As if forests aren’t magical enough already, the Japanese art/technology collective Teamlab will be live-projecting their signature transforming visuals onto the surfaces of Mifuneyama Rakuen Park, giving visitors the feeling of being on an alien planet. ‘Forest Where Gods Live’ is a collection of individual installations with names like ‘Ever Blossoming Life Rock,’ Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and Boats,’ ‘Memory of Continuous Life’ and ‘Resonating Forest.’

“TeamLab is executing an art project called ‘Digitized Nature’ where ‘Nature Becomes Art.’ The concept of the project is that non-material digital art can turn nature into art without harming it. We exist as part of a process of eternal continuity of life and death, a process which has been continuing for an overwhelmingly long time. It is hard for us, however, to sense this in our everyday life. It was when we were wandering through the woods that we realized the shapes of those giant rocks, caves and forests, that have been formed over an infinite amount of time, are the continuous cycle of life itself.”

“By applying digital art to this unique environment, the exhibition celebrates a massive chunk of life that nests on such continuity. In Mifuneyama Rakuen, we got lost in the ambiguous border of garden and forest, and finally, we have come to realize we exist on the borderless continuity between nature and humans.”

Sponsored by Japanese beauty brand Shiseido, the awe-inspiring installation will be in place throughout the 500,000-square-meter garden located in the Saga prefecture July 14th through October 9th, 2017. If you can’t make it out there in person to experience the immersive exhibit firsthand, taking some time to delve into the individual pieces on the teamLab website is well worth it. The collective has produced a number of videos showing their projections in action, with descriptions of their inspiration behind each one.

The exclusive experience of dining at this Tokyo restaurant, which serves just eight patrons a day, is not really about the food – though Saga Beef restaurant Sagaya-Ginza is not necessarily lacking in quality. It’s just that watching nature spring to life all around you, cycling through the seasons to represent some of Japan’s most striking natural beauty, tends to eclipse whatever’s on your plate. Art collective teamLab, known for their creative projection-based installations, created a multi-sensory immersive experience with ‘Worlds Unleashed and Then Connecting.’

In classic teamLab form, this projection is not just immersive, but also interactive, responding to the dishes as they’re placed on the table as well as movements of the diners and servers. While other well-known works by the collective tend to unfold within a larger space, like a warehouse or gallery, this installation is private and intimate.

“When a dish is placed on the table, the world contained within the dish is unleashed, unfolding onto the table and into the surrounding space,” the artists explain. “The worlds unleashed from each dish connect in the external space creating a new larger world. The worlds unleashed are affected by the other dishes on the table.”

“For example, a bird unleashed from one dish can perch on the branch of a tree unleashed from another. The trees that grow from each dish are not identical; their sizes and shapes are affected by the worlds unleashed by the other dishes on the table. These unleashed worlds are also affected by your behavior. If you stand still, a tiny bird might alight on your hand; if you move suddenly, it might fly away. The worlds unleashed from the dishes on the table influence each other, react to the actions of the visitors, and combine to create one single continuous world. The world is constantly changing from moment to moment and no two moments are alike.”

Dangling from a darkened ceiling like strange bioluminescent blooms, hundreds of high-tech lamps respond to the movements of people in the room, glowing in a particular color that resonates outward, spreading to more and more lamps. This chain reaction shifts as observers navigate the space, contrasting with the patterns created by others. ‘Forest of Resonating Lamps’ is an immersive installation by Japanese collective Teamlab, created for Maison et Objet 2016.

Occupying the junction of art and technology, the installation is not just about a single decorative object, beautiful as it may be. The lamps themselves are made of Murano glass and equipped with LED bulbs, hung from the gallery ceiling in a space with mirrored walls that multiply them so they seem to go on forever, a la Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room installations.

As an observer approaches a lamp, it shines brightly, emitting a color tone that is transmitted to lamps nearby. If you’re the only person in the room, the light is entirely centered upon you, but as soon as someone else enters, you become aware of the ripple effect created by their own movements. While the lamps seem to be scattered randomly throughout the space, they’re actually placed to form a continuous line from select lamps that act as starting points.

“The planar arrangement of the lamps is staggered in zigzag to fill a space, staying in a perfectly ordered grid,” says Teamlab. “This is the first constraint. The second constraint is the height and width of the room and the pathway that people walk through, thus creating a ‘boundary condition.’ The third constraint is that all the lamps, when connected to its two closest lamps three-dimensionally, form a unicursal pattern with the same start and end points.”

“The arrangement of the lamps thus created is beautiful not only in an immobilized, static kind of way, but more so in a dynamic way caused by people approaching these lamps. It demonstrates the space of new era: the space freely designed through digital technology, and adapting the change and movement made by people’s existence in it.”

Galaxies stretch across Gothic columns and spatterings of stars span the archways of the chapel at King’s College, immersing hushed crowds who have come to hear a lecture on space. Artist Miguel Chevalier transforms the cavernous interiors of this stunning structure at the University of Cambridge in England to go along with specific lectures, plunging guests into the subjects at hand visually as they listen to speeches by renowned professors and alumni.

The space visuals help illustrate Stephen Hawking’s research on black holes, while additional projections in the series explore visual interpretations of history, literature, religion and other subjects. Rather than simply playing video clips to accompany the lectures, or interpreting the subject matter in a literal way, the projections create a richly colorful and moody atmosphere.

The site-specific installations were created in real-time, and represent the first time an outside artist has been invited to alter the chapel in any way. Previously, Chevalier has projected his stunning creations onto Moroccan mosques and an Italian castle built in 1240 for a project called ‘Magic Carpets.’ Biomorphically inspired, these patterns shift and swirl, making the surfaces seem alive.

Using a series of networked camera-and-projector units, this working demonstration turns an entire living room into and interactive gaming environment. Dubbed RoomAlive (a successor to IllumiRoom, featured previously), this augmented reality expansion from Microsoft could transform not just the way we game but ultimately the way to interact with everyday spaces both private and public.

Existing objects and furniture within the space are automatically mapped and integrated into a given game or experience. The constituent procam units are auto-calibrating and can self-localize so long as there is some overlap in their fields of view. The entire array is designed to be simple to install and use – it effectively sets itself up once you put the technology in place.

The system creates a depth-aware 3D model of the room, identifying vertical and horizontal surfaces, which is plugged into a Unity gaming engine. It then populates the space with whatever the user desires, from passive environments to active games. Virtual characters can navigate along the floor then up along the walls, for instance, but users can also dodge and shoot, interacting as characters themselves. Items in the room can also become props, toys or tools within a programmed scenario.

This particular demo integrates six Kinect cameras to show various scenes and scenarios – just the tip of the iceberg. These could, of course, also be deployed in other settings to turn public or institutional spaces into fully interactive environments. For now, this is just a demonstration, but as these technologies become less expensive and more accessible it is easy to imagine commercial applications of all kinds.

From from the Microsoft development team: “RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience. Our system enables new interactive projection mapping experiences that dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment.”

“The basic building blocks of RoomAlive are projector-depth camera units, which can be combined through a scalable, distributed framework. The projector-depth camera units are individually auto-calibrating, self-localizing, and create a unified model of the room with no user intervention. We investigate the design space of gaming experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and explore methods for dynamically mapping content based on room layout and user position. Finally we showcase four experience prototypes that demonstrate the novel interactive experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and discuss the design challenges of adapting any game to any room.”