Viewed from the center near the entrance of the space. This work begins when the school of fish from 《The Way of the Sea》 enters “Cosmic Void.” When the school leaves the space and disappears, the work comes to an end. If you stand at the center near the entrance of the space, the boundary between wall and floor disappears, the real space vanishes, and the lines traced by the school’s movement begin to draw themselves three-dimensionally through the space. You become bodily immersed in the world of the work, and people will gradually lose the boundary between their bodies and the work’s world. The school of fish, drawn in light, swims freely through the space, and its traces become trails of light, drawing lines in the space. In Zen, there is a term called “chido,” or the path of birds. The way birds travel is not fixed like a human “road”; it means freedom and the absence of traces. The movement of schools of several thousand to tens of thousands of fish is beautiful and mysterious, seeming almost like a single gigantic life form. It is said that there is no leader in the school and no communication; instead, they move according to simple rules such as moving when the neighboring fish move. However, the physiological mechanism behind the near-simultaneous movements seen in schools of hundreds of fish remains shrouded in mystery. It feels as if there is a universal principle at work here that humanity has not yet understood. The work is continuously drawn in real time by a computer program. It is not a playback of prerecorded video. As a whole, it continues to transform without ever reproducing a previous state. The picture of this very moment can never be seen again. Work page: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/ew/wayofthesea-cosmicvoid-azabudai/tokyo/

Description: Through a multilayered collection of lines—some extending toward us, others stretching away—the flames are depicted as they melt and dissolve. The painting that emerges is determined by the focus of one’s own bodily eyes, yet that focus moves dynamically beyond one’s own will. Work page: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/ew/fire-of-particles-dissolving-azabudai/tokyo/

Description: Countless jiggling lights keep racing through an infinitely expanding space, where even depth is impossible to perceive. This work explores the question: “Even if the constituent elements are separated in space and time, when a different order is formed and they overlap, does it become the universe?” The jiggling lights are sculptures from teamLab’s art project “Cognitive Sculpture,” which do not exist in the physical world, but exist in the world of perception. Work page: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/ew/microcosmoses-azabudai/tokyo/?autoplay=true

Inside the spheres, there are myriad lights intermingled: lights with tangible material existence, large, strong lights like soap bubbles, huge, weak, jiggly lights like lumps of jelly, and lights generated by the surrounding environment. Within the spheres, some lights keep moving while others remain completely still. The light in each sphere cannot generate everything on its own; the other spheres become the environment, and the environment generates the myriad lights within each sphere. Each sphere becomes part of the environment that generates the light of the other spheres, and the phenomena created by the environment are the existence of the work. Also, except for the material light, such as the soap-bubble-like light and the jelly-like light that appears strongly within spheres at higher positions, the light does not physically exist inside the spheres; it exists in perception. And when it exists in perception, it is existence. When a person stops near a sphere and remains still, the nearest sphere shines brightly and resounds with a tone, and the light propagates from that sphere to the nearest sphere. The propagated light continues on to the next nearest sphere, and so on. The light always continues only to the nearest sphere, passing through each sphere only once, becoming a single light path that traverses all the spheres. And the light born from oneself and the light born from others intersect. The seemingly random arrangement of the spheres is a configuration in which the light generated by people’s presence continues from sphere to sphere, a configuration for the beauty of continuity itself. Specifically, the positions of the spheres in space are mathematically determined so that, when lines are drawn from each sphere to the nearest sphere in three-dimensional space, they form a single connected line that can be drawn in one stroke, with the same start and end point (unicursal), and so that the line, which becomes the path of light, is beautiful. As a result, although the light of the spheres responding to people only propagates to the nearest sphere, it passes through all the spheres only once, like a one-stroke drawing. At the same time, it intersects with the light generated by others during the same period. This is a work that expresses the beauty of continuity in the light created when people interact with spheres in free spaces. Work page: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/ew/bubbleuniverse-azabudai/tokyo/?autoplay=true

Wander, explore, and discover within one continuous world without boundaries teamLab Borderless is a “museum without a map,” consisting of the boundaryless art of the art collective teamLab. The art leaves the room and moves about, interacting with and being affected by other works; there are no boundaries between the works, and they sometimes blend together. A single world that continues without boundaries, made up of such works. Immerse yourself bodily in boundaryless art, wander through it, explore with an intentional body, and create and discover the world together with others. Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/tokyo/

