Abstract

teamLab, a contemporary Japanese group of interdisciplinary artists and engineers, creates digital artworks that explore the relationship among nature, people and digital creations. As a great many of their projects intend to transform traditional Japanese ways of viewing and experiencing the world into the creation of digital arts, the conception of nature as something that includes, enfolds, and embraces people and the things they make can be perceived. In experiencing their exhibitions, the visitor may participate in and interact with their works for their intention of breaking down the boundary between their artworks and audiences, and between nature and the digital world. By drifting into and interacting with dynamic digital settings, the audience may converse with the scenarios of spatial scenes. In other words, the interaction between audiences and the artworks created by teamLab demonstrates a performative relationship as well as providing possibilities for visitors to immerse in both a simulative and borderless digital environment. In so doing, audiences may actively play and perform along with the visual scenarios and spatial situations they are sensing. From teamLab’s aspect of “viewer centricity” and the design of augmented reality, a conception of immersive situation can be suggested from their works. Through a theoretical study of immersive theater, this article argues that these immersive phenomena and participatory behaviors of the audience can be regarded as a sort of quasi-immersive theater. In order to explore the immersive interactions that can be forged by such sensory experiences, the article will explore spatial discourses and methods of narration suggested by image scenarios through the spatial setting of their works, in addition to the study of beholders’ spatial experiences stimulated by their participations in the responsive settings. At the end, the article will discuss the narrative potential for applying teamLab’s digital works to the site of specific cultural heritage, so as to explore the possibility of recalling collective memories through the connection among historical places, audiences, and digital artworks.