Newest cultural landmark teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi makes waves
The multi-sensory art experience, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, developed by Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), Miral, the leading creator of immersive destinations and experiences in Abu Dhabi, and art collective teamLab, has opened its doors to the public and enthralled visitors from all corners of the globe. The unique art experience is located in Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Cultural District, alongside Louvre Abu Dhabi and other cultural landmarks that are soon to be open.
Designed to explore and transcend the limits of every guest's imagination, each artwork within the unique, purpose-built venue will evolve over time through the interplay of light, sound and movement. Based on teamLab's new concept, Environmental Phenomena, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi features artworks created by phenomena resulting from unique environments. Visitors will discover artworks that are fluid, existing in a dynamic relationship with their environment. Each artwork responds to guests' actions and natural changes in the environment, creating a living, breathing art experience, unlike any other.
The venue engages sight, sound, and touch, encouraging guests to change the way they feel, connect and affect the world around them. Each visit is a dynamic, ever-evolving experience that leaves a lasting, transformative impact, resonating long after the journey ends.
Here's a look at the massive experiential artworks waiting to be discovered.
Living Crystallised Light
Everyday substances like air, water, and light become phenomena through the unique environment, and these phenomena constitute the existence of the artwork. The artwork is inseparable from the environment and changes along with it. It transcends the various notions of existence through physical objects.
Even if you place your hand inside the artwork, it does not break, and its existence is maintained. You realize that the artwork is just ordinary water. The artwork does not exist by itself; the distinctive phenomenon created by the unique environment is the existence of the artwork.
Conversely, if the environment is not maintained, the artwork will disappear. The outlines of the artwork's existence are ambiguous, and it is continuous with the environment.
When the viewer moves, the location and colour of the artwork change. The artwork seen by the viewer is visible only to that viewer. For the person next to them, the artwork is in a different location and has a different colour. In other words, the artwork being seen does not exist in the physical world but exists in the viewer's cognitive world. Such artworks that exist in the perceived world are referred to as cognitive sculpture. When it exists within perception, it is considered to exist.
Flutter of Butterflies
Flutters of butterflies appear from the ground and the walls where people touch. Through the simple interactions among the butterflies, a part of the artwork continues to create spontaneous order even as the entire flutter moves in disorder.
This piece is called Flutter of Butterflies. However, it is not an illusion of space; instead, the space of the artwork exists as it is in the space where people's bodies are, filling the space with butterflies.
Walls and floors do not act as a boundary between the person and the space of the artwork, but rather, the space of the artwork integrates with the space in which the viewer's body exists. The viewpoint is not fixed, and their body remains free.
Wind Form
The flow is influenced by the shape of the space and the presence of people, and it continuously interacts with and transforms in relation to all other flows in the artwork space. It is a continuum of countless interacting particles, and lines are drawn by the trajectories of these particles.
This work is not an illusion of space; the artwork exists as it is in the space where people's bodies are, and the space becomes enveloped in wind, transforming into a sculpture of wind.
Floating Lamps in Spontaneous Order
Each Floating Lamp on the water glows with its own rhythm. Over time they mutually influence nearby lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order, starting a spontaneous order phenomenon, and the rhythms of their flickering become closer to each other. When people push the lamps, their rhythm changes. Then, again a spontaneous order occurs with nearby lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order.
Each time the lamp glows, it emits a tone. The only sound that resonates in the space is the sequence of sounds, and the overall tone of the space is formed by the sequence of the tones of the flickering.
The lamps take on various rhythms depending on people's behaviour, but a time structure is created by the simple localised interaction between the lamps and Tea in Spontaneous Order, and order continues to be created throughout the work.
The spontaneous order phenomenon is when different rhythms influence each other and become aligned. The pendulums of two pendulum clocks hanging on a wall gradually become aligned. When many fireflies gather in a tree, they gradually begin to flash at the same time, creating a larger accumulated light. The cells that make up the heart pulsate in unison, synchronizing with each other to produce heartbeats. This is seen in a wide variety of systems, including physical phenomena, neurophysiology, life systems, and ecosystems.
