Unpacking the success of immersive art

DW (English)

Exhibitions by the art collective teamLab are a smash hit. The interactive, walkable installations allow visitors to become part of the works. What makes this art form so effective?

Transcript

00:00 TeamLab Borderless is less of a place you visit and more of a place you experience.

00:08 The museum in Tokyo, curated by the collective TeamLab, showcases digital art.

00:14 Instead of standing in front of the works, guests are invited to step inside them.

00:19 The immersive installation Bubble Universe comes to life as you move around.

00:24 The physical experience is an expression of the artist's concept and philosophy.

00:35 People tend to perceive the world as having independent entities which exist independently.

00:44 With TeamLab Borderless, we want to create an experience through the artworks, where

00:50 the world is continuous and where the continuity of the world itself is felt as beautiful.

01:00 This three-dimensional artwork is made up of spheres that generate light according to

01:05 movements.

01:06 As a person moves closer to a sphere, the bubble will shine brightly and the light will

01:11 spread to the nearest bubble, interacting with light started by other movements.

01:16 As a result of the technology, viewers aren't just observers, they become contributors to

01:22 the artwork itself.

01:28 I think that a space where the existence of other people changes the artwork, and that

01:33 creates some sort of change for you.

01:37 That reciprocal relationship between you and the artwork and other people can create an

01:42 experience where people can further feel the sense of continuity.

01:49 In their Tokyo studio, TeamLab artists are designing new immersive creations.

01:54 It's a diverse team that likes to experiment with new ways of making art.

01:59 With TeamLab, it's a group of specialists.

02:02 We are hardware engineers, software engineers, and CG animators, and architects, mathematicians

02:11 for this, you know, like algorithms, and it's a different type of this, programmers, and

02:16 it's botanists.

02:17 We use all these different medias, monitors, projectors, LEDs, robotics, whatever.

02:25 We try to create some things.

02:29 TeamLab isn't the only player in the immersive art scene.

02:35 More and more artists, galleries, and cultural institutions are developing immersive art

02:39 projects, like these installations by Japanese photographer Mika Ninagawa.

02:47 So why does immersive art appeal to so many people?

02:52 I think today more than ever, we are kind of lazier in a certain way when it comes to

02:59 art, so we don't want to make that effort of contemplation, of dialogue, and so with

03:06 the traditional art form, it's up to us to go to the artwork.

03:10 While in this kind of immersive spectacle, it's the artwork that comes to us, that immersed

03:16 us.

03:17 The second reason, which is a more recent reason, I would say, it's social media.

03:24 These works are highly Instagrammable.

03:27 And also there's a third reason to that, which is also contextual.

03:31 I think it's COVID, because we were so deprived of any sensorial experience, of real life

03:38 experience.

03:39 Everything happened on a screen.

03:40 It's all flat.

03:41 So I think we all needed to get out to experience with our full body.

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