teamLab

teamLab (f. 2001, Tokyo, by Toshiyuki Inoko) are an interdisciplinary collective/group of ultra-technologists, designers and programmers whose practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, technology, design and the natural world. Rooted in the tradition of ancient Japanese Art and contemporary forms of anime, teamLab operates from a distinctly Japanese sense of spatial recognition, investigating human behavior in the information era and proposing innovative models for societal development. teamLab’s works have been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide; in 2015, a projection work was exhibited on the façade of the Grand Palais, Paris.

Transcending Boundaries was an exhibition at PACE gallery London from 25th January until 11 March 2017 Below is from the promotions from the exhibition.

"The exhibition will explore the role of digital technology in transcending the physical and conceptual boundaries that exist between different artworks, with imagery from one work breaking free of the frame and entering the space of another. The installations also dissolve distinctions between artwork and exhibition space, and involve the viewer through interactivity."

http://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12840/transcending-boundaries


teamLab: Transcending Boundaries @ PACE LONDON from teamLab on Vimeo.

The exhibition was a very early sell out so I did not get to attend but I was fascinated by the work that was in it and have managed to whilst not getting to experience it first-hand have managed to get a flavour of it from video from the exhibition.

Aesthetically the work is very rich. and vibrant. A iridescent riot of light and purity of colour surrounding the onlookers, layered and constantly moving organically in the space. The movements are slow though and purposeful gently caressing the space. The  work surrounds the audience making them at one with the environment created and becoming integral to show off the beauty of the piece.

Content wise the themes of the exhibition play with digital environments with real environmental undertones as does a lot of teamLabs work. They appear artificially organic with nature re-created water, flowers, butterflies and often fish engineered to create a parallel alternative reality for the audiences.

There is also very real interactivity allowing the audience (or possibly a better term would be participants) to manipulate the digital environments that are created around them. Light trails resembling water are diverted around the feet of the audience or flowers bloom from the feet of the audience. Butterflies flutter around on the walls but if touched they fall dead to the floor.




WHAT I WILL TAKE FROM TEAMLABS WORK.

• The interactivity of the installations.I do not have a team of designers and coders but i can still consider how to make my work more interactive somehow.
• The immersive quality of the work and how it surrounds the space and the audience. It is not an exhibition in the corner or in one wall of a space it IS the WHOLE space. I would like to experiment with this more in my work.
• The sheer visual impact of the work . At times I concentrate too much on content and message and not enough on style and visual impact. The former will always be more important to me than the latter BUT there is no reason that I should not strive for both.

https://www.team-lab.net