Digital forest: Japan's teamLab to light up KL mall's rooftop garden

Don’t be surprised when you drive by the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Bukit Bintang City Centre in KL (LaLaport BBCC) at night next month and see an otherworldly shimmer emanating from its rooftop.

This is no alien invasion. A multi-million ringgit digital art installation by renowned Japanese art collective teamLab is set to land there.

TeamLab's Resonating Microcosms - Liquified Light Color, Sunrise And Sunset installation will be exhibited at Lalaport BBCC from Aug 4 to Nov 30.

The free admission exhibit promises to be an Insta-worthy outing. It features countless ovoids and an art space that transforms through the presence of people and changes in the natural environment.

It is also teamLab's first major outdoor exhibition in Malaysia. In 2014, it presented the MoonLab Sketch Aquarium children's interactive digital game at Aquaria KLCC.

What can visitors expect?

Like so many teamLab works, visitor interaction is integral to Resonating Microcosms - Liquified Light Color, Sunrise And Sunset, a work completed in 2020, with sound by Hideaki Takahashi.

A teamLab statement gives visitors instructions on how to "experience" and journey through the installation.

"Touch one of the ovoids and watch it fall back and rise again, releasing a resonating tone and emitting a light colour specific to the sound. The surrounding ovoids will also start echoing the same tonal quality and colour as their neighbours.

"The Resonating Trees in the vicinity will likewise react and 'evolve' in real time. And when a distant light reverberates through the forest, it means that there are people nearby.

"The egg-shaped installations can interactively change into 57 newly defined liquified light colours even when blown by the wind or hit by the rain. As the sun sets, the ovoids begin to shine by themselves and they begin to flicker slowly when the wind is quiet and people do not push them. But this is not just a nocturnal light show. Under the sun, the ovoids reflect the world around them."

Formed in 2001, teamLab features an interdisciplinary group of various specialists such as artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world.

It has held numerous exhibitions worldwide, including New York, London and Paris as well as large scale permanent exhibitions in Shanghai, Macau and Singapore.

Some of teamLab's previous interactive works include Future World: Where Art Meets Science, SuperNature, Planets and the upcoming A Forest Where Gods Live at Japan’s Mifuneyama Rakuen Takeo Hot Springs.

More info here.