The contours of life’s existence are ambiguous, not defined by the boundary of the body itself, but by the surrounding environment that is continuous with it. This work is a massive sculpture group that continuously depicts the energy birds actually flying around it impart to the surrounding environment. When birds fly, their energy moves through the environment, such as the air. In the wind blowing here and now, the energy dissipated by the birds is depicted as the present moment’s wind is infused with the memory of the birds flying at this instant, and of the birds that flew from sunrise to sunset today. If no birds fly around the sculptures, this sculpture group becomes completely dark, dissolves into the darkness, and is almost nonexistent. On the island in the pond where the sculptures stand, in order to create an environment favorable to birds, plants that birds like are planted along with the sculptures, including vegetation that attracts the insects birds eat. This sculpture group comes into existence through birds gathering around these plants. However, birds, and insects as well, do not exist solely through the vegetation on the pond island; they exist through the forest and pond ecosystem of the vast botanical garden. The contours of this sculpture group’s existence are also not the boundary surface of a material sculpture, but continuous and ambiguous in relation to the surrounding environment. “teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka” (Nagai Botanical Garden, Osaka) Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/botanicalgarden/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/sculptures_of_dissipative_birds/botanicalgarden/

With the concept of “catch, observe, and release,” this new learning project focuses on exploring with your own body, discovering, catching, and then expanding your interests through what you have caught. Using a smartphone in hand, you explore, catch various prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs, observe them, and build your own collection guidebook. In Dinosaur Forest, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals live. When you touch an animal, it turns around or runs away. When you use the app’s camera to look at the animals moving through the space, and fire an “observation arrow” at an animal visible in the camera, the arrow flies into the real-world space. When the “observation arrow” hits, the animal disappears from the space and enters your smartphone. Information about the animal you observed is collected in the app’s guidebook. If you swipe a caught animal to a location visible in the app’s camera, it is released and returns to that place. Also, if you throw down an “observation net” at a place you like, you can spread the net at your feet. Working together with people around you, use your body to drive the animals into the “observation net” and catch them; the animals disappear from the space and are collected in the guidebook in the same way. If you swipe a caught animal to a location visible in the app’s camera, it is released and appears at your feet. In the collection guidebook, even for the same animal, the more times you catch it, the more detailed information is added. “Galaxy & teamLab: Catching and Collecting Dinosaur Forest” (Harajuku, Tokyo) Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/collecting_dinosaurforest/ Artwork details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/collecting_dinosaurforest/collecting_dinosaurforest/

An immersive operatic space that transcends the concept of opera through a sculptural space of light The art collective teamLab designed the scenography for a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, Turandot. Together with director Daniel Kramer, they conceived a scenography that fused Kramer’s interpretation of Turandot with teamLab’s art. Over five years of planning, they explored the concept, new interpretations, metaphors, symbols, and how to realize the visual expression of each scene. The cast becomes immersed in, and united with, a sculptural space of light, and the stage and audience continue seamlessly without boundaries. This production had its world premiere at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2022, and the Tokyo performances by Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre were held from February 23 to 26, 2023. Performance details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/turandot_tokyo/

This work exists somewhere in some era, and also here and now. In the work’s world, under the same flow of time as the real world, morning comes with sunrise at the place where the work is installed, and night begins with sunset. If it rains in the real world at the place where the work is installed, it also rains in the work’s world. Flowers and grasses change day by day with the seasons. People’s lives also change constantly according to the time of day and weather in the real world, while festivals and events are held with the seasons. As various stories are added each day, people’s activities continue on permanently. The work’s world is influenced by the viewer’s behavior. When the viewer touches the people in the work’s world, they react, but if the contact is slight, they return to their everyday lives. However, if the viewer continues to touch the people, those nearby begin to quarrel, which escalates into killing, and before long the conflict spreads throughout the town, engulfing it in flames. The fire continues for more than a year, the people die out, and the town is completely burned away. Even in the devastated town with no one left, as time passes in the real world, the sun rises and sets, the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter come and go, and a few months later, new grasses and flowers sprout from the charred remains. Flowers and grasses are born, bloom, and fall in repeated cycles, changing day by day in the flow of real time. And over a long period of time, trees and plants grow thick and dense, repeating the changing of flowers each year, continuing forever. Once this world begins to burn, it can never again be seen as it was before the fire. And the viewer is also a participant in its consequences. Related exhibition: Aomori Museum of Art https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/aomorimuseum/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/world_of_irreversiblechange/

