Floating Flower Garden in Tokyo by teamLab

A floating flower garden, a sea of live flowers that actually interact with the movement of people in the space: the Tokyo-based interdisciplinary creative teamLab has come up with an installation that combines flora, fauna and technology for a unique impact to eyes and nose.
The “Floating Flower Garden” is a personal experience with flowers, where state-of-the-art technology is used so the plants react to the movement of visitors, a complete immersion in the world of flowers thanks to the talent of the teamLab collaborative, interdisciplinary creative group. The team likes to think of itself as “ultra-technologists” specifically because they seek a balance between art, science, technology and creativity, an example of which is the “Floating Flower Garden” installation.



The garden is filled with 2300 live flowers, each one with its own partner insect that reacts to the plant's scent, meaning that visitors are treated to an olfactory as well as a visual experience.
The whole space is filled with hanging flowers and as visitors walk through, a sensor alerts the flowers that move up and down to create a passageway. This way, everyone can create their own pathway through the colourful, scented flowers to experience a unique emotion, based on the concept of the Zen garden as that microcosm where Zen monks spent time meditating to become one with nature. Soul-searching that we can all participate in.
Which is the result that teamLab is actually hoping for - they want visitors to be “integrated” by the flowers when they look at them and when the flowers look at them – as if they were really seeing a flower for the first time on their visit to the Floating Flower Garden: “Flowers and I are of the same root, the Garden and I are one”, in the words of the design team.
You can visit the installation at the Mirakain, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, and we're hoping the installation will soon be set up elsewhere too. In the meantime, teamLab is organising other art initiatives that we will also be sharing with you.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: teamLab http://www.team-lab.net/
Location: Mirakain, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo, Jaoan
Year: 2015
Images: courtesy of teamLab