Coinciding with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, London-based Jason Bruges Studio has unveiled a new outdoor art installation blending art, sport, computing and the ancient tradition of the Japanese Zen garden.
Staged in Ueno Park, Tokyo, The Constant Gardeners is a performative piece that sees a team of four robots create illustrations by raking patterns into a canvas of crushed black basalt. Analysing past video footage from across a wide range of sporting disciplines and events, The Constant Gardeners communicate and celebrate the motion and physicality in professional athletics.
The Constant Gardeners (test build), 2021. courtesy Jason Bruges Studio
The Constant Gardeners draws on the aesthetic and craft of the traditional Japanese Zen garden, and from the sportspeople who meticulously hone their movements to reach the top of their game.
In daily performances, the ‘gardeners’ will collaborate to create 150 unique illustrations throughout the Olympics. Some will showcase the story of an event unfolding over time, while others will shine a light on a single spectacular movement or sporting moment.
The robotic performances are linked directly to the schedule for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, using data read from video clips athletic performances. The aim is for the artwork to complete at least one illustration for every discipline.
‘By developing new paradigms in robotics and performative arts, we hope to show how innovative technologies can be used in storytelling, offering audiences in Tokyo an accessible, meaningful experience that celebrates the Tokyo 2020 Games and the incredible skill and achievements of its athletes,’ explains Jason Bruges.
Forming part of the Tokyo Festival Special 13, the installation was commissioned by The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Arts Council Tokyo and is delivered in collaboration with the British Council as part of the UK/Japan bilateral season.
Content development, pattern generation from video, vertical Line Distortion. content development, pattern generation from statistical data, differential growth, layered.
Top: Content development, pattern generation from video, vertical Line Distortion. Above: content development, pattern generation from statistical data, differential growth, layered. Courtesy Jason Bruges Studio
The robots used in Bruges’ installation were reclaimed following a lifetime in industry, working to produce cars in a BMW factory. Each was reconditioned and repainted for its new role, but it didn’t come without hurdles. The robots were originally designed to perform minimal, industrial, and endlessly repeating movements.
Using the robots to undertake complex choreographed tasks they are not designed to perform is a different ball game. To harness this technology for creative and experimental purposes, Jason Bruges Studio had to create a custom control program to ‘hack the system’.
The Constant Gardeners, Ueno Park, Tokyo, 2021. Tokyo Tokyo Festival Special 13
INFORMATION
The Constant Gardeners by Jason Bruges Studio, on view in Fountain Square, Ueno Park, Tokyo until 5 September 2021. theconstantgardeners.art
-
London Craft Week 2025 highlights – what to see this weekendLondon Craft Week 2025 (until 18 May) brings together some 1,000 established and emerging makers. Here is everything we saw and loved so you don't miss a thing
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThe Wallpaper* team enjoyed good art, food and drink this week, attending various exhibition openings and unearthing some of the best pasta and cocktails that London has to offer
-
Sanlorenzo presents three unique models at the British Motor Yacht ShowThe Italian builder brings its largest-ever line up to the show, including an asymmetric yacht and a sporty entry-level vessel
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Inside Kyotographie, Japan’s world-renowned photography festivalKyotographie 2025 embraces the theme ‘Humanity’ in Kyoto – Amah-Rose Abram reports with the highlights, from major and emerging photographers
-
'I’m So Happy You Are Here': discover the work of Japanese women photographersSubtitled ‘Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now’, this new monograph from Aperture is a fascinating insight into a critically overlooked body of work
-
Deathmatch wrestling’s behind-the-scenes moments and bloody gloryA new limited-edition book explores the intersection between art and deathmatch wrestling at a sold-out show held in Tokyo
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in AmericaBLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
-
Heads up: art exhibitions to see in January 2024Start the year right with the Wallpaper* pick of art exhibitions to see in January 2024
-
Olafur Eliasson inaugurates Azabudai Hills Gallery in TokyoOlafur Eliasson marks launch of Azabudai Hills Gallery, in Tokyo’s major new district, with a show of elemental strength
-
Takashi Murakami on his monsterizing San Francisco showTakashi Murakami tells us of pandemic-inspired creatures, eye-popping flowers, and NFTs as he explains the making of his exhibition at Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
