Review of Living Digital Space and Future Parks

Today, I’m doing a Travel Tuesday to the Bay Area to highlight a spectacular exhibit that is ending really soon on December 18! Living Digital Space and Future Parks is an exhibit is created by a collective of people who bring together technology and art called teamlab that was founded in Tokyo in 2001. Their exhibits draw in you as a viewer into how the art and technology can become one while also exploring your perspective and your interaction with the exhibit and how both influence and can change each other.

Teamlab has multiple exhibitions around the world, mostly in Asia, and this display Pace Gallery in Menlo Park, in the Bay Area of California, is one of the largest exhibitions with 20 of their digital pieces installed. All of their previous exhibitions in the US have only been temporary, with only one permanent exhibit in Seattle at the Living Computer Museum and which only has two versions of the 20 that are being shown at Living Digital Space and Future Parks.

Let me walk you through my experience. First, after checking in, you will be in the first of two buildings that house the 20 pieces. This initial building, Living Digital Space, is geared more towards everyone but particularly adults, and houses 13 art installations. Meanwhile the second building, Future Parks, is more focused on children and the young at heart with 7 additional exhibits. A visit to both buildings will take 2 hours if you take your time like I did when I visited with my mom, but we also had no kids that wanted to play awhile at Future Parks.

Brace yourself, it is 20 installations, and here’s my full review of Living Digital Space and Future Parks.

Living Digital Space

1. Light Sculpture of Flame uses lots of accumulated light points to create a sculptural flame, similar to the way distinct dots of color form an image in a pointillist painting. You will want to watch it from afar to see the whole, and then up close to see all the tiny little wires and pinpoints of lights that somehow all come together to make that ever changing dancing flame (it was a bit dark but I tried to show it in the 2nd and 3rd photos). The image of the flames and the way the lights create patterns are  continuously created in real-time by a computer program based on how close or far viewers are (more light and sound is louder sound when viewers are closer).
   
   
2. Flowers and People, Gold
3. Flowers and People, Black
   Both of these are placed next to each other in a hallway, and have similar themes and interactions with variations of color. This flowers on the branch are rendered in real time by a computer program and the flowers blossom and then their petals begin to wither, and eventually fade away based on how close and how long a viewer stands before different parts of the artwork, blurring the boundary between the viewer and art space.
   For instance, here in the Gold version in the first two and the Black version in the second pair of photos below, you can see what it looks like with the flowers on the branch on the left and then how the petals change when I step closer in the right photo. The movement of the petals is mesmerizing.
   
   
4. Crows are Chased and the Chasing Crows are Destined to be Chased As Well, Division in Perspective is an entire darkened room with seven screens. The Japanese mythical bird Yatagarasu (believed to represent the sun and the will of Heaven) is rendered in light and flies around all the screens as soaring music plays. The crows chase each other through the air leaving windstream calligraphy trails in their path and eventually they become flowers. This was one that was pretty difficult to photograph with all the fast flying of the birds, but you can get a bit of an idea at the teamlab site with their videos and photos. It was disorienting but fascinating to me how all that motion surrounds you as a viewer and changes depending on where you walk and stand, how many screens you could see, and how even your fellow viewers and how their silhouette in the darkness contributes to the image in your eyes.
   
5. Flowers and Corpse Glitch Set of 12
   This was my mom’s favorite of the installations. There are 12 stories one each on each screen/scroll, that start covered with golden clouds that part to show the particular slide of the story in that screen. Shortly, the scene begins to fall apart like the surface has been cracked of the “painting” to now show the technology behind the animation, and the 3D renderings behind the scenes. Then, everything disintegrates and the gold clouds cover the story to signal the falling of the curtain.
   
