Technological Innovations Shaping the Scene
As the popularity of immersive art and experiences rises, especially amongst younger audiences, an increasingly large number of venues is embracing the medium. Through the use of cutting-edge technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, projection mapping, and sophisticated sound systems, these venues create spaces where the boundary between the viewer and the artwork dissolves, fostering a new way to connect with art.
While not all immersive installations rely on digital technology and some use physical spaces and materials in innovative ways to engage viewers (as is often the case with the Infinity Rooms), AR, VR and projection mapping tend to play a significant role. While AR allows viewers to interact with digital elements superimposed over physical spaces or objects through devices like smartphones, tablets or AR glasses, VR immerses users completely in a digital environment, detaching them from the physical world. Projection mapping uses projectors to cast images onto irregularly shaped surfaces, transforming them into dynamic displays and is especially powerful in immersive installations, as it can alter the perception of scale, depth, and reality, enveloping viewers in a visual spectacle that interacts with the architecture and topology of the space itself.
One of the notable leaders in technological innovation is the artist group called teamLab, hailing from Japan and represented by Pace Gallery since 2014. This is an interdisciplinary collective that blends art, science, technology, and the natural world through the collaborative efforts of artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, and architects. The collective’s mission is to explore new perceptions of the relationship between the self and the world, encouraging a view of life as a continuous, borderless existence. teamLab’s innovative works, which aim to dissolve the perceived separations in our understanding of the world and emphasise the interconnected continuity of time and existence, have earned them a place in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, among others.
