Every moment is unique and can never be seen again.
The following artworks exist in the artwork space of the three-dimensional objects grouped in these bath house ruins.
・Flowers and PeopleThis artwork is in a state of continuous change. Over a period of one hour, a year’s worth of seasonal flowers blossoms and scatters. The flowers bud, grow, and blossom before their petals begin to wither and eventually fade away. The cycle of growth and decay repeats itself in perpetuity. If a person stays still, the flowers surrounding them grow and bloom more abundantly.
・Universe of Water Particles When people approach the artwork, the flow of the water changes. The movement of people influences the artwork, causing it to evolve continuously, while the artwork influences other works. For instance, the water causes the flowers in the work Flowers and People to scatter.
Water is represented by a continuum of numerous water particles. The interaction between the particles is calculated and then lines are drawn in relation to the behavior of the water particles. The lines are “flattened” using what teamLab considers to be ultrasubjective space.

이끼가 자란 거석(높이 5.5m, 폭 4.6m, 깊이 6.5m)에, 꽃들이 끝없이 피고 진다. 1시간 동안, 이 지역에서 1년간 자라는 꽃들이 피고 지며,  변화해 간다.
꽃은 태어나고, 성장하고, 꽃봉오리를 맺고, 꽃을 피우고, 이윽고 지고, 시들고, 사라진다. 즉, 꽃은 탄생과 죽음을 끊임없이 반복한다.
 
‘나 자신’이라는 존재는, 수십억 년이라는 어마어마하게 긴 시간 동안 끝없이 반복되어 온 ‘생명의 생(生)과 사(死)의 연속성’위에 자리한다.  그러나 일상에서는 이를 지각하기가 좀처럼 쉽지 않다.
기나긴 세월에 걸쳐 형태를 갖춰온 거대한 암석의 조형 그 자체에, 꽃들의 탄생과 죽음이 끝없이 반복되었을 때, 긴 삶과 죽음이라는 생명의 연속성상에서, 생명이 존재함을 느끼는 것이다.

작품은 컴퓨터 프로그램에 의해 실시간으로 계속해서 그려지고 있다. 미리 기록된 영상을 재생하는 것이 아니다. 이전의 상태가 복제되지 않고, 전체가 계속해서 변모된다. 지금 이 순간의 그림은 두 번 다시 볼 수 없다.

Each of the lamps on the water’s surface floats autonomously. When a person pushes or stands still near a lamp, or when the wind blows a lamp, it shines brightly and emits a sound. The light of that lamp is transmitted to nearby lamps one by one, as the sound is continuously emitted. The transmitted light always travels through each of the lamps only once, shining brightly, as it propagates through all of the lamps. People become aware of the presence of others in the same space.

The light is transmitted in such a way that the total distance it travels as short as possible. In other words, the light travels in a single stroke along the shortest route through all of the lamps only once.

The resonating lamps on the water’s surface change location moment by moment.
Because the total distance covered by the propagating light is the shortest possible, even if the same lamp starts to shine, the path of light changes every moment.

When the wind is not blowing and people are not nearby, the lamps begin to blink slowly.

When the transmitted light meets with a light originating from a different starting point, the lamp where the two lights meet shines brightly for longer. People will surely feel the presence of others in the same space.

*The lamps are made of Murano glass (Venetian glass).

미후네야마 절벽 밑으로 펼쳐진 철쭉 계곡의 영산홍이 밝게 빛난다. 철쭉의 반구형의 빛은 자율적으로 천천히 호흡하듯 점멸한다. 
철쭉은 사람들이 가까이에 멈춰 서면 밝게 빛나며 소리를 낸다. 그리고 그 빛은 방사선 모양으로 근처에 있는 철쭉나무로 퍼져나간다. 전달된 빛은 같은 식으로 소리를 내며 차차 옆에 있는 철쭉나무로 번져나가며 점점 확산된다. 
이 영산홍은 1830 ~ 1843년에 무사 아리마와 사카모토가 개발한 품종으로 알려져 있다. 미후네야마 정원이 1845년에 개원했으므로, 당시에 가장 새로운 품종이었던 철쭉을 심었다고 할 수 있다. 

약 1300년 전, 명승 교키가 미후네야마에 입산하여 세 개의 동굴에 오백나한을 새기고, 세 번째 동굴에 삼불체를 새겼다고 전해진다. 그때 삼불체를 새기면서 옆에 구멍이 생겼고, 그 후 1300년간 구멍에 물이 마르지 않고 고여있다고 한다. 이 물은 예부터 많은 사람들이 약수로 마셔왔다.

빛으로 그려진 붓글씨의 먹은 빛이 없음을 의미하며, 동굴 깊숙이 자리한 어둠과 구분이 가지 않는다. 붓글씨와 동굴의 어둠이 하나가 되어 암벽에 영원히 공서(空書)를 써 나간다.

공서란 공간에 쓰는 붓글씨를 뜻한다. 글씨의 먹자국이 갖는 굵기와 속도, 강한 힘 등을, 새로이 해석해 공간에 입체적으로 재구축하고 있다.

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.

The forest in the ravine shines 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 tree 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 the 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.

In the ruins discovered at the end of a long, underground tunnel in Mifuneyama Rakuen, small microcosms of accumulated space times are spread. A group of butterflies in the microcosm dances beyond the boundaries of the time and space of the ruins.

The forest above the underground tunnel is home to 3,000-year-old trees, and it changes daily with the imperceptible, slow flow of time, repeating every year, as a space where the endlessly long time accumulates. The ruins from ages past scattered in the forest and the Edo-period garden which remains today each have their own respective space-times. The forgotten underground tunnel is a space-time where time has stopped completely.

And the microcosms that are spread through the ruins of the underground tunnels also have their own space-times. Here, various space-times intersect and overlap.

한 잔의 차(茶)를 끓이면 그 안에 꽃들이 피어난다. 그릇을 손에 들면 꽃은 지고, 꽃잎은 그릇 밖으로 퍼져간다. 꽃들은 잔에 차가 들어있는 한 무한히 피어난다. 그릇 안의 차는 꽃들이 계속해서 피어나는 무한의 세계가 된다. 그 무한히 펼쳐지는 세계를 그대로 마신다. 차는 변용(變容)적인 존재인 차의 양에 따라, 피어나는 꽃들의 크기도 변해간다.차가 존재할 때 처음으로 작품이 탄생한다. 차를 전부 마시면 더이상 작품은 존재하지 않는다.
차에 피는 꽃은 현실의 시간의 흐름에 따라 변해간다.
작품은 영원히 변화한다. 지금 이 순간의 장면은 두 번 다시 볼 수 없다.

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).