teamLab Borderless: Bridging Borders in Simulated Ecologies
by Wendy Haslem
Abstract:
This article begins by identifying the ways that spatial borders were destroyed during Australia’s Black Summer fires. It then contrasts this with the opposite, the imposition of national and state borders as physical distancing is promoted as a way to counter the virulent spread of the COVID-19 virus. This radical transformation of actual borders is further contrasted with the intersecting virtual worlds in the museum teamLab Borderless (2018). teamLab Borderless is an immersive exhibition that features simulated worlds that are animated by human contact. They bleed outside of their designated zones, blurring spatial boundaries. teamLab Borderless draws from traditions in Japanese scroll art that invite the viewer to imagine themselves within the space, creating an ultra-subjective mode of engagement. This article takes Sybille Krämer’s philosophy of media, beginning with the postal and its insistence on the distance between sender and receiver, to explore the rituals surrounding teamLab Borderless. It then elaborates on the ways that the experience of teamLab Borderless can be understood in relation to Krämer’s personal, or erotic principle of communication. It applies these modes of communication to consider the potential of interactivity to mediate between the virtual and the natural world. Ultimately, this article posits that in a culture of climate emergency, an alternative future is one where our relationship to nature is necessarily virtual.
Keywords: climate emergency, spatial borders, immersive art, media philosophy, communication, virtual nature
How to cite:
MLA (9th edition):
Haslem, Wendy. “teamLab Borderless: Bridging Borders in Simulated Ecologies.” MAST, vol. 1, no. 2, Nov. 2020, pp. 242–263.
APA (7th edition):
Haslem, W. (2020). teamLab Borderless: Bridging borders in simulated ecologies. MAST, 1(2), 242–263.
Chicago (17th edition):
Haslem, Wendy. “teamLab Borderless: Bridging Borders in Simulated Ecologies.” MAST 1, no. 2 (November 2020): 242–263.
Licensing:
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright:
Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions and may reuse/republish their article as part of a book or other materials, providing acknowledgment is given to MAST as the original source and place of publication. Authors can also post a copy of their accepted/published article on their websites and on their Institutional repository, citing that the article was originally published in MAST.
© 2020 Wendy Haslem
Issue: vol. 1 no. 2 (2020): Special Issue: Media, Materiality, and Emergency
Section: Article
Guest Editor: Timothy Barker
Submitted: July 31, 2020
Accepted: Sep 18, 2020
Published: Nov 13, 2020
