This spring, SAMA presents a digital artwork by the international art collective teamLab alongside a seventeenth-century Japanese screen from SAMA’s collection.

The world of irreversible change resembles the format of historic Japanese screens such as Scenes in and around Kyoto (Rakuchu Rakugai-zu), which presents a birds-eye view of the ancient capital city with major buildings and thoroughfares that are bustling with life. Viewers’ actions affect the artworld of a virtual city that is both somewhere in time and here and now and influence the behaviors of the people in it. Although its inhabitants may become agitated and cause destruction, regrowth of the virtual environment continues eternally, albeit forever changed.

Presented across six monitors, the artwork changes in real-time with the seasons, weather, and the time of day of its location. The artworks bring forward concepts including digital vs. analog, the recontextualization of art historical precedents, collective creativity, and humanity’s relationship to the environment.

TeamLab (f. 2001) is an international art collective. Their collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. Through art, the interdisciplinary group of specialists, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects, aims to explore the relationship between the self and the world and new forms of perception.

This presentation is made possible by a generous loan from the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation.