Every Wall is a Door
The use of projectors and projections in 2021 is not something that is entirely foreign to our communities anymore. We see them everywhere from SmartBoards in our classrooms to home movie theatres. Digital projections have also become an easy way for people to quickly change up what's on their walls or display new information. With so many avenues and outlets, it should be no surprise that it's become a favourite medium of artists as well.
Today we meet a new art collective, TeamLab. They describe themselves as an "interdisciplinary group of various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world." Based all around the world, from Palo Alto to Geneva to Seoul, their exhibitions have been displayed in many major cities and countries.
one of TeamLab's most famous exhibits: Borderless
At first glance, their art does not seem so complex, just images projected onto the walls and floors of rooms within warehouses and museums. But take a look at the missions of TeamLab and you'll see that the work they're creating is deeper than just projections on a wall. Their main goal is not only to connect art and technology, but to bridge the gap that often stands between art and the viewer. By transcending the boundaries of what art physically is they remind us that "Everything exists in a long, fragile yet miraculous, borderless continuity of life". Their art is very reflective of that, constantly reminiscent of humans and their connection to nature. Hurling oceans that engulf rooms, flowers that bloom to the height of ceilings, and mesmerising light shows only amplify the magnificence of nature and how insignificant humans are in the scale of our natural world.
Sure, you're immersed in the splendid and the surreal, but where is the technology? It's subtle but I think that the technology is really what makes their work art. As you move about the exhibits, the art moves with you. Water passes around you, as if you were part of the display itself. Flowers die when movement is sensed and bloom again when it's not. Though the exhibit seems to just be a video, there's actually a lot more behind the scenes. TeamLab designed their works to act as nature does in real life. Constantly in motion and never a repeat in time. They describe it as such:
"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 technology here is the algorithm. What at first glance seems to be just a repeating video is actually the hard work of many mathematicians and engineers who created an algorithm to generate images that never repeat. By using motion sensors and projection mapping, what seemed simple at first glance is now complicated. These exhibits are a digital replica of our real world, an undying representation of the beauty of nature, a gentle and gorgeous reminder that we are, indeed, alive.