teamLab Borderless: Bridging Borders in Simulated Ecologies

Abstract

This article begins by identifying the ways that spatial borders were destroyed during Australia’s Black Summer fires. It then contrasts this with the opposite, the imposition of national and state borders as physical distancing is promoted as a way to counter the virulent spread of the COVID-19 virus. This radical transformation of actual borders is further contrasted with the intersecting virtual worlds in the museum teamLab Borderless (2018). teamLab Borderless is an immersive exhibition that features simulated worlds that are animated by human contact. They bleed outside of their designated zones, blurring spatial boundaries. teamLab Borderless draws from traditions in Japanese scroll art that invite the viewer to imagine themselves within the space, creating an ultra-subjective mode of engagement. This article takes Sybille Krämer’s philosophy of media, beginning with the postal and its insistence on the distance between sender and receiver, to explore the rituals surrounding teamLab Borderless. It then elaborates on the ways that the experience of teamLab Borderless can be understood in relation to Krämer’s personal, or erotic principle of communication. It applies these modes of communication to consider the potential of interactivity to mediate between the virtual and the natural world. Ultimately, this article posits that in a culture of climate emergency, an alternative future is one where our relationship to nature is necessarily virtual.