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 People
This 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.

Flowers are blooming and scattering for eternity on a large rock (5.5m in height, 4.6m in width, and 6.5m in depth) that is covered in moss. A year of seasonal flowers from the area bloom throughout an hour, continuously scattering and changing.

Flowers are born, grow, bud, bloom, and eventually scatter, wither and disappear. The flowers are in a continuous cycle of life and death, repeating forever.

Our own existence is part of this continuity of life and death, repeating endlessly, for an overwhelming length of time, for billions of years. However, it is difficult to perceive this in everyday life.
The eternal birth and death of the flowers on the large rock, causes us to realize that the existence of life itself is part of a continuous cycle of life and death.
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.

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).

The azaleas spread beneath the cliffs of Mt. Mifuneyama in the azalea valley shine brightly. Each azalea's sphere light is autonomous shining brightly and then fading, as if breathing slowly.
When people pass by or approach the azaleas, the color of the light changes and a new color resonates out. Then, the light of that tree radiates out and is transmitted to nearby azaleas in the valley. The propagated light of the azaleas will again resonate, and the color will continue to resonate to nearby azaleas in the valley.
These azaleas are said to have been created by Motozo Sakamoto of the Arima Clan azalea breeding in the late Edo Period during the Tenpo Era (1830 - 1843 C.E.). The azaleas were planted right at the opening of Mifuneyama Rakuen in 1845 C.E.

About 1,300 years ago, the famous monk Gyoki, who would later create the Great Buddha in Nara, 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. Also at that time, he carved a hole next to the Three Buddhas, into which water has collected over 1,300 years without ever going dry. This water has long been used as medicinal water.
The calligraphy moves back and forth between the cave and the rock wall outside. The calligraphy is drawn across the surface of a series of three-dimensional caves and walls, where it rotates in three dimensions.The light calligraphy is black, meaning there is no light, thus making it indistinguishable from the darkness of the cave. The darkness of the calligraphy and the cave become one, and the spatial calligraphy is continuously written on the rock wall.
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 of space that 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 space, a new set of lines is born and spreads across the space.Through this artwork, the forest becomes a flattened plane.
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: previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.

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.

The Floating Tree exists near the entrance to the path to the ancient sacred tree.
The ancient sacred tree is a giant tree over 3,000 years old. The roots of the sacred tree are wrapped in rough bark, with their central section split open near the surface of the ground. The interior is a hollow space about 22 square meters in size, with a stone shrine in the back.
When the garden was built towards the end of the Edo period (1845 CE), efforts were made to find a path connecting the garden to the sacred tree based on the theory that there was a hidden path in the forest. A path made from stones was discovered, and the entrance  was restored.

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.

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).