Three incredible interactive art displays set to wow Tokyo
The app-enabled interactive art exhibits play with the idea of nature in digital spaces, from kaleidoscopic butterflies to exploding koi.
A new interactive art exhibit, named Odaiba Minna no Yume-Tairiku 2016, allows visitors to explore strange, melodic worlds just a stone's throw away from the bustling city life of Tokyo Bay. TeamLab, a company responsible for some of the more visually stunning interactive installations I've seen here in Japan, is currently exhibiting three of its largest works in partnership with DMM's Planets.Art initiative.
Tokyo's hectic, always-on-the-move beat can get too much -- the exhibit is meant to encourage a slower, more deliberate pace in its visitors as they explore the three feature exhibits.
The first, named Wander Through the Crystal Universe, is an interactive display of suspended lights and crystals, where each visitor is encouraged to modify the exhibit using their smartphones and accompanying app, flicking a new rhythmic pattern into the collaborative experience of the sparkling room.
The second exhibit, Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers, embedded above, has visitors releasing butterflies via another app into a rotating and reflected arrangement of flora. The exhibit itself is similar to a kaleidoscope, but one generated by computer algorithms rather than any pre-recorded loop, guaranteeing that no two viewings are ever the same.
The final exhibit, Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People, embedded above, encourages the visitors to wade through shallow, milky water as projection-mapped koi swim lazily around their feet, trying their best to avoid you. As a person collides with a koi, an explosion of brightly coloured underwater flowers or luminous algae scatters across the water and mingles with the colours cast by other people close by.
If you've ever wanted to take part in a one-of-a-kind interactive experience, you have a month to see the exhibit. Odaiba Minna no Yume-Tairiku 2016 will remain open until August 31, with ticket prices set at 2,000 yen (around $20, AU$25 or £15), with discounts if ordered from the TeamLab website. TeamLab continues to explore the potential of interactive art exhibits, the company says, and will be showcasing further works in Kyoto.