teamLab visualizes energy flows in new digital works at tempo gallery

Dissipative grades by teamLab

Lines swirl and expand across the screen in a new series of dynamic digital artworks revealed by teamLab at Pace Gallery in Geneva. titled Dissipative numbersthe five monitor-based works speak of the transfer of energy that takes place between the body and its environment, especially when it is in motion, such as a flock of birds flapping their wings in flight or a human body running through space.

The works are made up of countless lines that flow dynamically in expressive densities. The lines do not depict the human figures or birds themselves, but visualize their movement by expressing their influence on the surrounding airflow, such as the wind from the wings of 1000 birds or the movement of air as runners pass each other.

teamLab, Dissipative Digits – Human, 2022, digital work, 4 channels, continuous loop © teamLab

main video: teamLab, Dissipative numbers – 1000 birds2022, digital work, 4 channels, continuous loop © teamLab

In Dissipative numbers – 1000 birds (2022), invisible birds plunge, flutter and collide in a wave of energy delineated only by the tidelines of their movement through space. Likewise, in Dissipative Figures – Human (2022) the translucent print of an anonymous figure moves the length of the eight screens. Presented together, these brand new works explore a central tenet of teamLab’s artistic philosophy: that life is to be inseparable from the world, sustained by eternal flows of energy in and out.

teamLab, Dissipative figures – 2 people2022, digital work, 8 channels, continuous loop © teamLab

“Life is like a vortex created in the ocean. A vortex forms and exists in a flow of matter, and the limits of its existence are ambiguous. While a vortex is stable, it is in constant motion and swells like a powerful life form. The vortex cannot maintain a stable structure by itself; rather, it is created and maintained by water that flows continuously in and out,’ teamLab comments. “The same goes for life. It consumes and releases external matter and energy as food, maintaining its ordered structure as the energy dissipates. In other words, life does not exist on its own. It is the environment that goes on continuously, that maintains the structure of life.’

Dissipative Figures is on display from June 9 – July 2, 2022 at Pace Gallery as part of teamLab’s solo exhibition entitled, teamLab: exist in an infinite continuity†

exhibition display, image by Julien Gremaud courtesy of Pace Gallery