My 6-year-old daughter is crying. The reason for her heartfelt sobs? It's time to go home and she has to say goodbye to a crocodile — a creature she lovingly drew with crayons before it was brought to life in a digital sea of animated maritime creatures.
Surreal as it sounds, the creation of digital crocodiles is a pretty typical activity in the world of teamLab — or more precisely, inside teamLab's new museum showcasing the work of the so-called "ultra-technologist" art collective.
The new space, which recently opened its doors in the Odaiba district of Tokyo and is the first permanent museum to be devoted exclusively to teamLab's work, is as cavernous as its name is a mouthful: Mori Building Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless. It spans 10,000 square meters of a two-level former games arcade, with a string of innovative digital artworks loosely divided into five areas, all masterminded by a complex network of 520 computers and 470 projectors.