DMM Planets X TeamLab in Odaiba (2016)

In collaboration with DMM Planets, TeamLab has come up with another amazing art installation for Fuji TV’s summer festival. For an entrance fee of ¥2000, visitors can experience an otherworldly and interactive art form; Incorporating lights, music, and digital art to enhance the senses in the several exhibitions featured in this year's ‘A World of Wonders.’

TeamLab is a collaborative, made of both creatives and technicians experimenting with the unification of art, technology, and science. Consequently, the group’s works are both charged with creativity and precision that leave visitors of all ages in awe. This specific exhibition highlights some of TeamLab’s most popular works, such as the Crystal Universe.

In the first main room, don’t be surprised if you cry instantly upon entering the Crystal Universe. Rows and rows of lights are lined up in different forms and clusters allowing guests to walk through the art itself. The walls and ground are made of mirror, which subsequently create an illusion of infinite lights. In sync with the ambient music, the lights change hues, zoom throughout different sections of the installation, and twinkle every so fluidly.

After taking ample pictures and wandering through the space in awe, many people sit against a wall in an open space to simply watch the light show play out from start to end. While many could sit for hours on end fully experiencing the Crystal Universe, several more exhibitions in the DMM Planets space wait to be explored. Prepare to get a bit wet in the next installation (as well as several of the paths in-between), as water fills the room up to knee length.

Moving flowers and lazily swimming koi fish are projected onto the water resulting in a free-flowing feeling. Those worried about dropping valuables such as phones in the water need not worry; upon entering the lab guests are given plastic cases and lanyards to safely carry their phones throughout the exhibit. Socks and shoes are required to be stored away in lockers before entering the installation.

After going through a few hallways with several sensory surprises, the last main feature named “Floating in the Falling Universe of Flowers” is without a doubt the most relaxing. Bean bags and pillows are scattered throughout the floor for art lovers to prop up against while looking up at the dome’s digital projection of oversized flower and fauna falling from the ceiling. Rather than a pre-recorded projection, the exhibit creates flowers and creatures in real time, making each person’s visit unique.

Truly a relaxing experience, the Falling Universe recreates the cycle of one year span of flowers blooming. Those with a QR code scanner app on their phone can interact with the room by selecting butterflies from their phone to project onto the dome’s screen. TeamLab is constantly coming out with new exhibitions, both temporary and permanent, throughout Tokyo and Japan. Those who can’t get enough of the collaborative’s works may be lucky enough to find a showing in their home country by keeping up with TeamLab via their website or social media.