Head to Japan to see the most advanced museum in the world
Yes. This place is real.
Move over Disneyland. Japan’s making magic in real life.
For a long time we’ve focused on Japan’s whimsical tales of Studio Ghibli, crazy vending machines, and school girl scandals. But there’s a new attraction in Tokyo and it’s yanking on the spotlight with both hands.
Here’s the kicker… it’s an art museum.
“Artworks Move Around The Room Freely”
When you first read the video subtitle “Artworks move around the room freely” it sounds like a bad translation. But nope. The art in this museum really does drift along the walls with a mind of its own, playfully interacting with visitors motions and footsteps. Check it out.
“teamLab Borderless is a group of artworks that form one borderless world. Artworks move out of rooms, communicate with other works, influence, and sometimes intermingle with each other with no boundaries.”
All the art in teamLab’s Borderless museum is made using complex light projections and Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Its an interactive experience of a virtual world in a real-world setting.
Just let that sink in for a second. The people at Borderless are actually building the virtual world into the real one. This is where the lines between art and reality begin to blur.
Art that’s seamlessly more interactive
The museum contains almost 50 artworks that “form connections and relationships with people, communicate with other works, influence and sometimes intermingle with each other, and have the same concept of time as the human body.”
Exhibits are in dark rooms with pitch black walls and the occasional mirror. Black shapes jut from walls or forming mini hills and forests to create a landscape that you can interact with. Check it out.
They’ve also built an underwater forest that you can walk through. It’s titled “Sea in the Memory of Topography.”
Okay, one more. Watch as 16 lightrays intermingle to create the artwork, “Crows are Chased and the Chasing Crows are Destined to be Chased as well, Life on Collision — 1 Crow where 16 Light Rays Cross”
Revolutionizing school and learning through art
Welcome to the Athletics Forest. It’s designed for children to have fun and learn to think in three dimensions rather than two. Pus there’s a giant marshmallow-type trampoline that beckons event the most shy kids to step out of their shell.
But the true value of the Athletics Forest goes beyond a fun educational art experience for kiddos. Here’s the higher concept.
“Knowledge entails using the brain whilst keeping the body stationary, and limiting the amount of information. If the problem is “1+1=?” the amount of information is several bytes.
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.”
They’re working on teaching kids how to actively think in higher dimensions rather than flat planes. That means in the future, we solve problems using an entirely new set of skills. Head to their webpage on higher dimensional thinking if you want to know more.
Seeping into reality
The whole concept behind teamLab’s Borderless museum is to make art in which you can lose yourself. Art that you can unify with. Art that “transcends the boundary between people and world”.
Consuming food and drink is one of our most basic functions as humans. So when you have a virtual flower literally blooming in a cup of matcha tea (tea ceremony is one of Japan’s most ancient and revered activities), you can’t help but be impressed.
Sure, it’s a bit of a gimmick at the moment… but give these artists 2 or 3 years, and who knows what they could achieve.
One things for sure, the creators are looking toward the future
While excited adults will flock towards this art museum as Japan’s next ‘big’ thing, it’s clear that it’s not for us.
It’s for the future.
The athletic forest alone show that teamLab is dedicated to inspiring and teaching children in new ways. And as Greta Thunberg has recently shown the world, the kids of the future will need all the inspiration and help they can get to tackle problems that are currently unsolvable.