Tea in Spontaneous Order – Dynamic Steady State Colour
When a cup of tea is made, Tea in Spontaneous Order glows and produces a tone with its own rhythm.
Tea in Spontaneous Order interacts with nearby Tea in Spontaneous Order and the Floating Lamps, causing a spontaneous order phenomenon, in which the flickering rhythms converge.
The artwork is born when the tea is made, and disappears when the tea is drunk.
The colour of the tea as a whole does not change; that is, when viewed from a distance, it remains the same colour, but inside the tea the colour is constantly changing, and this colour has a time structure.
Through simple local interactions between Tea in Spontaneous Order and the nearby Tea in Spontaneous Order and Floating Lamps, a time structure is created throughout the entire space of the artwork.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
a day ago
- The National
Juan Luna masterpiece, a Filipino national treasure, on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi
A landmark work by the 19th-century Filipino painter and activist Juan Luna is one of the newest highlights at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Una Bulaquena is one of Luna's most enigmatic works. The painting depicts a young Filipina woman, poised and composed in traditional attire. In one hand she holds a handkerchief. In the other, an ivory fan. Painted in 1895, the work is a National Cultural Treasure of the Philippines, and offers a rare glimpse into Luna's softer, more introspective style. The Badoc-born artist is perhaps best known for his epic paintings, which reframe moments from ancient history as allegories of colonial oppression. His famous Spoliarium, for instance, is set in ancient Rome and shows dying gladiators being dragged out of an arena, stripped of their weapons, armor and dignity. The painting can be seen as a metaphor for colonial brutality and apathy. On the far right of the painting is a weeping woman often interpreted as representing the 'Mother Country' as she witnesses the plundering of her people. Una Bulaquena is a very different painting. It is more personal and restrained. If Spoliarium roars with political symbolism, Una Bulaquena whispers of grace and the complex interiority of its subject. ' Una Bulaquena is one of Luna's most recognisable works,' says Jorell Legaspi, deputy director-general for Museums of the National Museum of the Philippines, which has loaned the painting to Louvre Abu Dhabi for a year. 'It has inspired many creatives and pop culture here in the Philippines over over the decades. The painting is our second largest Juan Luna painting after Spoliarium.' Though less overtly political than Spoliarium, the painting still challenged Eurocentric aesthetics through its dignified portrayal of a Filipina subject. ' It represents a total opposite of what a 19th-century artist who is trained in the European canon would feature,' Legaspi says. 'It depicts a Filipino woman, as opposed to what you would have in a European subject painting, especially if its depicting nobility or aristocracy.' That's not to say that Una Bulaquena does not have its own regal flair. The woman depicted in the painting comes from upper middle-class society, as evidenced by her clothing. Her baro't saya consists of a blouse, saya (long skirt), panuelo (neck cover) and tapis (knee-length overskirt). Interestingly, some of her clothing was produced using pineapple fibre. ' It's a sheer textile that's exquisite and expensive,' Legaspi says. 'Only people of affluent backgrounds can actually afford these types of of garments. These are the symbols or clues that the subject of the painting is from an affluent family.' But who is the woman depicted in Una Bulaquena? For years, her identity remained a mystery and was left open to speculation. Recent scholarship, however, points to a more concrete figure: Emiliana Yriarte Trinidad, a young woman from Bulacan. Archival photographs reinforce this idea, as Trinidad's features sharply resemble the sitter's. 'She was herself an artist and student of Luna,' Legaspi says. 'She was only 16 or 17 when she sat for Luna for this painting. There are some written accounts that Luna was actually in love with her but because of the age gap, her parents did not approve of him as a suitor.' However, Trinidad's relationship with the painting is not merely as its subject. In fact, she may have had an active role in protecting it through the Second World War, when the Philippines was occupied by Japan, suffering immense destruction and loss before being liberated by Allied forces in 1945. 'There was an assumption that the painting was hers, and that it was a gift from Luna to her,' Legaspi says. 