The 'Universe of Water Particles in the Tank' exhibit is located in Tank No. 5.
The paths of digital art are inscrutable. Just look at the newly opened Universe of Water Particles in the Tank exhibition at **Tank Shanghai, a 60,000+m2 multifunctional cultural center** created by contemporary art collector Qiao Zhibing to "foster connections between people, art, urban life and nature".
And although it seems that we say it because of its spectacular nature and its unique location, a gigantic waterfall that falls on the walls of an old oil tank converted into a large interactive space, in reality we are referring to the creative and instantaneous process of the digital work itself. devised by the teamLab team: when people touch or obstruct the flow of water, it changes and transforms.
The flow of the great digital waterfall is transformed due to the interaction of the viewers.
As explained by this art collective, an interdisciplinary group of 'ultra-technologists', as they define themselves, water is represented by a continuum of numerous water particles whose interaction is calculated and then 'flattened' lines related to their future behavior are drawn.
"The interaction between the viewer and the installation causes a continuous change in the artwork. What has been seen before can never be replicated and will never happen again." they clarify from teamLab, while defining the tank as "an ultra-subjective space".
Computer generated images are never repeated, they depend on the interaction with the viewer.
Another of the works in the exhibition, Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together, Transcending Boundaries, is also influenced by the particles of the waterfall and, again, by people. So much so that it is a work that is constantly changing: in one hour it is possible to see a whole year of flowering.
"Flowers are born, grow, bloom and eventually disperse and die. The cycle of birth and death repeats itself in perpetuity. If people stay still, more flowers are born. If people touch the flowers and walk around the space, the flowers scatter all at once", this is how the work is described by teamLab, who clarify that it is not a pre-recorded or looped animation, but rather "the work is rendered in real time by a computer program".
If you stay still, flowers are born. If you touch them, they scatter.
Until next August 24 it will be possible to interact with the works of Universe of Water Particles in the Tank, an exhibition that shares the spotlight at Tank Shanghai with two other shows: Under Construction, with recent –and unfinished– works by several renowned Chinese artists and the disturbing Sometimes you wonder, in an interconnected universe, who is dreaming who?, by Adrian Villar Rojas.
Exterior of the former oil tanks of Tank Shanghai.