Abu Dhabi’s teamLab: absolutely fab!

Ok, let’s have a show of hands…

Who has experienced, or at least knows about something about, teamLab?

Ah, just as I thought: not many. Too bad! For this is a uniquely entertaining art project at the intersection of light effects and music, computer animation, and a completely wild atmosphere. Drop everything and get there!…

Last year I visited the teamLab Planets mega-digital-lightshow in Tokyo, and now had come the time to check out their latest exposition in the UAE.

You really need to see this phenomenon “live”, as photos and videos only capture some of the impressions and emotions. Accordingly, this post needs to be considered merely as an introduction to teamLab Abu Dhabi: a modest and not too professional promo-account about this highly intriguing art event. Which goes something like this:

Here‘s where it’s situated:

We bought tickets, found the spot, and got ourselves there; here’s the entrance ->

In we go…

Compared to Tokyo’s teamLab, there are far more spaces here. There’s also a lot more live interactivity here: you don’t just look, you can also touch, and in some places even somehow affect the light show. And although the platforms are of the same format, the content is entirely different. Besides, we wandered around Tokyo’s teamLab for about an hour-and-a-half, but in Abu Dhabi we were there for a full two-and-a-half.

The first hall:

…At least, that’s how we saw it upon entering: a huge hall with columns reaching the ceiling with projections upon them with some bluish twilight and butterflies flying around – seemingly a pre-dawn forest. Then everything wildly transforms and begins to flare up with absolutely stunning colors:

Here you should find a corner to lie down in and stare at the lightshow – and you may just lose track of time while you do. Oh, and this entire installation is mirrored on the walls. Alas, understanding what’s what, why, and how – my camera flatly refused to comprehend. It only just managed a mirror-selfie:

Meanwhile, the scene darkens, evening sets in, and night falls…

And it all looks simply unreal!

The images enter another cycle – again the pre-dawn light, butterflies flying about…

Mind-blowing! My camera completely agreed with me – eventually hallucinating! ->

The names of the projections:

You may have noticed that the floor in the hall with the columns wasn’t entirely even. Well that continues throughout ->

Alas, it’s already time to exit:

Next is an installation a performance with a black sphere that rises to the ceiling and then descends to the floor in time with the music:

On the floor beneath the sphere is a grate, so you might think that air from it levitates the sphere to the ceiling and back – but no! Nothing blows out of the grate – I personally checked. The sphere moves by itself…

Onward we stroll along corridors that are just a tad less surreal, but still captivating:

Laser show: not the latest fancy thing, but still cool…

…Especially if you lie on the floor and look up at the cyclically changing patterns:

Next comes probably the craziest attraction. Visitors with heightened claustrophobia and unstable vestibular systems should probably stay away…

Here’s how it works. This isn’t a room, but a gigantic sphere with a taut, sturdy net in the middle – that’s the floor. Trusting visitors are released onto it.

But no one warned them that the imagery around (above and below) not only constantly changes but rotates in all directions! Total surreal madness for the head, spine, and entire skeletal system every which way. I want to go back!!

The next room is “Graffiti Nature”. The name seemed strange at first, but then I got it! Another huge room with a sphere displaying various amazing projections, with animals and other imagery projected across the spaces:

Whales glide across the walls:

If you enter a side room, using templates and markers you can draw your own creature:

Something like this:

And then these new creations join the existing collection of critters and creatures crawling across the ceiling, floor, and walls…

…adding newcomers to the collection. For example, here’s a crocodile named “Natasha”.

The theme of the “Morphing Continuum” room doesn’t translate through photos at all. Balloons, controlled by air currents, fly in all directions – and you wander among them trying to dodge them. Great fun! But the camera refused to focus on anything! :)

Moving on…

Shoes off for the water-based installations.

Quick selfie:

Onward…

Here it gets a bit dull. It seems the team ran out of energy for the entire space. But I hope they’ll still make it work. At present the last three or four spaces feel a bit lackluster compared to the earlier ones.

But the megaliths are quite something!

And that was that: teamLab Abu Dhabi – done. Highly recommended!

The best hi-res photos from the UAE are here.