Breaching Borders: Visiting the Digital Art Museum

 How would it be if we could imagine art in a 3D manner: This is the motto of teamLab Borderless, a group of dedicated artists, programmers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects, who came together to give Tokyo one of it's finest technological marvels, the Digital Art Museum!! My parents and I decided to visit the Art Museum to experience this 3D world ourselves.


Located in Aomi, which is in Odaiba, Tokyo, we started at 10: 30 in the morning and set off for Toyosu station. At Toyosu, I was thrilled to hear that we were going to ride on the futuristic Yurikamome line. The Yurikamome line is a driverless train that can travel up to speeds of 60kph!! To put the icing on the cake, I was able to sit at the the front most seat and kept jumping up and down in excitement. As the train was on the midst of it's journey, I was able to glimpse many of the iconic venues of the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics including the Olympic Village and the Ariake Coliseum(the venue for Tennis). I was elated on seeing these iconic buildings and hope to be inside them during the Olympics as well. (P.S: I have seen the Ryogoku Kokugikan as well - The venue where boxing is going to take place.)


After an amazing train ride, we reached Aomi!! We ran in an helter-skelter fashion and took our place in the looooooong(not a spelling mistake) queue leading to the Digital Art Museum. Though it was hot, we did not feel it as there were air coolers placed to reduce the temperature. I was immediately struck by how thoughtful the Japanese are. As we almost reached the museum, questions such as: is it actually as cool as it looks on the pictures and how is such a concept possible, rose in my head. Keeping them in mind, I entered the Digital Art Museum and ... bang!! my questions vanished(Just like that!!)


There are multiple rooms in the wonderland created by the teamLab Borderless, each with a different artwork. When we entered the 'Flower Forest', it was bombarded with flowers of all kind!! Flowers projected on the floor, on the walls, on me😂😂😂 These were not just mere projections, rather a blend of clever lighting effects and good planning. The 'Dancing Lights' room consisted of a spectacular light show with a bunch of focused lights playing games with us audience. After that, as I just casually glanced at a wall, while heading to another room, I gasped in awe - there were projections of the animals moving across the wall!! I just shook my head in disbelief and continued walking as I knew this was just one of the countless wonders in the Digital Art Museum. An interesting artwork was the 'Hydrangea' where a number of beautiful lanterns are hung and keep changing colours in unison. Though the room is small and the number of lanterns are limited, the room is full of mirrors and hence is presented like the space is endless with unlimited lanterns.

After three hours of being blown away by technology, and my head reeling with the profound impact of the digital art, we headed out of the museum. After eating our lunch, we boarded a humongous giant wheel. As we were reached the top of the giant wheel, my jaw dropped in enthrallment - on one side of our gondola was the magnificent Rainbow Bridge and on the other side was the iconic Tokyo Tower. Soaking in two of the most famous landmarks in the world atop a giant wheel onlooking the sea was just unreal...


After the magical experience on the gondola, we walked towards the Toyota showroom. The showroom was full of different models of the Toyota brand. The fun part was that we could sit inside the car we liked and can check its amenities. The two cars I admired were :

1. An AI car which can understand the drivers feelings and can converse with him/her. It is also useful for people with disabilities.

2. A car which runs only on hydrogen. It takes the oxygen from the air and reacts with the hydrogen. This produces electrons which is energy for the car and the waste product is water which can be stored. This means that neither petrol or diesel is needed for driving the car.

Though they are just concept cars right now, I am sure they will boom the automobile industry with its environmental and people friendly design.

Then, I played basketball sitting on a wheelchair. This was to experience how the wheelchair-bound athletes play basketball. It was a soul-stirring 10 minutes and I will never forget it.

After an out-of-this-world day, we returned home.

The Digital Art Museum and the other activities I took part in was superlative and if you are in Tokyo, I would definitely recommend you to check the museum out, as I am sure your hair will be standing up after visiting it😃