This August, Digitized Forest by teamLab will return to the world heritage site of Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan with new installations on display. Until the exhibition closes on September 2, 2019, attendees will have the opportunity to experience a very different kind of art show.
Set at one of the oldest shrines, during the 100 year anniversary since the establishment of the “Monuments of Japan Preservation Law”, teamLab presents to audiences a completely immersive and interactive environment that incorporates nonintrusive technologies, such as sensors, networks, light, and sound, to turn the surrounding nature into living art without harming it.
In addition to the works exhibited last year along the path of Tadasu Forest and inside the Shimogamo Shrine tower gate, this year will bring new works, including ‘Walk, Walk, Walk’: where you can join a group of anonymous and diverse figures as they walk along the Izumigawa River, created by a computer program that continuously renders the work so that interaction between people and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork, and previous visual states can never be replicated and will never reoccur.
Another addition is the ‘Autonomous Resonating Life on the Water’: where autonomous objects of light sit on the surface of the Mitarashi Pond, shining brightly and then fading as if they are slowly breathing. When pushed or blown by the wind, the colour of its light changes, and it emits a sound town specific to that colour.
Founded in 2001, teamLab is an art collective made up of a group of specialists including: artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects. Digitized Forest is a culmination of their efforts to explore a new relationship between humans and nature, and between oneself and the world through art; as they believe that Digital technology has allowed art to liberate itself from the physical and transcend boundaries.