teamLab: Continuity

The digital collective teamLab, founded in Tokyo in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko, breaks established boundaries between the gallery and art world.

This group—comprised of more than four hundred people including programmers, designers, and animators—creates immersive digital experiences outside of the realm of the traditional art world, navigating the confluence of art, technology, design, and the natural world. In many cases, it roots its imagery in historical Japanese art but uses the visual language of high-tech rendering and animation. Over the past few years, teamLab's projects have kept pace with technology and have evolved from two-dimensional screen-based animations to room-sized interactive installations.

This book is a collection of essays, interviews and photographs exploring both the presence of teamLab's installations and the ideas and processes behind them. With a focus on the development of their work rather than the actual public displays, this book takes readers behind-the-scenes of a fascinating and thoroughly modern take on art.

See the teamLab exhibit—the inaugural display in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco's new 9,500-square-foot exhibition pavilion: April 24 – September 7, 2020.

Karin G. Oen is associate curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and deputy director for curatorial programs at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. She is the co-author of Divine Bodies: Sacred Imagery in Asian Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2018). She and her co-authors live in San Francisco.

Clare Jacobson is former head of publications at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. She is a design editor and writer and author of the book New Museums in China (Princeton Architectural Press, 2014).

Yuki Morishima is associate curator of Japanese art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. She is the co-editor of Kimono Refashioned: Japan's Impact on International Fashion.

Yuri Manabe is a Tokyo-based photographer whose books include Tokyo Fashion City (2019) and The Tokyo Look Book (2007)