Tokyo’s Digital Art Museum Pt 2
The upper floor of MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM teamLab Borderless is full of interactive digital art that promotes learning, curiosity and play. Whilst the lower floor creates a borderless world, the artworks on this floor have more distinct boundaries and have been designed with young visitors in mind.
These digital experiences are divided into two areas: the Athletics Forest and Future Park. They are explorative digital playgrounds where digital, spatial and co-creative learning combine in one glorious educational experience.
There is no prescribed learning, only exploration. Whilst the interactive moments are at times obvious — move the block and see what happens — visitors are guided by their curiosity and as a result, are in control of their own learning. The rationale behind teamLab’s approach to educating young visitors is different to any museum learning methodology I’ve come across. Whilst there are some similarities, there is a much greater focus on three-dimensional thinking, spatial awareness and co-creativity. TeamLab even outlines the ‘Skills Nurtured’ for various installations on their website. This suggests that the museum supports the growth of a skill rather than listing the skills and knowledge students will take away from a visit (which many museums are guilty).
Athletics Forest
TeamLab describes the Athletics Forest as “…a new “creative physical space” that trains spatial recognition ability by promoting the growth of the hippocampus of the brain. It is based on the concept of understanding the world through the body and thinking of the world three-dimensionally.” Below are key points taken from TeamLab’s concept for the Athletics Forest which is underpinned by three-dimensional thinking using the body.
The body is stationary in school
…knowledge entails using the brain whilst keeping the body stationary, and limiting the amount of information. What we call “knowledge” that is taught in school, discards the body, it is acquired through language and mathematics, and in terms of information volume the amount is extremely small. However, if we take a quick look around ourselves, it is clear that the world is comprised of an immense amount of information.The ability to engage with people and the world
There are [a] variety of social skills, such as; sociability, leadership, and communication, that all refer to the ability to engage with people and the world. These abilities require extreme cerebral activity to process an enormous amount of spatial information that is constantly changing, as well as the expressions and attitudes of people, and the situation as seen by that person. They are a set of intellectual activities that are very different from the intelligence used with the body fixed in place, processing small amounts of information, as is the case with studying in school.Humans understand the world with their bodies and think with their bodies
Stories are spun from the experiences that are cultivated while exploring the world with our bodies. Humans understand the world with their bodies and think with their bodies.The body is a massive information network
…the body is a massive information network in which various organs and cells inside the body are performing dynamic exchanges of information. For example, we are beginning to understand that the muscles and bones that move the body are developing the hippocampus (the part of the brain related to memory and spatial awareness) and instructing the hippocampus to form memories.Spatial awareness is just as important as linguistic and mathematical abilities
…spatial awareness, which is the ability to understand the spatial relations between objects and store them in memory, is just as important as linguistic and mathematical abilities. Spatial awareness is thought to play an important role in creativity and innovation…. we are beginning to understand that the hippocampus, which is related to spatial awareness, develops through the body exploring and walking around varied and complex spaces.Three-dimensional thinking
Spatial awareness does not only involve space. It is thought that spatial awareness leads to the ability to capture the world three-dimensionally and think of things three-dimensionally. We call this three-dimensional thinking, and higher-dimensional thinking refers to thinking on an even higher dimension.Cities are surrounded by flat planes, and paper, books, TVs and smartphones are also flat planes
In nature, such as in forests and mountains, there are no flat planes, and the landscape is complex and three-dimensional. Humans were aware of three-dimensional spaces with their bodies. However, in the city, there are only flat planes. Without realizing it, we are abandoning our bodies and becoming aware of the world two-dimensionally with our minds only. If we are aware of the world two-dimensionally, our thoughts become two-dimensional.Three-dimensional and higher-dimensional thinking using the body Humans understand the world and think with their bodies. While exploring a complex, three-dimensional world with their bodies, humans understand the world three-dimensionally, and their thoughts become three-dimensional. The teamLab Athletics Forest project was started to encourage enhancement of three-dimensional and higher-dimensional thinking through the body. (Extracts taken from teamLab Borderless Athletics Forest)
A wonderful learning concept. Here’s how it connects with the museum experience.
