Digitized Nature
2002
Without destroying nature, through non-material digital technology, nature as it is becomes art.
Digitized Nature is an attempt to turn living nature into art through non-physical materials such as light, sound, sensing, and networks. Here, nature is not the background of the artwork. Nature is the field of the artwork, a part of the artwork, and the condition for the artwork’s existence.
Within the form, texture, and change of nature itself, a long stretch of time and continuity with the ecosystem are inherent. There is an overwhelming amount of information that exceeds human understanding. While nature itself is a part of the ecosystem, it also harbors life on its surface and within it, forming ecosystems of its own. Unlike man-made objects, the contours of its existence are ambiguous.
What is happening here is not processing nature as a raw material. The form, texture, and change of nature, the ecosystem it contains, and the environment serve as the conditions for the creation of the artwork. Rather than humans sculpting nature, the form, texture, change, time, life, and relationships that nature itself possesses are opened up as the artwork.
Digitized Nature is an attempt to shift the relationship between nature and art from physical intervention in the landscape to one of non-material coexistence. Without destroying nature, by letting nature remain as it is and become art, people’s awareness opens up from viewing nature as an object to be observed to existing within nature and being continuous with it.
FEATURED WORKS
teamLab, 2014-, Interactive Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi, teamLab
Each tree shines brightly and resonates a tone when people or wild animals approach it. The surrounding trees respond one after another, continuously transmitting the light and tone.
The trees also resonate with surrounding artworks, creating a continuous flow of light and tone with each other. If a wave of light approaches from the depths of the trees, it signifies the presence of people or wild animals there. The artwork space is transformed by the body, the behavior of others and wild animals, as well as the surrounding artworks, making the people and the environment a part of the work.
This artwork is part of the Digitized Nature art project. Digitized Nature is an attempt to explore how nature can become art as it is, without destroying it.
The shapes, textures, and changes of the forest trees themselves inherently contain a long period of time, the continuity of life, and relationships with the ecosystem. While a tree itself is part of an ecosystem, it also hosts life on its surface and inside, forming an ecosystem of its own. Unlike physical objects made by humans, the contours of its existence are ambiguous.
By layering non-physical materials such as sensing, networks, light, and sound onto these trees, the trees, remaining as they are, respond to each other and form a single continuous field as a collective. This is not an attempt by humans to sculpt nature as a material, but an attempt for the trees, shaped over a long period of time and within the ecosystem, to rise up as a resonating collective sculpture just as they are.
Here, humans are not the only ones who change the artwork. The body, others, wild animals, the environment, trees, and surrounding artworks are all connected to the same ecosystem-like responsive field. Individual trees do not exist independently as a single completed entity, but continue to exist within relationships. People do not just look at the artwork; they enter into the resonance of the trees and sense the presence of others, wild animals, and the environment through the continuity of light and sound.
This structure presents nature not as an object outside of the artwork, but as an ecosystem-like field that changes together with people and the environment.
Ever Blossoming Life Waterfall - Deep in the Mountains of Shikoku
teamLab, 2016 - 2017, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
Flowers bloom and scatter for eternity onto a powerful waterfall and the rocks, formed of a long period of time, that surround it. A seasonal year of the the flowers of this region change over time.
Flowers are born, they grow, bud, bloom, and eventually scatter, wither, and fade away. The flowers are in a continuous cycle of birth and death, repeating forever.
Life has been created on an overwhelming scale and time span over billions of years on Earth, repeating on an eternal life cycle. However, it is difficult for humans to easily perceive this.
Rocks are inorganic and non-living, over the years the natural shape of the rock is modeled by the waterfall. As a result the rock can be thought of as a sculptural block that embodies the power of life.
Flowers Bloom under the Waterfall in the Gorge - Ōboke Koboke
teamLab, 2016, Digitized Nature, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
The world we know has been created by the powerful cycle of life, repeating endlessly on an overwhelming scale over billions of years on earth.
Water is the source of life. Flowers bloom and scatter for eternity on the surface of the water as the forcefully flowing river collides with the sides of the gorge. The flowers are born, they grow, bud, bloom, and eventually scatter, wither, and fade away. In other words, the flowers go through the cycle of birth and death eternally.
The waterfall falls over a cliff that has been formed over a long period of time by the strong flowing river that runs through the steep rock face of the gorge. The fall of the waterfall is physically calculated in relation to the actual cliff form onto which it is projected. The water is represented as a continuous body of hundreds of thousands of water particles. A computer calculates the movement and interaction of the particles to produce a simulation of water that flows in accordance with the laws of physics. Lines are drawn in relation to a selection of the particles, this collection of lines depicts a waterfall on the steep cliff of the gorge.
This artwork is in continuous change; over a period of one hour a seasonal year of flowers blossoms and scatters. Neither a prerecorded animation nor on loop, the work is rendered in real time by a computer program. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.
Floating, Resonating Spheres on the Sea - Chura Sun Beach
teamLab, 2017, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
When the spheres of light are touched by a person or receive an impact, the color of their light changes. The light color resonates to the spheres around them causing those spheres to change color, and in turn those spheres resonate the color to the spheres around them, the color resonating out continuously from one sphere to another.