   The 12 screens tell the tale of Story of civilization, nature, prosperity, war, and balance with a capital city and a noble Hikaru Genij. Disease begins to ravage the capital and to investigate Hikaru Genji journeys outside of the city and arrives at a mountain village. The people cut down trees in the forest, and the villagers cut down a sacred tree and the angry spirit dragon Yamata no Orochi appears. Yamata no Orochi rampages the village so a battle between the warriors, the gods of the forest and Yamata no Orochi begins. The warriors make use of the developments of civilization, such as flaming arrows and swords to be victorious. After the battle, the burned-out forest is a wasteland. Hikaru Genji spreads seeds over the corpse of Yamata no Orochi and from the dead corpse, buds appear and the forest is gradually restored. The people are determined to go on and live in harmony with the forest and a festival is held.
   
   
6. Black Waves The movement of waves of water is simulated in a computer-generated three-dimensional space and doesn’t seem to repeat, just like the way in real life hundreds of thousands of particles affect each other in so many different ways. It was interesting in that since this is placed in a room after the Flowers and People and Light Sculpture of Flame, I saw already several people trying to go up to it and see if they can affect these stormy seas (you can’t) and how quickly people begin to expect more from art than passively viewing.
   
7. Black Waves in Infinity I didn’t find the title card right away when I entered the room and my impression when I first entered and explored was more about Smoke and Mirrors in the way the outside walls of the room was all mirrors while the inside were clear glass with wafting waves of what appeared to be smoke that sometimes made it easy and clear to see through multiple rows and other times hid them. Again, fellow viewers in the room almost became part of the art in whether I can see them or silhouettes or no one at all among the pathways leading back and forth between the light and smoke and mirrors. I don’t know if that’s what they were expecting but I’m sticking with my interpretation.
   
8. Crystal Universe This was my favorite of the installations. Viewers are invited to enter and walk around within the three-dimensional light space. This movement affects the light particles and creates changes in the installation. Viewers can also interact with the work by using their smartphones or tablets at the end of the path looking back on the Crystal Universe as a whole to select elements of patterns and colors for the lights to embody in the light space universe.
   Here’s a few photos of the lights from unlit to the variations of colors they can embody.
   
   Here’s a look at the universe from the outside, after walking through
   
   And here’s a look from the inside
   
9. Cold Life A screen projects what starts as brush strokes modeled in virtual 3-D space that forms the character 生 (Japanese/Mandarin for life). As the branch/character turns, each spin continues the metamorphoses of the initially plain branch into a tree with buds then flowering as it continues to turn and turn with time, blossoming and becoming exuberant with life.
   
10. Universe of Water Particles pursues an interesting concept in that traditional Japanese art water included using lines to represent the moving flow and life. and questions whether seeing those lines gives a sense of life even though this is not a video of a waterfall but a computer generated virtual waterfall. Does the viewer feels it is alive and a connection to nature even knowing it is a rendered reproduction of the physical and not the real thing?
    
    These last three artworks were placed together in the same room and seemed to flow into each other.
11. Flowers and People Cannot Be Controlled But Live Together, A Whole Year Per Hour This is the entire room in terms of the walls and floor with projections of flowers. This artwork is in continuous change, over a period of one hour a seasonal year of flowers blossoms and scatters. Depending on the proximity of the viewer to the work, the flowers shed their petals all at once or come to life and blossom once again. The more people in the room, the more the flowers wither but if you wait for the room to empty a bit, the more flowers but less movement of blossoming petals set flying by human presence. This room, along with Crystal Universe, and Flowers and People Black or Gold, seemed to inspire the most selfies. I have no selfie game but my mom took my photo 😉
    
    I overall had a mixed reaction to the number of selfies I saw – on one hand, this art is beautiful and you want to remember it, and the art encourages you to be part of it. On the other hand, some seemed more focused on themselves with the art as backdrop and barely thinking about the art, particularly one pair of girls who every room I ran into them and she posed in front of each and every art with her hand cupping as if holding the installation which I found diminishing and negative somehow. I seem ok with it for buildings and landmarks and statues outside where I admit that kind of shot can be humorous – why was this different? What are your thoughts about selfies and art?
    
