The Way of the Sea in the Crystal World

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Installation of Light Sculpture, LED, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

The Way of the Sea in the Crystal World

teamLab, 2018, Interactive Installation of Light Sculpture, LED, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

This work starts when the shoal of fish from The Way of the Sea enters the Crystal World space inside teamLab Borderless. The work ends when the shoal of fish leaves the space and disappears.

The fish sense people and try to avoid them. People in the space are assigned a color, when the fish pass close to a person they are dyed by the color of that person.

Pointillism uses an accumulation of distinct dots of color to create a picture, here light points are used to create three-dimensional objects. The fish that are drawn by light points swim freely around the space. A visual illusion due to continuous dynamic behavior, causes the body of people in the space to be immersed in the shoal of fish. The boundary between the body and the artwork world dissolve. As the shared world of the artwork changes, due to your existence and that of others in the work, people dissolve into the artwork and perhaps feel a sense of unity with others.

The movement of thousands of fish and birds is beautiful and mysterious, like a single giant life form. The flock has neither a leader nor mutual consensus, but moves on the simple basis of; if my neighbour moves, then I move too. The biological mechanism that causes flocks of hundreds of fish and birds to move at the same time is enigmatic. It seems there is a universal principle that humans do not understand. Likewise, the coloring of the flock is not predetermined. Influenced by the presence of people, the space becomes a complex and beautiful coloration. This coloration is created by the movement of each fish and bird obeying some kind of primitive rule.

The work is rendered in real time by a computer program, it is neither a prerecorded animation nor imagery on loop.The work as a whole is in constant change; previous states will never be repeated and can never be seen again.