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teamLab Brings 20,000 Square Feet of Digital Art to California

From shapeshifting digital butterflies to an interactive art romper room, this installation has something for everyone.
Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders. All images courtesy of teamLab

Since 2001, teamLab has created some of the world’s best digital art. Founded by Toshiyuki Inoko, the Japanese interdisciplinary art collective of “ultra-technologists” brings together artists, engineers, mathematicians, programmers, architects, and other creatives to make works that are staggering in both beauty and scale. "The digital realm, free from physical constraints, allows for unlimited possibilities of expression and transformation,” Inoko tells the Creators Project. "Digital technology is a tool for change and a platform to express complex ideas and details."

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Their latest project, Living Digital Space and Future Parks, is a 20,000 square foot installation presented in collaboration with Pace Art + Technology and featuring 20 digital works, some of which have been exhibited previously, and others of which are making their debuts. Among the new works is Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Boarders, which features digital butterflies flying through the exhibit space, while the patterns on their wings—programmed in real time, not pre-recorded—constantly evolve. These digital butterflies fly into spaces occupied by other works, blurring the lines that separate the individual pieces of art.

From Flower and Corpse Glitch Set of 12

"Unlike a viewer who stands in front of a conventional painting, a viewer immersed in an interactive artwork is more aware of other people’s presence,” writes Inoko. "Interactive digital art changes the relationships between people within it and the relationship between people and art.” An older work that will also be featured is Flower and Corpse Glitch Set, a series of 12 Edo-painting period inspired animations.

Future Parks is a series of interactive projects designed to foster educational play through digital art. "Children often play by themselves, and enjoy drawing pictures or building with wooden blocks. This project aims to encourage children to become aware of what the child next to them is drawing or creating. They may come to think it would be more fun to build something together and be inspired to create and appreciate their own work in new ways,” writes Inoko. "This project aspires to transform an individual’s creative action into a collaborative creative activity, and help kids realize that playing together might be more fun than playing alone."

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Living Digital Space and Future Parks runs from February 6th through June 1st 2016 at Pace's new Art + Technology Gallery in Menlo Park, California. To learn more about teamLab, click here.

More teamLab coverage:

Enter a Real-Life Matrix in teamLab's 'Crystal Universe'

Mythological Japanese Imagery Comes Alive In These Animated

A Kinetic Sea of Flowers Blooms in Tokyo