The large central space in the upper floor is filled with Graffiti Nature and Waterfall Droplets with other rooms branching off this main artwork. The floor is made of hard foam texture and slopes to create mountain peaks with a valley in the centre. The three-dimensional thinking approach is evident as soon as you enter. Although the projections are two-dimensional the terrain is not. This sets the tone for developing spatial awareness as the body explores and navigates the space.
Graffiti Nature asks visitors to colour a 2D creature on paper that is then scanned and appears in the digital environment. It becomes part of the art work, interacting with the other digital projections and reacting when visitors walk over it. The digital creatures eat each other and sometimes duplicate, mimicking a living ecosystem. If you stand still, flowers will start to bloom and butterflies will gather. If you move, the flowers and butterflies will disperse. If creatures are stepped on they will splatter. Water droplets fall from the pillars in the room and pool into the Graffiti Nature valley.
This digital ecosystem encourages movement. It encourages you to walk up steep slopes to see down into valleys, to chase creatures as they navigate the digital world, to use your body to create a path for water droplets and to be patient, reflect and experiment by standing still to see flowers bloom. Human nature influences the digital ecosystem reflecting how human behaviour changes our living world.
Skills Nurtured in Graffiti Nature: Awareness of the Ecosystem, Creativity, Power of Expression, Respect for Diversity, Develops Self-efficacy, Interest in Technology
Multi Jumping Universe is, in simplest terms, a projection art trampoline. The line for this was long and was limited to a number of participants at a time. Each visitor was asked to jump in their own section which seemed odd as engaging with people and spatial awareness is a core element of the learning approach of the space (potentially one of those situations where OH&S trumps creative direction). As you jump upon the stars, black holes appear and create the illusion that they’ll suck you in if you stop jumping. Whilst this space does create a three-dimensional, constantly moving floor the influence of the our movements on the projections, other than the sporadic appearance of black holes, was unclear.
Aerial Climbing reminded me of a rope obstacle course. Rather than just the projections being influenced by the movements of visitors the physical obstacle is also inter-connected. As visitors navigate a path their instabilities reverberate down the connected ropes and steps. The changing projections together with the ripple effect of movements made this task a little tricky. Hence, spatial awareness was key in this installation. I was careful not to keep too close to anyone else because as they started swinging or shaking, my imbalance would soon follow.
Light Forest is a series of poles with glowing foot and hand holes so children can climb from pole to pole. This activity had an age limit and was reserved for young visitors (I imagine this was what kids feel like when they’re too short for a ride at a theme park). From what I could see young visitors were encouraged to make decisions based on the glowing colour of the foot and hand supports, creating a path from one end to the other.
Block Town uses block play to influence the projections in an inverted globe. This room encourages visitors to move various three-dimensional objects that manipulates the two-dimensional projection. The floor curves up around the room creating a warped feeling of the world. Visitors connect similar types of blocks to create ways for the transport system to run. For example, planes fly from cloud to cloud, pond blocks create waterways and train stations connect railways. The projection changes in real time so young visitors need to work together to keep the the urban environments’ transport system moving.
Skills Nurtured in Block Town: Pattern recognition power, Space grasping ability, Logical thinking ability, Creativity and expression power
Weightless Forest of Resonating Light is a large mirrored room filled with giant balloon shaped objects that glow and create an illusion that they’re floating. The balloons are installed so they’re able to touch and move against each other. When the balloons are moving they change colour and a soundscape matches these changes. This can set off a chain reaction as you move through the installation and the balloons push against each other. Skills in spatial awareness and three-dimensional thinking was key when squeezing through small pathways to find doorways to other rooms.
Compared to the other installations in Athletics Forest, I could observe that opportunities for learning could be easily missed by a young audience in Resonating Light and Multi Jumping Universe. With lots of people in the space it was difficult to sense what influence, if any, you were having on the artworks.