12. Ever Blossoming Life II This artwork is in continuous change on the TV screen. Over a period of one hour, a seasonal year of flowers blossoms and scatters. Flowers bud, grow, blossom, then the petals scatter, and the flowers wither and fade away. The cycle of birth and death repeats itself with pauses to also integrate with the Flutter of Butterflies work below…
    
13. Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders. This was a mode of the TV screen that would swap between Ever Blossoming Life II in turns. For this art piece, butterflies appear on the screen and fly seamlessly into the nearby installation (aka outside the TV screen and into the room walls). It challenges the boundaries between the works. The flight pattern of the butterflies in Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders is influenced by the state of the other works, as well as the behavior of the viewers. The butterflies gather in places where flowers bloom in the other works, and if a viewers touches a butterfly, it loses its life.
    

Future Parks

This is a great exhibit to bring your kids to that connect critical thinking and creativity with technology and art as well as social interactions with others in many of the exhibits in which each individual contributes to a collaborative play space.

1. Sketch Town Sketch Town is a town that grows and evolves according to the pictures drawn by children. After the 2-D drawings of cars, buildings, and spaceships are colored in and detailed (blank sheets with the shapes are provided), the creations are scanned and projected onto the virtual 3-D townscape. Children can interact with the final townscape by touching individual components to alter their behavior. Please don’t mock my drawing of me and my mom too much.
   
2. Sketch Town Papercraft This is a variation of the above where the digital and physical barrier is broken back down where the same 2-D drawings are scanned and printed on a sheet that can be used to create 3-D papercrafts which children can take home. This activity involves problem solving skills and logical thinking, as children have to identify where to cut, fold, and glue as there are no direct instructions. As an adult I felt too guilty to literally fight for a seat at the table among the kids for this, but you can see more detail here at the teamlab site on Sketch Town Papercraft with photos and video.
   
3. Sketch Aquarium Sketch Aquarium is an aquarium that grows and evolves according to the pictures drawn by children (yes an underwater variation of Sketch Town basically). After the 2-D drawings of sea creatures varying from jelly fish to sharks are colored in and detailed (blank sheets with the shapes are provided), the creations are scanned and projected onto the virtual 3-D aquarium. Children may also touch the sea creatures to see them swim away, or touch the virtual food bag to feed them.
   
4. Connecting! Train Block. In Connecting! Train Block, cars and trains run along roads and railroad tracks that are connected by wooden blocks. As children place different blocks on the table, more cars and trains appear as roads and rivers and stations get connected, forming a townscape. Children play by placing the blocks in different positions to create a town collaboratively with other children.
   
5. Create! Hopscotch for Geniuses Participants are invited to create their own Hopscotch course, consisting of projected circular, triangular, and square shapes that are placed on a tablet to create the course and then appear in real life along a path to play with. Different sound effects and images emerge as participants land on the same shape or color in succession on the actual course.
   
6. A Table where Little People Live So cute! Little people run around an interactive tabletop screen. Children are encouraged to interact with the little people by placing objects on the table and as each object is introduced, the little people interact with the objects by jumping, climbing, and sliding onto them. You can see a great video of the kids playing it here at the teamlab site.
   
7. Story of the Time When Gods were Still Everywhere A large screen takes up a whole wall in which symbols flow vertically from top to bottom. As the symbols are touched by children, they evolve into the images that they represent: sun, mountains, animals. As more images are created a story begins to emerge as the objects that emerge from the symbols influence one another and are influenced by the actions of other people. For example, a bird lands on a tree, a sheep runs away from a wolf, and a sheep dances as a child approaches it. This is one where the more children the better to be activating the symbols to play together.
   

Please hurry if you want to see it as you must buy your tickets before they close on December 18 (they have already extended once from their run). You can purchase your tickets to the exhibit online at Event Brite, and a general admission ticket is $20 a person. There is discounted admission available for children ages 3-13, students, seniors, and non-profit employees with ID. Tickets come for entrance in 2 hour increments of 11 AM – 1 PM, 1 – 3 PM, 3 – 5 PM and 5 – 7 PM Tuesday – Sunday. The exact address is the Pace Gallery at 300 El Camino Real which has plenty of parking in the lot.

Which installation most fascinates you?