teamLab

TeamLab is an interdisciplinary art collective based in Japan that facilitates the collaboration of visionary professionals from diverse fields throughout digital society: artists, programmers, engineers, animators, mathematicians, architects and graphic designers. Using the latest technology and complex graphic algorithms, the studio explores “the relationship between humans and nature, and also the boundaries between humans and nature,” says founder Toshiyuki Inoko.

Gold Waves, unlike traditional Western art, is designed with no fixed focal point, or single point perspective. Harkening back to the flat landscapes of ancient Japanese art, it creates an ultrasubjective space with a continuous series of calligraphic lines that look like waves ebbing and flowing in the ocean. The work, composed of calculations of hundreds of thousands of particles, pulls viewers into the frame, evoking a concept of continuity—the flow of life, of time, of water, of the rhythm of life. Each viewer can interact with the artwork from his or her own individual position and those around them, without fixed perspective or priority. Nature is depicted not as a scene to behold, but as an immersive living entity to be experienced.

When viewing “Gold Waves,” as opposed to watching waves shot with a video camera, people may feel that the barrier between themselves and the waves disappears. This is a way of seeing the world that lures us in and allows us to feel that there is no boundary between ourselves and nature.