CURATE | ART
The output of Japanese art collective teamLab, although powered by computer language and algorithms unfathomable to the masses, is enjoyed by children and adults. Some 470,000 visitors attended its first large-scale exhibition in Tokyo, which opened last year. It hardly comes as a surprise that the collective’s latest show at the ArtScience Museum has garnered much attention. Future World: Where Art Meets Science spans 1,500 square metres, occupying approximately a quarter of the ArtScience Museum’s real estate. It also marks a couple of firsts. It is teamLab’s first permanent showcase at such a scale outside Japan, as well as the ArtScience Museum’s first permanent landmark exhibition. Fifteen installations come together and are sorted into sections titled Nature, Town, Park and Space. When co-curating the artworks, the ArtScience Museum envisioned the digital environments to inspire fun, play and contemplation, like a visit to a national park or garden. As a result, some of the artworks respond to the unique participation and presence of the audience, evolving over time. The exhibition opens with three coinciding artworks. A scented room is filled with digital flora, programmed to bloom in tandem with the four seasons. However, as visitors navigate the space, their actions affect the growth of the flowers and the behaviour of passing butterflies, and hence, they change the artwork. teamLab believes that this creates relationships between visitors; each person contributes to the perceived artwork of the next person. This concept of co-creation stems from teamLab’s intrinsic formation. The team consists of artists, programmers, engineers, CGI animators, mathematicians, architects, designers and editors. Often, a group of five to 60 specialists are assigned to collaborate on an artwork that may take three to 18 months to materialise, depending on the scale. As opposed to traditional paintings or sculpture, which are often set in stone when completed, teamLab’s work evolves through experiment or the emergence of new technology. Crystal Universe, an orchestration of 170,000 LED lights, utilises
Above: In the ‘Park’ section, Universe of Water Particles depicts an eight-metre-high waterfall and forms the centerpiece of the exhibition. Photo: teamLab
teamLab’s ‘Interactive 4-D Vision’ technology, creating impressions of various astrophysical phenomena from planets to galaxies. This piece of work took some time to materialise due to its complexity and production cost. According to teamLab, initial testing began in a commercial venue where a three-dimensional LED Christmas tree was created. The installation at Future World has advanced from that early version with sound effects, and can furthermore be controlled by visitors who may change the setting of the ‘stars’ on the spot. Most of teamLab’s artworks can also adopt new methods of display and adapt to different venues. During i Light Marina Bay 2016, visitors witnessed teamLab’s What a Loving and Beautiful World – a work that formed the collective’s debut showing (with Sisyu) in Singapore two years ago at Ikkan Art Gallery. In that past showing, the artwork filled a room, inviting the audience to physically touch it. This year’s version, projected on the facade of the ArtScience Museum, made physical contact impossible, and hence changes in the artwork were triggered by the use of an app. The ArtScience Museum states that it has always been part of its agenda to host a permanent, yet changing exhibition. However, this was delayed because the right partner had not been found. On why teamLab makes the ideal partner, the Executive Director of the ArtScience Museum Honor Harger suggests, “[T]he melding of art and science is so core to [teamLab’s] philosophy, and that is what we have been designed to do as a museum – to show what happens when you bring together art, science and technology. We genuinely believe that the coming together of these fields will give us the best chance at creating the solutions to some of the problems we face in society.” In the artwork 100 Years Sea Animation Diorama, a ten-minute animation illustrates the world’s rising sea levels over the span of a century using scientific data from the World Wildlife Foundation. At the peak of the installation, the viewer is faced with the illusion of being swallowed by the sea – an attempt to encourage reflections on the impact of one’s actions on the natural
world. Concludes Harger, “The belief that we are somewhat apart from nature has become an emergent existential issue. We need projects that create meaningful connections between people and the environment.” «
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