‘Ever since we were founded, we’ve decided to create through the process of collaborative creation,’ says Japan’s aptly named collective teamLab. Founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko, the studio specialises in technologically ambitious and highly personal digital art installations that focus on what it means to be human, and above this, the creation of new relationships between humans and nature.
A sense of place plays an important role too: ‘We are most interested in places formed by the accumulation of the interaction and activities between people and nature: places that transcend our own existence, regardless of where they might be,’ they say. ‘For example, the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in China are a place formed by the accumulation of the interaction and activities between people and nature over the course of a time indefinitely longer than our own existence, much like the forest and stones of Mifuneyama Rakuen.’
Reversible Rotation, Flying Beyond Borders — One Stroke, Cold Light. Shanghai, China, 2019. © teamLab
Tunnel into the Void, Shanghai, China, 2019. © teamLab
TeamLab’s work is now on permanent display in Shanghai’s Borderless Museum and Tokyo’s MORI Digital Art Museum. ‘It’s almost like you’re inside them, swimming under water,’ Pace London director Tamara Corm says of teamLab’s mesmeric installations. Her gallery welcomed the critically acclaimed ‘Transcending Boundaries’ exhibition in 2017, which plunged visitors into unexpected darkness and then into a large room filled with disorientating light and music, neon butterflies, and flowers that bloomed on demand.
China by Design - Explore the full list here.
teamLab.
INFORMATION
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designCreativity leaps the screen at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s record-flying roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
The modernist home of musician Imogen Holst gets Grade II listingThe daughter of the composer Gustav Holst lived here from 1964 until her death, during which time the home served a locus for her own composition work, which included assisting Benjamin Britten
-
This fun and free-spirited photography exhibition offers a chromatic view on the world‘Chromotherapia’ at Villa Medici in Rome, explores how we view colour as a way of therapy, and how it has shaped photography over the last century (until 9 June 2025)
-
New global design destination House of Wang opens in BeijingA new retail destination offering a curated edit of the best contemporary design opens its doors within a historical setting
-
Plywood pavilion transforms into 410 furniture piecesIn Fuqing, a small rural community in China, 410 plywood tables and chairs have been constructed from Furniture Pavilion S, an architect-built exhibition space, giving a new lease of life to this temporary structure
-
Meet the next generation of creative forces reshaping Chinese design topography -
China’s design footprint evolves with a new Beijing showcase -
Top 9 Chinese designers at Design Shanghai -
Shifting perspectives: from Nendo to Naihan Li, a survey of Asian design opens at M+ Hong Kong -
At Hong Kong Department Store, savour local design and the city’s forgotten crafts -
Metallic moments: Michael Young presents the evolution of aluminium
