Virtual Gold Waves Slosh Along 112-Metre LED Wall In Shanghai

September 7, 2022 by Dave Haynes

The international art collective teamLab is mainly known for developing and running experiential exhibitions at fixed sites like museums and galleries, but the artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects also work on temporary projects like this pretty amazing 112-metre video wall along a walkway in a Shanghai subway station.

This artwork, says teamLab, spans 112 meters and is located within Lujiazui metro station, in the transit corridor between line no.2 and the newly-built line no.14.

The movement of waves in water is simulated in a computer-generated three-dimensional space. The water is expressed as a continuous body after calculating the interactions of hundreds of thousands of particles. To visualize the waves, the behavior of the particles of the water was then extracted and lines were drawn in relation to the movement of the particles. The wave created in a 3-D space is then turned into an artwork in accordance with what teamLab refers to as Ultrasubjective Space.

Don’t ask me what Ultrasubjective Space means, but people fluent in Artspeak will likely be nodding their heads enthusiastically. The piece is called Gold Waves, and the video below must have been shot overnight when/if that subway station is closed. I doubt there are many solo walks down subway concourses in a city that has a metro population of 41 million.

The display canvas is 2.5mm LED, which has a “waterproofing and humidity proofing coating over the electronics,” according to manufacturer Liantronics.