Toshiyuki Inoko on AI, Impermanence and the Art of Participation

Technology is often described as distancing us from the natural world. For Toshiyuki Inoko, founder of the internationally acclaimed art collective teamLab, it can instead reveal how deeply connected we already are. Since establishing the collective in 2001, Inoko and his interdisciplinary team of artists, programmers, engineers, mathematicians and architects have created immersive environments that challenge conventional ideas of art, perception and human experience. Rather than presenting digital technology as an end in itself, teamLab uses it as a means to dissolve the boundaries between people, nature and the spaces they inhabit.

That philosophy is at the heart of Second Nature, the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre's major exhibition of immersive art, on view from 3 July 2026 to 10 January 2027. Bringing together leading international artists including Random International, teamLab, A.A.Murakami, Simon Heijdens and Es Devlin, the exhibition explores the evolving relationship between humanity, technology and the natural world through large-scale, interactive installations.

For Second Nature, teamLab presents three works that exemplify its vision of living, ever-changing digital ecosystems. Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together creates a floral landscape that continuously blooms and fades in response to visitors; Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light transforms touch into rippling chains of light and sound through glowing sculptural forms; while Nirvana reimagines an eighteenth-century Japanese masterpiece through a shimmering digital environment that shifts with the viewer's perspective.

In this interview, Inoko reflects on art beyond the screen, why impermanence remains central to teamLab's philosophy, the creative possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence, and how immersive art can reshape the way we perceive ourselves, one another, and the world around us.

Nikhil Sardana: teamLab has long explored the relationship between humans, technology, and nature. How does Second Nature represent the next stage in your thinking about these connections, particularly at a time when AI is becoming an increasingly visible part of everyday life?

Toshiyuki Inoko: Through the use of digital technology as a tool, we can indirectly change the relationships between people within a space. If the presence of others can trigger the space to change, they become part of the artwork. And if that change is beautiful, the presence of others can become something beautiful as well. By connecting art and digital technology, we believe the presence of others can become more positive.

With AI, creating beautiful imagery, visuals and various forms of creative content will likely become increasingly effortless. Much of visual expression may soon be generated in larger volumes, at lower costs and at higher speeds. However, including the three works featured in Second Nature, teamLab's creations are, of course, more than just visuals. Nor are they simply AI-generated content. Our work does not begin and end solely within the digital realm. It originates from fundamental questions about human perception and existence.

Ultimately, it manifests in physical space as an order of light, sound, air, architecture, the physical body, movement, time, environment and energy.

The artwork is never confined to a screen; it is completed only when the environment and the physical body encounter one another. Even as AI commoditises visual imagery, there are elements that remain incredibly difficult to commoditise. 

NS: One of the central ideas behind teamLab is dissolving the boundaries between the self and the world. Has your understanding of that philosophy evolved since founding the collective in 2001, and if so, how?

TI: Fundamentally, my interest has always been in the idea that, rather than perceiving the world or existence from the outside, existence itself is continuous, and we exist within that continuity. I have always been fascinated by the fact that we experience the world from the inside, as active participants within it. We have been exploring how we perceive the world, the nature of that perception, and the ways in which this world exists. That core focus has remained largely unchanged.

With teamLab, we also wanted to express the continuity between the depicted world and the viewer's physical world, where what you are looking at is continuous with yourself, allowing you to perceive it with a body that retains its intent. By developing a logical spatial structure, we wanted to depict a world in which your presence, and the presence of others, creates change, and to express that dynamic change as it unfolds. 

NS: Works such as Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together are never the same twice. Why are unpredictability and impermanence so essential to your artistic practice, especially in an era where people often seek permanence through photographs and social media?

TI: It is a natural human desire to share moving and inspiring moments. However, a true experience cannot be captured or cropped into a static image. Through smartphones or screens, people can only understand things intellectually; they gain knowledge, but their core values and perceptions remain unchanged.

Values cannot be broadened merely by looking at artworks on Instagram. Real transformation happens only through actual, physical immersion in the world or the artwork. This is why impermanence and unpredictability are essential to our practice: they cannot be packaged or replicated, forcing us to engage with the present moment using our entire bodies, not just our minds.

In Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together, the seasons coexist, gradually drifting and shifting across the space. Flowers bud, grow and blossom before they wither and scatter, repeating the cycle of life and death in perpetuity.

When the boundaries between oneself and the world dissolve, we can intuitively and physically perceive the eternal flow of time, a vast, continuous lineage of life spanning billions of years that is impossible to grasp within a single human lifetime. By placing ourselves within this endless cycle, we hope this firsthand experience transforms our perception of reality and how we relate to others and the world in a positive way. 

NS: teamLab's works are created by artists, programmers, engineers, mathematicians, architects and scientists working together. How do you encourage genuine creative dialogue between such different disciplines without one dominating the others?