In an infinitely expanding space, the calligraphy of “Kūsho” is written endlessly, while its chanting echoes throughout. If you lie down, or sit for a while, your body will eventually begin to float and merge with the world of the work. Calligraphy has the voice of its characters. As the calligraphy draws near, so does the voice. “Kūsho” refers to the calligraphy TeamLab has been creating in space since its founding. The qualities contained in the ink traces of calligraphy—such as depth, speed, and the force of the stroke—are reconstructed three-dimensionally in space through a new interpretation, and then transformed into two dimensions by the logical structure of TeamLab’s “Ultra Subjective Space.” The calligraphy moves back and forth between the flat and the three-dimensional. “Prayer” Exhibition (Tokyo) Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/prayer/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/eternaluniverse/prayer/

In space, an ensō emerges, and the body passes through that ensō as a whole. This circle of light is a perfect, undistorted circle—a true circle. Even if you keep walking forward for several steps, the perfect circle continues. An ensō, one of the forms of calligraphy and painting in Zen, is a circle drawn with a single brushstroke; in ancient times, it was sometimes represented by tracing a circular ring in the air with a staff or similar object. It is said to symbolically express enlightenment, truth, the universe as a whole, and equality. It is also a circle that reflects the heart of the viewer, leaving interpretation to each person. “teamLab & TikTok, teamLab Reconnect: Art and Sauna” (Keyakizaka, Tokyo) Exhibition details: https://reconnect.teamlab.art/en Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/en/w/walkthrough_lightcircles/

teamLab explores what ownership is through Matter is Void. This work is an NFT artwork. There is only one NFT for this work, but the NFT does not grant the work its uniqueness. The work itself can be downloaded by anyone and owned by any number of people. In other words, whether or not one owns the NFT, the downloaded work cannot be distinguished in any way; all of them are authentic. This work is inscribed by teamLab with the words “Matter is Void.” However, the NFT owner of this work can freely rewrite the words within it. When the NFT owner rewrites the words, every copy of the work owned around the world is rewritten with those words. And through the NFT owner’s words, not only does the value of the work change, but if those words have value, more people will own the work; if they have no value, no one will display it. The value of rewriting a work that many people are viewing may be high, but the value of rewriting a work that no one is displaying may be low. In other words, the value of this work’s NFT will also change according to the words of the NFT owner. The characters of the written words continue to revolve and rotate on their axes. Depending on the angle, the ever-rotating characters can be recognized, and there are moments when their meaning can be understood as a whole; yet once again, they become meaningless shapes that can no longer be read as letters. Visually, the letters’ revolution is the same whether they rotate left or right, and depending on which direction of rotation one becomes conscious of, they can appear to rotate either counterclockwise or clockwise. Related exhibition: Aomori Museum of Art https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/aomorimuseum/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/matterisvoid_blackinwhite/

A ensō appears in the space, and the body steps into that ensō. In the space, circles are drawn and swarms of butterflies fly about. When you touch a butterfly, it dies and falls. When you enter those circles or swarms of butterflies, an entirely different world unfolds inside. Ensō, one of the forms of calligraphy and painting in Zen—a circle drawn with a single brushstroke—was traditionally created by drawing a circular form in the air with a staff or similar object. It is said to symbolically express enlightenment and truth, the universe as a whole, and equality. It is also a circle that reflects the mind of the viewer, and its interpretation is left to the viewer. "teamLab & TikTok, teamLab Reconnect: Art and Sauna" (Keyakizaka-shita, Tokyo) Exhibition details: https://reconnect.teamlab.art/jp Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/stepinto_lightcircles/

Description: When the sea rises with force and a wave is born, flowers bloom. Flowers bloom only for the brief moment while the wave returns to the sea. When the sea rises with force and a wave is born, one can feel a powerful breath of life, as if life itself were blossoming. Each wave even seems like a living thing. Yet when the wave breaks and disappears, you come to realize, with a sense of transience, that it was part of the sea. And that sea is connected to all the seas of the world, meaning that all the waves across the world are connected as well. Waves appear alive because life is like a wave rising with force. It is a miraculous phenomenon in which everything continuously emerges from one vast ocean, all seamlessly connected, without ever being broken. Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/flowersbloom_waves/

In a world that transcends the concept of matter, immerse, experience, and become one Human expression, liberated from matter by digital technology, frees the existence of expression from its irreversible bond with matter. Human creativity goes beyond the conventional concept of matter. The material boundaries of the work disappear, blurring the boundary between the body and the work, and freeing the body even further. This collection of works creates a world that transcends the concept of matter: teamLab Massless. People immerse themselves bodily in the works, perceive them with their bodies, and become part of the works together with others, seeking a continuous, boundaryless experience between themselves and the world. Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/masslessbeijing/

