teamlab planets tokyo: a 'body immersive' exhibition of all-encompassing digital art

teamlab has expanded its wildly-popular digital art exhibition from 2016 to form a massive, ‘body immersive’ space comprising a labyrinth of varying virtual experiences. on view for the next two years — ‘teamlab planets tokyo’ presents developed iterations of previously-featured artworks as well as an immense new installation, spread across 10,000 square meters. teamlab views the idea of ‘body immersive’ as a way dissolve the borders between viewer and work. ‘this allows for continuous dynamic behavior, visual phenomena, and the ability to transform the canvas,’ the japanese collective explains. ‘by doing so, the boundaries between the body and the work become ambiguous, which may become the starting point for people to think about their relationship with the world.’

floating in the falling universe of flowers | image courtesy of teamlab

‘teamlab planets tokyo’ will bring some of the collective’s most epic installations to a monumental stage, where visitors engage in a sequence of immersive artworks. ‘my motivation is to create something that people have never seen, felt or experienced before,’ takumi nomoto, CEO of ‘teamlab planets tokyo’ tells designboom. ‘I would love to make a strong positive impact on people and share happy memories. it may be small a step, but I believe that happiness will increase on a global scale if we could make as many visitors as possible happy.’

floating in the falling universe of flowers | image courtesy of teamlab

highlights from the exhibition include, ‘floating in the falling universe of flowers’, a digital installation showing a seasonal year of flowers blooming and changing over time. the artwork is rendered in real time by a computer and is neither pre-recorded nor on loop. any interaction between the viewer and the installation causes constantly-evolving change in the artwork, where flowers grow, bud, bloom, and eventually wither away and die — the cycle of birth and death continues without end.

floating in the falling universe of flowers | video courtesy of teamlab

‘waterfall of light particles at the top of an incline’ is based on a previous work by teamlab, which was projected on a natural waterfall in the mountains of shikoku. here, light particles cascade downward and generate the ethereal image of a surge of luminous water. in the darkness of the exhibition venue, the lit particles leave a trail of light that appears to draw lines in physical space.

waterfall of light particles at the top of an incline | image courtesy of teamlab

while pointillist paintings use an accumulation of distinct dots of color to create a picture, ‘the infinite crystal universe’ uses light points to create three-dimensional objects. this interactive artwork expresses the universe through accumulated luminescence spread infinitely throughout the venue. furthermore, visitors are encouraged to use their smartphones to select elements from the ‘universe’ by dragging them and releasing them into the installation. thus, the work is continuously created by people in the space and, as a result, evolves forever.

the infinite crystal universe | image courtesy of teamlab

the infinite crystal universe | image © designboom

in ‘drawing on the water surface created by the dance of koi and people – infinity’, visitors are invited to take off their shoes and wade knee-high in an abyss of water. virtual fish swim on the surface of water that stretches out into infinity, tracing colorful lines across the space. their movement is influenced by the presence of people in the water — when the fish collide with guests, they turn into flowers and scatter around the space. like ‘floating flowers’, the work is neither pre-recorded nor on loop, meaning previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.

drawing on the water surface created by the dance of koi and people – infinity | image courtesy of teamlab

drawing on the water surface created by the dance of koi and people – infinity | video courtesy of teamlab

drawing on the water surface created by the dance of koi and people – infinity | image © designboom

meanwhile, ‘cold life’ comprises a calligraphic series of brush strokes modeled in virtual 3D space that forms the character 生 (japanese/chinese for life), which transforms into the image of a tree. as time passes, various life forms begin to grow from within the arboreal element. teamlab has been experimenting with the theme of ‘spatial calligraphy’ since the collective formed, and seeks to offer a contemporary interpretation of traditional japanese ‘sho’ in abstract space.

cold life | image courtesy of teamlab

in another area of the exhibition space, ‘expanding three-dimensional existence in transforming space’ is filled with spheres of free floating light. visitors can move through or touch the giant orbs, prompting them to change color and spread the hue to others nearby. light behaves as a group, and can be thought of as one three-dimensional experience.

expanding three-dimensional existence in transforming space – free floating, 12 colors | image courtesy of teamlab

finally, ‘soft black hole – your body becomes a space that influences another body’ is another installation that truly embodies the idea of ‘body immersive’. as they try to walk, visitors feet sink into the ground of a soft and tactile space. the interior itself is affected by the weight of people’s bodies as they move throughout. the installation seeks to remind visitors of the body’s physical presence in every day life.

soft black hole – your body becomes a space that influences another body| image courtesy of teamlab