Located on the third floor of CentralWorld in The Space, “teamLab Islands: Dance! Art Museum, Learn & Play! Interactive Theme Park” offers visitors a fun interactive experience. Created by teamLab Islands, a Japanese company, the exhibits reflect a unique digital universe where visitors can learn and play with a spectacular combination of art, science, and technology. Ideal for kids ages 3 and up, the park includes futuristic art installations (the “Dance! Art Museum” component) and a number of activity stations (the “Learn & Play! Interactive Theme Park” zone).
You first walk into the art museum, which comprises dark rooms with wall projections and/or a number of screens. In the first room, flowers slowly bloom and shed their petals. Touch the images and the petals fall faster. Neither a pre-recorded animation nor on loop, the ethereal work is rendered in real time. Interaction between the viewer and the installation causes continuous change; previous visual states can never be replicated.
The following four rooms feature different (but similarly slow-moving) yet equally impressive works, including “Nirvana”, which was inspired by a painting technique made up of a grid of thousands of individually coloured squares. Based on the concept of “ultra subjective space” in virtual 3D, the work plays with visitors’ perceptions – 3D animals move while the squares are fixed.
By the time you have moved through the art installations, which are probably more interesting for adults, children will be ready for some fun. It gets noticeably louder as you approach this zone, entering into a large room resembling a massive art project. Here, kids can play with eight distinctive installations. The first is the “Sketch Aquarium” where children’s sea creature creations get projected onto a giant virtual aquarium, and they can be fed and moved around. Nearby, the “Light Ball Orchestra” serves as a play area where huge balls “communicate” with one another, changing colour and making music depending on how they are touched.
Other highlights include “Hopscotch for Geniuses”, where visitors can personalise their own game, hopping onto the shapes they have created amidst a virtual stream with sound effects; “A Table Where Little People Live”, which allows children to manipulate a small interactive world by placing wooden objects on a table top screen; and “Sketch Town”, a bustling 3D town filled with buildings, cars, aircrafts and UFOs that children create in 2D. Their artwork can also be printed out as 3D papercraft to cut, fold, and glue into models.
“teamLab Islands: Dance! Art Museum, Learn & Play! Interactive Theme Park” will run until 31 July 2016. Tickets cost 350 baht per person; children under 80 cm enter for free and children under 12 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian. You can purchase tickets from www.thaiticketmajor.com or at the door. For the latter, get a 10% discount by showing your Central The 1 Card.
There are three rounds per day, from 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm and 4pm to 7pm. You must exit at the designated time of your round – come at least 1.5 to 2 hours before the end of the round to allow ample time for exploring the beautiful museum and playing with the innovative, kid-friendly exhibits.
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