'In order to safeguard the painting from damage or being looted, Emiliana herself sold the painting to an art collector and patron to protect it.' The painting's provenance is a bit murky after that, Legaspi says. But somehow the painting ended up in the presidential palace, where it stayed until 1986, when the People Power Revolution peacefully overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos, ending two decades of authoritarian rule. 'The National Museum of the Philippines was able to retrieve this painting from the presidential palace and kept it under its care since then.' As Una Bulaquena is regarded as a national treasure, several permits and a great deal of care was required before bringing it to Abu Dhabi. 'The fact that it traveled for the very first time ever, left the Philippines to come to Abu Dhabi, is a huge honour,' Aisha AlAhmadi, curatorial assistant at Louvre Abu Dhabi, says. The painting now hangs between two other masterpieces from the same era – Auguste Renoir's La Tasse de Chocolat (Cup of Chocolate) and Edouard Manet's The Bohemian. 'She demands her own presence, with her poised, elegant and dignified look,' AlAhmadi says. 'The scale of the painting also commands its own respect and attention. It made sense to put the painting here, because in this gallery we have the theme of modern subject and landscape. Looking at how artists in the 19th century were looking at portraiture and in different styles.' For the UAE's sizable Filipino community, the painting offers a strong moment of cultural recognition and connection. "It can be a proud moment to see something so significant in size, beauty and history," Legaspi says. Una Bulaquena is not the only work at Louvre Abu Dhabi that is on loan from an institution in the Philippines. A gold cup, dated between 900 and 1200 AD, and a funerary mask from the same period, have been on loan from the Ayala Museum since 2022.
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Cool summer camps the kids will love
Still struggling with a structured and fun yet educational summer plan for the kids? Don't worry, we've got you covered. While school is out for the next few weeks, sign up the little ones for adventures of the creative kind. From learning about jobs in the real world to taking part in treasure hunts, these camps have something for every state of mind. Most offer daily and weekly rates and sibling discounts too, making them just a little bit more affordable. Here's a look at your options across UAE: Boo Boo Laand School may be out but that doesn't mean there's a pause on adventure. Enrol your child into an eight-week voyage of discovery (you could also just pick a journey based on the week). Boo Boo Laand, the immersive play area, is hosting a summer camp that switches up themes every week. The programme is designed for kids aged four to eight but three-year-olds may be admitted (on a case-by-case basis). Week one takes the young scallywags on The Mermaid and Pirate Voyage, rife with stories and treasure hunts. Week two, Superhero and Super Girl, is all about caped crusaders, while week three will dive into the Secrets of the Seas. Week four will launch imaginations into space (the theme is The Great Space Escape). And week five will be a trip back in time as Jurassic Explorers. In the sixth week, your little adventurer will head off for the Boo Boo Safari Expedition, while the next session, Little Earth Keepers, will teach him or her about nature and sustainability. The final theme is The Great Boo Boo World Tour. Dh350 (per day); Dh1,400 (per week); Dh5,200 (for a month). 10 per cent sibling discounts are available. June 30-August 22, 9am-1pm. Dubai Mall. Dubai Mall Summer Camp Have a curious kid on your hands? We've got just the thing. This camp gives kids access to six fun spots – KidZania; Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo; Dubai Ice Rink; At the Top, Burj Khalifa; Reel Cinema; Play DXB over a four-day period. It's best for kids aged seven to 14 but those who are between three and six can join too, as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Dh799 (including food); Dh899 (excluding food). June 30 – August 21, 10am-10pm. Dubai Mall. Expo City Dubai The kids will play with a purpose at Expo City Dubai this summer. They can enrol in either Expo City Summer Camp (for ages five–12) or Lab of the Future STEM Camp (eight–12). In the former camp, held across Expo City, they will do STEM experiments, messy art sessions, sports challenges, and media workshops. The later segment is a science-packed party where young minds can interact with former NASA, ESA and ISRO scientists, build balloon-fighting robots, run AI experiments, design Mars rovers, and even fly drones. With space-themed escape rooms and hands-on missions, this is sure to tingle those little grey cells. Expo City Summer Camp: Dh152 (per day, when booked before June 30). Dh190 (daily);Dh845 (weekly); Dh3,500 (summer pass). July 7-August 22, 9am-2pm. Early drop off and extended