teamLab Formed

Toshiyuki Inoko founded the digital art collective teamLab in 2001 with four friends, bringing together approximately 400 'ultratechnologists' with backgrounds across art, mathematics and technology. teamLab, headquartered in Tokyo and with branches in Singapore and Shanghai, from the beginning aimed to transform how people interact with their surroundings through digital art. To this day, they create immersive installations that combine the physical and digital worlds, redefining our perceptions of space. The group is known for investigating sensory experiences with viewer interaction, creating one-of-a-kind environments in which participants can transcend reality.

The group’s immersive installations recall the work from the previous decade of CAVE from EVL (Electronic Visualization Lab).

Toshiyuki spoke to Artnet about the collective’s first project in 2001:

“The first work for teamLab was in 2001. It was a collaboration artwork with a musician. While the musician was singing, people watching the live show could put a comment on the internet. We took these comments and displayed them inside the space, so the comments were floating all around. It was projected on the wall, and the comments eventually created the shape of a tree, kind of like an immersive space, with all of the comments floating.”