Future Park
Future Park is described is “…an educational project based on the concept of “collaborative creativity, co-creation”. It is an amusement park where you can enjoy the world creativity and freely with others.” I was lucky enough to experience Future Park at MAAS earlier this year and many of the same concepts and art works were installed in Tokyo. The interactives in this section take a different educational approach to those in Athletic Forest. They focus on creativity, problem solving, play and nurturing co-creative experiences. Here are the core concept of Collaborative Creation: Co-Creation that teamLab relate to Future Park:
The work of today will disappear
Artificial intelligence and machinery could replace much of the existing work that we know of today. In a future society, traits that only humans possess — such as creativity — will become increasingly important.Current education emphasizes one correct answer
Humans are naturally collaborative and creative. However, current education emphasizes only one correct answer over all others, stifling creativity. Free thinking and behavior that is different is suppressed. And, by doing so, students become afraid of making mistakes and lose their natural creativity.... It is creativity that allows us to overcome problems that cannot be defined as either correct or incorrect.Concentration on the individual
The present situation in education is that tests are taken by individuals and evaluated on the ability of the individual. Before we know it, individualism is forced upon us. Additionally, large numbers of people are addicted to smartphones. Their brains may be connected, but their body is isolated. As a result, opportunities for nurturing co-creative experiences are decreasing.Humans have created this world through creative activities with others
Humans learn about the world through interaction with others and by sharing experiences. People think with their bodies as they move through the world, and society has developed through creative activities born from collaboration. This is why co-creative experience is very important for society. (Extracts taken from teamLab Borderless Future Park)
Here’s how these concepts are incorporated in the three installations from Future Park.
Sketch Aquarium is similar to Graffiti Nature. Visitors colour in a picture of a sea creature that is scanned and imported into the digital projection. Visitors can touch the creatures to watch them dart away or touch the food to feed the fish. In terms of co-creation this is perfect. Visitors pick their sea creation, colour it in on shared tables and scan the image which then appears in the aquarium with the other drawings. It is a space where your individual two-dimensional art work becomes a part of a larger digital piece co-created with other visitors.
Skills Nurtured in Sketch Aquarium: Creativity, power of expression, respect for diversity, interest in technology, develops self-efficacy
Fruit Field is a slide covered in projections of fruit and balls. I was immediately reminded of a combination of Fruit Ninja and pinball. As visitors slide, you can see the behaviour of the projections change. The fruit explodes into fireworks and digital bouncy balls bounce around and hit other elements of the projection. When I visited, staff asked visitors to slide one at a time which only allowed for an individual experience rather than a collaborative, co-creative experience.
Skills Nurtured Fruit Field: Sense of Balance, Collaboration, Awareness of the Ecosystem, Pattern Recognition, Ability to verify the hypothesis
Where Little People Live is a room which features two artworks one on a Musical Wall and another on Tables. Visitors attach houses, balloons, trees, mushrooms and other objects to the walls that little characters climb up or jump on. These actions influence the musical tones in the space. The tables are a perfect height for little kiddos. Objects are placed on the tables and these change the behaviour of the little digital characters. These digital surfaces encourage collaboration and problem solving. As little people move across the wall or table, they jump and run onto the objects where you have positioned them. Visitors need to work together with others to keep the little people moving.
Skills Nurtured in Where Little People Live: Pattern Recognition, Logical Thinking Creativity, Power of Expression, An Understanding of Physical Laws, such as Gravity
TeamLab sets up the concept of its educational experience to be the opposite of what they consider a traditional school setting. It is not prescribed, it is not two-dimensional, it is not stationary. Rather it is a museum that nurtures play, exploration and curiosity, spatial relations and awareness, three-dimensional thinking, co-creativity and problem solving through trial and reflection.
One last thing, you can imagine my intrigue when exiting the upper floor to find a few large text panels that outlined subject specific content. This included such content areas as ecosystems, insects, the universe and the laws of motion to name a few. It felt like a bit of a “hey, this is what you learnt in this space”. Sure, I made connections based on my prior knowledge however that content is not explicit in the museum. The focus is definitely on nurturing skills not specific content knowledge.
Do I think this is a wonderful, imaginative, curiosity-driven education environment for young visitors of all ages? Hell yeah! Do I think visitors need time and patience to achieve its concepts and skills nurtured goals? Definitely. With the growing popularity of this museum I think a lot of young visitors won’t get a chance to linger long enough to test, reflect and explore these artworks and that’s okay. Play and curiosity is still encouraged in an immersive and magical digital world and that’s a wonderful digital education experience in itself.
This is Pt 2 of a story. If you’re interested in reading about the lower level you can check it out here.
Unless otherwise stated, photography copyright Bridget Hanna and Ash Clifford. However, these photos DO NOT do the museum justice!