hours are available. Lab of the Future STEM Camp: Dh1,500 (for two weeks). July 7-August 15, 9.30am-12.30pm. Expo City Dubai. The Green Planet Calling all mini zoologists in the making (or, any animal loving tot, really). Each camp day will begin with a warm-up and themed ice breaker. And then days full of science and nature. On the four-day time-table each week are animal encounters, creative workshops, games, and challenges. Each day is themed: there's Rainforest Rangers Mondays, which will explore forest ecosystems and biodiversity; Animal Adventures Tuesdays that will the kids playing zookeeper; Eco-Heroes Wednesdays will see seed planting, composting, and upcycled art. And, on Jungle Scientists Thursdays, there'll be weather experiments, STEM games, and explorer walks. It's perfect for those aged five to 12. Dh250 (per day); Dh750 (per week). July 7- August 21, 9am-3pm. Yas Island Summer Camp The only issue you might face with this camp is that the kids won't want to go home. They can enjoy five experiences in the theme parks. At Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, for instance, they will make new friends, take on team challenges including a scavenger hunt. They can also design their own rides and push themselves with competitive gaming at the Ferrari World Esports Arena. Live action shows and performances also promise entertainment. Yas Waterworld, meanwhile, will see the young-in's splashing around. There are rides and slides, of course, but also a Splash and Match pairing game, and treasure hunts. At Warner Bros. World, the little sleuths will follow clues and discover secrets. They will also make their own masks and capes and see a live stage show featuring DC Super Hero characters. When at SeaWorld, campers will engage in activities that range from crafting ocean-themed board games to creating colorful fish using repurposed materials. There are plenty of animal encounters planned too, including feeding manta rays and sea lions, and meeting the dugong Malquot. CLYMB Abu Dhabi is all about the thrill of flying and kids can take on an Aero Adventure, fly in the world's biggest indoor skydiving flight chamber, and race up climbing walls. The pass will get kids access to one theme park a day, lunch, a bag, notebook, pen and water bottle and a camper T-shirt. Dh1,595 (per child, aged seven-13). July 7-August 22, 9am-2pm (Mon-Fri). Sibling discounts are available. OliOli Since it's been established that you can have fun while learning, Oli Oli must become your next pitstop. It's got permanent galleries fun of scientific experiments, and a summer camp with different themes each week, including Jurassic, space, tinker, and mess. Kids, aged four to 10, who enrol will also gain access to the SlimeMania exhibition. Activities include building a terrarium and scavenger hunts. Dh990 (per week, morning); Dh690 (per week, afternoon); Dh1,550 (per week, all day). June 30-August 2,9.30am-5pm. Al Quoz 1, Dubai. Bounce Kids will love jumping into this one. The camp at the Bounce and miniBounce venues will teach them trampolining tricks and games that can be enjoyed alone or with a group of friends.
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Khaleej Times
Look: UAE President hugs kids, interacts with expats at Abu Dhabi sports event
Time after time, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan proves that he is truely the 'people's president'. Images emerging from a recent sports event held in Abu Dhabi have shed another light on this humanitarian aspect in the UAE leader's character. The photos shared on social media showed Sheikh Mohamed talking with kids, shaking their hands and hugging them in tender fatherly gestures. Take a look: In a sign of appreciation and love to Sheikh Mohamed, some children placed a kiss on the leader's forehead The children, who wore sports attire, were participating in Abu Dhabi Summer Sports (ADSS); the Middle East's largest indoor sports festival, held annually at the ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi. Designed to provide a fun, safe, and healthy escape from the summer heat, ADSS includes events for sports like football, basketball, tennis, badminton, padel, volleyball, table tennis, cricket. During his visit to encourage the athletes, Sheikh Mohamed also talked to expats and posed for photos with them. Such heartwarming encounters with the President occur occasionally. During US President's Donald Trump's recent visit to the UAE, a young Emirati girl was waiting among the crowds to welcome him. She caught the attention of Sheikh Mohamed who interacted with her. And at one point, he was seen putting an arm around her as she smiled and placing a kiss on her forehead. In October, Sheikh Mohamed personally expressed his gratitude to a group of foster mothers who have been taking care of children with all their hearts.
