New Japanese Museum Shows The Power of Digital Display

Worldwide, art spaces and exhibits are opening to provide memorable visual experiences that do more than stand out in a social media feed. Tokyo, Japan’s Mori Building Digital Art Museum[1] is among the latest of these projects, where native studio teamLab has installed a 100,000-square-foot space that is wholly focused on making art interactive and a sensual experience.

Their initial production, Borderless, features around 50 pieces that cover nearly every surface in the museum’s cavernous exhibit rooms. From floral fractals seemingly drifting through a void to infinite fields of floating tea lights, the effect is lush, abstract, and difficult to comprehend. From any angle and position in a given room, there are countless Instagram-worthy shots. It’s no surprise that tickets are selling out daily.

The creative vision for such a project is only half the story. More than 500 computers and nearly as many projectors all work together to make the experience possible. Behind the scenes, countless man hours of programming and 3D design, as well as concrete engineering were necessary. “teamLab,” the art collective behind “Borderless” describes themselves as “ultra-technologists,” and hope to push the boundary of digital art while creating new relationships with the natural world. That is their avowed inspiration.[2] 500-plus engineers, artists, programmers, and more collaborated in a “flat” organizational structure to make this installation a reality, and they aren’t finished yet.

Visitors describe the experience, where the way they interact with the art influences its form, as evoking their inner child.[3] Details about the exact technical specifications of the exhibit aren’t yet public, but the hyper-democratic structure of teamLab suggests they won’t be secret for long.