A sea of flowers magically blooms and withers in this stunning digital installation by teamLab, a collective made up of tech specialists that include architects, programmers, CG animators, and more. Titled Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together, for Eternity, the stunning display consists of a walkway covered with real-time renderings of gorgeous flora found in Tokyo. Cherry blossoms, rape blossoms, and other blooms burst into cascades of colorful petals, and then slowly fade away to make room for the new buds of flowers from another season.
Similar to another version of the installation displayed in Usuno last year, this artwork is interactive. Visitors’ movements, whether they’re walking or standing still, cause flowers to spring up or wither away. Standing on the carpet of digital blossoms, gazing into the seemingly infinite space reflected in the mirrors around the room, the viewer is immersed totally in an ever-changing, perpetual cycle of beautiful growth and decay.
“The boundary between the work of nature and the work of humans is extremely vague. In other words, nature and humans are not antagonistic concepts, but rather, a pleasant nature is an ecosystem that also includes the work of humans,” teamLab says. “We also wondered what kind of behavior would constitute artificial behavior toward nature based on this premise that nature cannot be controlled, and whether these behaviors could perhaps give us clues about the future.”
The installation is currently on display with other digital, interactive works of art at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo for the exhibition teamLab Shake! Art Exhibition! and Learn and Play! teamLab Future Park through March 1, 2015.
