Cognitive Sculpture
2021
We do not perceive the world we see.
We see the world we perceive.
Sculpture, along with the things humans have created over time, has generally had its form established in the physical world. Its form has been determined by material contours and distributions. The viewer has been an observer looking from the outside at a form already established.
Rather than a physical object, Cognitive Sculpture is a sculpture shaped within the body and perception of the viewer.
Here, the form of the sculpture is not determined by material contours. The subject of creation is the viewer's own body and perception.
This sculpture cannot exist on its own; it is brought into being through its relationship with the environment. The phenomenon created by the environment—Environmental Phenomena—is formed for the first time by the body and perception of the viewer, and emerges as a distinct existence within that world of perception.
A form that is not established in the physical world appears clearly as an existence within perception. A distinct existence emerges within each viewer's world of perception.
The existence that emerges here is not a fiction. The physical energy that brings this existence into being is real and present for that viewer, yet the form itself does not exist in the physical world. In other words, there are no material contours or spatial distributions of light or matter corresponding to the form of the sculpture.
Nor is it an illusion; it is not a matter of misperceiving a physical fact. A phenomenon that truly exists within the relationship between the environment and the perceiver is shaped into a single entity through the viewer's body and perception. What emerges here is not a physical existence, but a Cognitive Existence.
The question is whether existence can only be realized in the form of a physical object.
People do not see the world as it is. They shape the world through their own body and perception, experiencing existence within that world of perception. Cognitive Sculpture makes this work of perception itself the condition for the sculpture's existence.
Rather than presenting new visual effects or illusions, Cognitive Sculpture redefines the very conditions for the existence of sculpture. It is not material contours, but phenomena created by the environment, together with the viewer's body and perception, that bring the sculpture into being.
Cognitive Sculpture is an attempt to expand the existence of sculpture from a physical existence into an existence that is shaped moment by moment within the body and perception of the viewer.
It is a fundamental intervention in the question of Who creates form?—a question about the subject of creation—and in the question of What does it mean to exist?
Existence does not manifest only as an object, but emerges within the environment and is shaped within perception.
Existence and the environment are inseparable.
Existence and the self are also inseparable.
We do not observe the world from the outside; we are within its continuum, perceiving existence from within it.
FEATURED WORKS
teamLab, 2021, Interactive Installation, Sound: teamLab
Countless solidified light crystals float in the air, rising, falling, and sometimes frozen in space. When people immerse themselves in the artwork, the crystals of solidified light that the people touch breaks, and the light from the crystals spreads throughout the space of the work.
When people touch the solidified light, they realize that the solidified part that they can see is a part of a continuous flow.
Life is a phenomenon that appears as a miraculously solidified, ephemeral crystal of light in a continuum of energy that has been flowing without interruption since a past whose beginning is unknown.
teamLab, 2022-, Interactive Installation, Sound: teamLab
Like an organic entity created from crystallized light, the work shines iridescently from its center as it moves around, merging and dividing continuously.
People can walk into the artwork, and even if they do so, the artwork will continue to be maintained, its existence unharmed. If a person touches the artwork, they realize that what they are looking at is ordinary water. The artwork’s existence is not independent, but is actually a unique phenomenon created by its environment.
The places where the work appears will change as the viewer moves. The work’s appearance is unique to the viewer, so someone viewing the artwork from another angle will see a different colored work appearing in a different place. In other words, the existence of the artwork being seen is created by its environment, and exists only in the viewer.
teamLab, 2022-, Installation, Sound: teamLab
We do not perceive the world we see, we see the world we perceive.
A sphere made of accumulated rays of light.
The light radiates from the center in infinite fine rays, creating its spherical shape. The light source remains motionless, yet the countless lines emitting from it wriggle continuously.
The sphere has no surface boundary, and the perception of the boundary between the artwork and the body is ambiguous. When you try to touch the sphere, it reacts, but since it does not have a physical boundary, your hand goes into the sphere.
What is this sphere? Why do the rays of lines wriggle?
Our world is within us.
And if we perceive this sphere made of accumulated lines, the world we perceive will expand, and we may see the spheres of accumulated lines in our daily lives. As the world you perceive changes, the way you see the world goes on to change.
teamLab, 2022, Interactive Digital Installation, Sound: teamLab
A sphere made of accumulated rays of light.
The light radiates from the center in infinite fine rays, creating its spherical shape. The light source remains motionless, yet the countless lines emitting from it wriggle continuously.
The sphere has no surface boundary, and the perception of the boundary between the artwork and the body is ambiguous. When you try to touch the sphere, it reacts, but since it does not have a physical boundary, your hand goes into the sphere.
What is this sphere? Why do the rays wriggle?
Our world is within us.
And once we recognize this sphere made of accumulated lines, our perception of the world expands, and we will begin to notice it wherever we go.
teamLab, 2022-, Interactive Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi
We do not perceive the world we see.
We see the world we perceive.
A group of countless spheres of light. When people approach the spheres, they shine brightly and the surrounding spheres respond one after the other.
When you widen your field of vision, spheres made of darkness also begin to appear, as though darkness has been solidified. However, these spheres of light and spheres of darkness do not exist. The spheres of darkness cannot even be captured on camera.
There is no material, such as glass, on the surface of the spheres; the spheres are made only of light. There is no material surface boundary, and the perception of the boundary with your body is ambiguous. In reality, light cannot solidify into a spherical mass in the universe. Therefore, the spheres do not physically exist.
This is a Cognitive Sculpture that appears only in the human world of perception. The materials are light and the environment. And the subject of its creation is the viewer's own body and perception.
The spheres cannot exist on their own - their existence is a phenomenon created in relation to their environment. The phenomenon created by the environment is shaped for the first time by the dynamic body and perception of the viewer, becoming a sculpture in their cognitive world.
The artwork explores the possibility of a new form of existence distinct from material existence, and questions the very nature of existence.