An Art Museum for the Digital Age: teamLab Planets

ByMichael Stigall

Tokyo Arts, Tokyo City, Tokyo Family Fun, Tokyo Metropolis, Tokyo Weekend Activities

Feb 27, 2023

An Art Museum for the Digital Age: teamLab Planets

Tokyo has many wonderful art museums. You can find them in almost every corner of the city. They have excellent independent exhibitions as well. Perhaps none of them achieved the level of global fame though as the now-closed teamLab Borderless in Odaiba.  This article is about the follow-up to that stunning exhibit, the equally astonishing teamLab Planets. 

The new exhibit, created by digital art collective teamLab, opened in Toyosu, a stop away from the new fish market. It was actually scheduled to close at the end of 2022, but it has been extended to the end of the year. Which means that you should probably be trying to go right now. 

The exhibits themselves are interactive and ever-changing suites of light and sound; no two people will experience them in the same way, and that’s a good thing. The designers themselves dub the museum to be “body immersive” in order to dissolve boundaries between the artwork and the watcher as well as the boundaries between visitors and the world. Trippy stuff. 

As you move throughout the complex, each exhibit melds into the next, and at times the interactions seemed to follow me. This is not by accident, as the works are designed to integrate and interact both with one another and the patrons moving in the space. The primary goal of the exhibit is to attempt to unify the digital and biological world and explore those new connections.

While grownups contemplate the deep philosophical ideas behind every piece, the children will be bouncing, running, and very likely splashing around a bit as well.  It should be noted that there’s a lot of water in this exhibit, and most of the time, you experience things barefoot. That said, bring clothes you would be alright getting a little bit wet. 

Time is limited, but this is a rewarding experience for all to enjoy, so make your way to Toyosu and get your feet wet.

teamLab Planets

6-1-16 Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo.
Yurakucho Line to Toyosu Station or Yurikamome Line to  Shin-Toyosu Station [U10]
https://planets.teamlab.art/

Purchase tickets and check availability by visiting https://teamlabplanets.dmm.com/en/ticket/

Sasa0403, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons