Odaiba location now CLOSED but scheduled to relocate to Toranomon area in 2023. Art brought to another level in the world's first digital art museum! A world of interactive digital art allowing viewers and visitors to walk and influence it is finally in Tokyo. The museum is a one of a kind place where you can truly say that art comes to life.
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The Mori Building Digital Art Museum
What comes into your mind when you hear the word “museum”? Are you thinking about those ancient sculptures, statues, and paintings or those historical pieces, artifacts, and fossils? Are you imagining the quiet, and perhaps a little bit eerie ambiance inside the building? Or do you remember the restricted movements you have because of the strict rules, including the “No Touching” policy? While many history and culture enthusiasts would admire and enjoy these traditional museum setups, we cannot disagree that this does not work for everybody, especially the younger generation who is now more into the hands-on and lively.
If that is the case for you and your friends or children, Mori Building Digital Art Museum is open to serve you a unique and more engaging museum experience. This first-ever digital art museum is located on the man-made island of Odaiba in Tokyo Bay. The museum is built by a digital art organization named TeamLab - a group of artists, computer engineers, scientists, etc - that envisions creating a borderless world of art - hence the name teamLab Borderless.
After a series of sold-out pop-up exhibits all over the world, TeamLab finally decided to build a permanent location for this out-of-this-world museum in Odaiba on June 21, 2018. The museum occupies a total of 10,000 square meter space that is huge enough to cater to the constant stream of guests. The TeamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum utilizes 520 computers and 470 projectors to create 50 jaw-dropping digital artworks that will surely activate all of your five senses. You’re bound to have seen at least some of them on Instagram and other social media!
※ Teamlab Borderless
Writer's Pick
One of A Kind Museum
TeamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum is far from any of those quiet and traditional museums out there. In TeamLab Museum the artworks are constantly changing, moving, and influencing each other from one section to another. The museum is filled with artworks that have bright, dynamic, and kaleidoscopic colors that will undoubtedly overwhelm your senses.
Unlike the “no touching” norm of traditional museums, Teamlab Museum is different. Here, guests are encouraged to interact and engage with the digital arts because a good number of them respond and react to your touch. For example, the section called Forest of Resonating Lamps is filled with romantic and picture-worthy lamps that are sensitive to motion.
Check out the following sections of TeamLab Museum that you should not miss:
Crystal World
It is a room full of LEDs and mirrors that create an endless and infinite landscape of floating crystals. You can also binge taking pictures here as you can also change the color scheme and light patterns using a smartphone app.
Universe of Water Particles on a Rock Where People Gather
This section imitates the beauty of a waterfall through lights that are projected like falling waters and raised platforms that look like rocks where people can sit and enjoy the view. You can also control and change the direction of the waterfall of light through movement.
Forest of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed, and Reborn
This large room is filled with walls and floors that project different varieties of colorful flowers. The flowers are also motion-sensitive. When you touch the flowers, they may wither or scatter, and then new flowers will bloom elsewhere. A new exhibit titled “A Whole Year per Year” also has a similar concept, but featuring the seasonal flower of the month.
Seasonal Exhibits
There are also some exhibits that are not available all year round or where the content is not permanent. For example, the “Memory of Topography” section features rice fields and fireflies during summer while the “Forest of Resonating Lamps” features the hydrangea flowers during its peak season. So, if you want to see these seasonal exhibits, make sure to check the date of its availability.
Other Interactive Activities
If you are not already amazed with digital art interactions with mere touch, there are even more engaging activities that kids and kids at heart will love. In the Athletics Forest, you can find the “Multi Jumping Universe” wherein you can create planets and stars by jumping and running on a trampoline. There’s also the “Aerial Climbing through a Flock of Colored Birds”, an aerial ropes course where you can follow an unmarked path of connected boards. For those who love drawing, you can find the “Sketch Aquarium” in the Future Park wherein you can draw sea creatures or anything, scan it, and watch your own drawing come to life and join the other drawings swimming in a large virtual aquarium.
EN Tea House
If you are tired from roaming around this borderless world of digital art, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a cup of tea and some snacks at EN Tea House inside the museum. However, even in this refreshment area, you can still enjoy the interactive digital arts. When you put your cup of tea on the screen table, flowers will start to bloom around it and when you lift it up, the animated plants will scatter across the table. Just keep your cup filled in order to keep the flowers growing because it will lose its “power” when it is empty.
These sections and art installations mentioned in the article are just some of the many more artwork that you can explore and experience in the TeamLab Museum. Check out their official website for a complete list and teaser videos of all their art installations.
Admission and Getting There
Location and Nearest Stations
TeamLab Museum is located in Palette Town Complex in Odaiba. You can either go there by using the JR Rinkai Line and stop at Tokyo Teleport Station that is only a walking distance to the museum or you can use the Yurikamome Line to drop at Aomi Station.
Admission Fees
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Regular ticket for adults: ¥3,200
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Discounted price for persons with disabilities: ¥1,600
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Discounted price for children (4-14 years old): ¥1,000
※ Teamlab Borderless
Few Important Notes
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Book tickets online because tickets are easily sold out during peak seasons.
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Wear comfortable shoes. Heels and slippers are not allowed.
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Wear jeans or pant/trousers, if possible. Some floors are made of mirrors so wearing skirts is not advisable.
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There are so many features you can enjoy in TeamLab Museum so give yourself at least 3-4 hours to fully explore the museum. There are also no maps, so you have to let yourself wander in order to find the somewhat hidden rooms. There are staff you can ask if you have trouble finding a particular exhibit that you want to see.
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Charge your phone and camera battery and make sure you have enough storage because you will be taking a million photos in this instagrammable and photo-worthy museum!
Takeaway
Change your museum experience with the innovative and futuristic Mori Building Digital Arts Museum. Explore and enjoy a borderless world of dynamic and kaleidoscopic works of arts. Art is not for seeing only; activate all your senses with the interactive art displays in one of Japan’s top museums.