TI: The members of teamLab come from a wide range of backgrounds, bringing with them highly diverse interests and opinions. In many cases, we may seem to have nothing in common at all; there is no conventional cohesion. However, this very diversity encourages genuine creative dialogue among us. We are all deeply connected by a single shared drive: the desire to create artworks and exhibitions that have never been seen or experienced before.

The resilience and dynamism of our creative process lie in the way these disparate viewpoints collide during production, ultimately coalescing into a unified work of art as teamLab.

What we create requires a diverse collective of highly specialised experts. Because each project is built by bringing together exceptionally deep expertise, no single work can ever be completed by one individual alone. To create something truly exceptional, it is essential for these experts to collaborate as one cohesive team.

NS: The Mumbai presentation includes new adaptations of Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light. When presenting work in a new cultural context, how do you decide what should remain constant and what should evolve?

TI: In Resonating Microcosms – Solidified Light, physical actions such as being pushed by a person, moved by others, interactions with adjacent sculptures within the same group, and even surrounding artworks all become triggers for resonance. The light, sound and movement generated in a single sculpture do not remain confined to that individual entity. Instead, a chain reaction occurs among nearby sculptures, extending into surrounding artworks and spaces, and continuing throughout the entire environment.

It is true that our works are inseparable from technology, but they are not tied to any particular technology. Equipment, software and tools should evolve, change and eventually become obsolete. In essence, however, the works themselves do not change. What should remain constant are the underlying systems, logic, experience and relationships among people.

NS: India has philosophical traditions that emphasise interconnectedness, impermanence, and the relationship between humanity and nature. Did these ideas resonate with you while preparing for Second Nature, and what conversations do you hope the exhibition will spark among Indian audiences?

TI: Our focus is not on where we exhibit our art, but rather on creating experiences that everyone can enjoy, regardless of nationality. However, the installations in Second Nature are rooted in Relationships Among People, a concept teamLab has been pursuing since its inception in 2001.

We hope this exhibition serves as a catalyst for conversations about Relationships Among People, specifically how we can transform the presence of others into a positive experience. In that sense, the exhibition also resonates with NMACC's broader commitment to presenting transformative artistic experiences that spark curiosity, participation and dialogue, inviting people to reflect on the evolving relationship between humanity, technology and nature.

An artwork is not an object that is complete in itself, but a field that is continuous with the viewer's body, the bodies of others and the environment, and that continues to evolve over time. People's bodies, and the presence of others in the same space, are not external to the artwork, but are elements that bring the world of the artwork into existence. Relationships Among People expands the one-to-one relationship between an artwork and an individual into a relationship between the artwork and people. 

NS: Digital art is often associated with spectacle, but your installations also invite quiet contemplation. How do you balance creating visually immersive experiences with encouraging deeper reflection rather than simply capturing visitors' attention?

TI: First of all, the most important aspect of teamLab's work is exploring the relationship between the self and the world, and discovering new forms of perception through art.

Immersion, even if it is sometimes regarded as spectacle, is not the end goal of our artworks. Rather, it is a means of making visitors part of the artwork, allowing them to experience and understand concepts such as how our existence is continuous with the world, and how our existence rests upon the continuity of life.

Most art forms are perceived by the human body in a static state. In other words, people try to comprehend art using only their minds, leaving behind an awareness of their bodies. In a museum, we do not see anyone trying to understand an artwork while dancing or running, nor do we see people appreciating art while eating. Yet humans understand the world by walking through it, expand their minds by dancing, and become aware of life by eating. Humans grasp the world and think with their bodies.

teamLab explores full-body perception and experience. We encourage people to recognise the world of the artwork while their bodies are in motion, without requiring them to stand still.

NS: Looking ahead, what questions are you most interested in exploring through teamLab's work over the next decade, and are there artistic or technological frontiers that you feel remain largely unexplored?

TI: Looking ahead over the next decade, we are focused on areas where teamLab can make principled interventions that fundamentally update our understanding of perception and existence. For example, our Higher-Order Sculpture series, including works such as Morphing Continuum, questions and redefines, beyond the traditional boundaries of art history, what it means to make things, the methodology of making, and the very nature of existence.

This may be a concept that is difficult to grasp at first. We are deeply interested in continuing to explore and create artworks based on this idea of Environmental Phenomena. While Environmental Phenomena and Higher-Order Sculptureshift the existence of the artwork from a physical object to an environmental phenomenon, Cognitive Sculpture takes this a step further by locating the artwork directly within the viewer's body and perception.

Since we only see the world that we perceive, even if something does not physically exist, as long as we can perceive it, it can be said to truly exist. This leads us to several fundamental questions. Can a form that exists only within perception be called an actual existence? Can a form of light without physical boundaries be called a sculpture? When the viewer's body and perception become the subject that forms the work, where does the artwork actually exist?

Through Cognitive Sculpture, we attempt to expand sculpture from "a physically existing form" into an existence formed entirely within our perception.