TeamLab Recreation: Floating Microcosms
Inspiration Video
I visited teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi and chose the artwork called “Floating Microcosms.” Here is the official video from teamLab showing the installation:
It is a dark room with shallow water on the floor. Egg-shaped glass sculptures called “ovoids” float on the water. When you push one, it tilts, glows with color, and makes a sound. Then the eggs around it respond one after another, a wave of light that spreads across the room. The ceiling is a mirror, so everything reflects upward.
Here are some photos I took when I visited:
Why I Chose This
The interaction is so simple: push an egg, but what happens is beautiful. One touch creates a chain reaction of light across the whole room. It makes you feel like you are part of the artwork. I also liked how the eggs look alive, they float, they glow from inside, and the colors keep changing.
Code I Am Proud Of
The chain reaction that fades with each hop. When you click one ovoid, it tells its neighbors to light up, but weaker. Those neighbors tell their neighbors even weaker. After 2-3 hops, it dies out, so not every egg lights up. Just the nearby ones.
let nextStrength = strength * 0.4;
if (nextStrength > 0.15) {
for (let other of ovoids) {
if (other === this) continue;
let d = dist(this.x, this.y, other.x, other.y);
if (d < 160) {
let delay = floor(map(d, 0, 160, 20, 50));
other.chainTimer = delay;
other.chainStrength = nextStrength;
}
}
}
Direct click = strength 1.0. First neighbors get 0.4. Their neighbors get 0.16 too weak to keep going. This makes the wave fade naturally, just like the real installation.
Creative twist: “Water Memory.” In the real artwork, the water goes dark after each interaction. In my version, every touch leaves glowing color marks on the water that slowly fade. After many clicks, the water becomes a colorful painting of everywhere you have touched.
Embedded Sketches
Phase 1 — The Scene
Dark room, visible water, ovoids floating with internal swirl patterns, and a ceiling mirror. No interaction yet.
Phase 2 — Interaction
Click to glow, chain reaction that fades after 2-3 hops, ripples, mouse push, ceiling mirror lights up.
Final — Water Memory
Same as Phase 2 plus the creative twist: colored marks stay on the water after each touch.
Milestones and Challenges
Chain reaction spreading everywhere. My first version activated all neighbors at full strength; every egg in the room lit up from one click. The fix was to make each hop weaker (strength × 0.4 each time), so it dies out after 2-3 rings.
Water not visible. My first water was too dark, almost the same color as the ceiling. I made it much lighter (dark blue-purple) and added a bright shimmer line at the surface edge.
Reflection and Future Work
My sketch captures the core of “Floating Microcosms”: push an egg, watch light spread. But the real artwork has things I cannot recreate: the physical feeling of pushing a real sculpture, the sound each egg makes, warm water on your feet, and the infinite mirror ceiling.
Ideas for the future:
- Add sound so each ovoid plays a tone when it glows
- Use WebGL for real 3D translucent eggs
- Make ovoids bump into each other when they collide
References
- teamLab — “Floating Microcosms” at teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi — https://www.teamlababudhabi.com/en/explore/artworks/floating-microcosms