Along the Mōsō bamboo grove of Kairakuen, anonymous and diverse figures continue walking. People watch as they choose something and abandon something else, following along behind them. There is a Zen phrase, “hoho kore dōjō” — “every step is a training ground.” The characters in the work continue walking without end as they face various events. People, too, will confront them together by following the characters in the work as they walk. Or, they will confront each of the characters one after another as they come walking by. The work is continuously drawn in real time by a computer program. It is not playing back pre-recorded video. As a whole, it keeps changing forever without ever reproducing a previous state. The image of this very moment can never be seen again. “teamLab Kairakuen Garden of Light” (Mito, Ibaraki) Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/kairakuengarden/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/walk_bambooforest/kairakuengarden/

Explanation: Flame is a phenomenon of light and heat produced by combustion; it is not a substance, but a sensory experience we have when observing the chemical reaction called combustion. People perceive flame, a sensory experience, as a single object, and sometimes even sense life within it. The motion of the molecules in a burning gas draws lines through space. Flame is depicted by the collection of those lines. Through teamLab’s concept of “Ultra Subjective Space,” that collection of lines is flattened into a plane, and flame is rendered. When people stand on the work, a black absolute presence is created, and the shape of the flame changes. The work continues to change forever, influenced by the behavior of the people. “teamLab Planets” (Toyosu, Tokyo) Exhibition details: https://planets.teamlab.art/tokyo/jp/ Work details: https://planets.teamlab.art/tokyo/jp/ew/universe_fireparticles_falling/

Commentary: The self and the environment are not two separate things; they are inseparable, two in appearance but one in reality. The opposite of division may not be unity, but rather the realization that what appears to be two is in fact one. The blessings and threats of nature, and the blessings and threats of civilization, are all continuous and connected. There is no absolute malice anywhere, nor can everything be dismissed with idealistic optimism. There are no simple answers, and even our emotions may remain unresolved. Even so, in every situation, I want to affirm everything about “living.” Life is beautiful. The kanji “生,” meaning life and living, is written in three dimensions through “kūsho,” or writing in empty space. “Kūsho” refers to teamLab’s practice, continued since its founding, of writing calligraphy in space. By reinterpreting qualities found in brushstrokes—such as depth, speed, and force—and reconstructing them three-dimensionally in space, teamLab’s “Super Subjective Space” renders them two-dimensional. Calligraphy moves between the planar and the three-dimensional. In works whose space is framed by a lens or perspective, the artwork space appears beyond the display surface. In other words, the display surface becomes a boundary, separating the space where the viewer exists from the artwork space. However, one of the characteristics of “Super Subjective Space” is that in the artwork space framed by it, the display surface does not become a boundary. This artwork space is perceived as if it exists three-dimensionally beyond the display surface, extending into the very space where the viewer stands. The artwork space continues seamlessly with the space occupied by the viewer’s body. Related Exhibitions: ・“Every Wall is a Door” Superblue Miami Miami, Florida https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/superbluemiami/ ・“teamLab: LIFE” Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) Seoul https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/ddp/ Work Details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/lifesurvives/

At “teamLab & TikTok, teamLab Reconnect: Art and Sauna,” held at Keyakizaka, Tokyo from Monday, March 22 to Tuesday, August 31, 2021, teamLab and TikTok co-created a new work, , separate from the works in the venue. As a work for “air bathing,” part of the art and sauna experience, it can be experienced through the camera of the TikTok app. Your home, or wherever you are, becomes an art space. Flowers repeatedly come into being and disappear, continuing to multiply. They grow in accordance with the size of the space where you are. If they are surrounded by a ceiling and walls, they grow to fill that enclosed space; if you are outdoors beneath the sky, they become very large. In other words, the size of the work is not predetermined, but is determined by the size of the space you are in. Flowers, influenced in real time by the actual environment of the physical space, are born into the world seen through the camera of the short-form video platform TikTok. Their size changes depending on whether you are indoors or outside under the open sky. The lines of light running along the contours of the flowers are inspired by kirikane, a traditional art technique in which thin strips of gold or silver leaf are cut and applied, and they shine in response to the light in the actual space where the flowers bloom. Your home, or wherever you are, becomes an art space. View, participate, and share it with the world from any place you like. Exhibition details: https://reconnect.teamlab.art/jp Work details: https://reconnect.teamlab.art/jp/tiktok

Wander, explore, and discover in a single world without boundaries teamLab Borderless is a “museum without a map” composed of the boundaryless artworks of the art collective teamLab. Boundaryless art leaves the room, moves around, communicates with other works, influences and is influenced by them, and has no boundaries between works, sometimes even blending together. Through such a collection of works, one continuous world is created, connected seamlessly without boundaries. Immerse yourself bodily in boundaryless art, wander through it, explore with a conscious body, and together with others, create and discover a new world.