A Study of the Multisensory Turn in Museums-A Case Study of Teamlab in Japan

The fields of humanities and social sciences have begun to focus on the study of perception and sensory cultural life, with significant advancements in perception research over the past two decades. Modern museum studies have also gradually initiated a “turn to perception”. As an emerging digital art collective, teamLab is renowned for its interactivity, multimedia technology, and immersive experiences. Its exhibition formats are characterized by a multi-sensory approach, aligning closely with the perceptual shift in museums. This paper analyzes specific cases from two art museums in Japan: the indoor exhibition at teamLab Borderless Mori Building Digital Art Museum in Tokyo and the outdoor exhibition at teamLab Botanic Garden in Osaka. It explores how these exhibitions effectively utilize multi-sensory narratives to maximize information transmission and audience engagement. The study finds that the multimedia technologies employed in teamLab’s exhibitions not only enrich the expressive capabilities of the artworks but, more importantly, it enhances conceptual transmission and audience immersion through multi-sensory storytelling.