We aimed to create a work that pursued “coolness.” By drastically reducing the amount of color and unifying the overall visual look, then increasing the volume of color information during the chorus to excite the viewer, the piece also carries a somewhat satirical view of society: that this kind of “coolness” may in fact be a “violence of information overload.” It is also a work in which I confronted something fundamental at the root of my own creative practice. I also believe that by ignoring readability in the graphic elements, I was able to push the true potential of the designer to the limit.

This work is an animation created to celebrate the first anniversary of fu** you men, which I received with little to spare.

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/