Ryoji Ikeda at The Store X — The Art Partners

By Polina Epinatyeva

‘micro | macro’ (2015). Image Courtesy of Martin Wagenhan and ZKM.

Despite the consequences of Covid-19, this cultural season in London has been particularly exciting and continues to impress. Especially considering the return to the capital of a Japanese audiovisual mega-star, Ryoji Ikeda, with his new solo show, which will feature the largest body of work presented in Europe to date, together with six premiers of never-seen-before works. In a true Ikeda fashion, the artist invites his London visitors to immerse themselves in dynamic audiovisual installations, to find connections between technology and nature and to observe invisible, microscopical but crucial elements of our universe and existence. Ryoji Ikeda’s new show at The Store X, 180 The Strand, in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory and Audemars Piquet Contemporary, was scheduled to open to the public on the 12th of November, however, due to the recent tightening of Covid-19 restrictions in the U.K., the exhibition opening has been postponed. Hence, while we are waiting for further announcements regarding the opening of this highly anticipated show, we have decided to look back at Ikeda’s journey as an artist and at his most notable audiovisual projects that were realised over the years.

‘data-verse 1’ (2019). Image Courtesy of Audemars Piquet.

Ryoji Ikeda was born in 1966 in Japan, modern-day home of technological progress and innovation. Ikeda has begun his career as a sound artist in the 1990s, however, simultaneously became interested in the visual arts. Over the years he has gained a reputation of one of a very few artists working simultaneously and decisively across both, visual and sonic media. Since 1995, he has been actively involved in projects, which include installation works, concerts, performances and recordings. Ikeda’s first solo exhibition was held at Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media in 2004, where he presented an audiovisual project that he produced independently. Since then, each subsequent project has become more ambitious in scale, technology, meaning and precision, attracting attention from critics, who named him one of the most radical and innovative contemporary composers. The secret behind his original approach and success could be in Ikeda’s musical ear. He often experiments with unique sound frequencies and scales that are difficult for the human ear to comprehend and which create the desired atmosphere, helping the audience to immerse themselves in his installations. Above all, Ikeda sees himself as a composer and in the same manner as he composes sounds into music, he composes data and information into visual installations and this composition is the most important aspect of his work.

‘data path’ (2013). Image Courtesy of Fernando Maquieira and Espacio Fundación Telefónica.

In his projects, Ryoji Ikeda explores the physical phenomena of space, sound, time, light and data, in order to create a synergy among those notions and to allow the audience to see and experience concepts that are believed to be invisible, such as time. The artist likes to explore and test the limits of what is known and what exists in our universe to make it observable to his audience. Ikeda’s works are meant to create different meanings for different individuals. He believes that the audience should not search for implicit meanings, but rather should personally experience, feel and construct their own understandings. Furthermore, the artist doesn’t like to speak about concepts in his works, because in Ikeda’s opinion ‘there are none’, each and every member of the audience should create one for themselves.

Ryoji Ikeda’s elaborate projects have been displayed in the most prominent global institutions in Paris, Tokyo, Vancouver, London, Beijing, Moscow, New York, Tasmania, among other places. While in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, Ryoji Ikeda’s project Spectra (2013), which consisted of 49 searchlights shooting beams of light 15km into the sky, became a permanent installation that helped to transform the historical landscape of the second oldest city in Australia.

Throughout the years Ryoji Ikeda’s body of work has diversified, however, audiovisual installations have remained central to his practice. Hence, in anticipation of the exhibition at the Store X, 180 the Strand, we have prepared a list of Top-5 projects, which never cease to amaze and astonish, even the most sophisticated audiences.

1. data-verse 1 (2019), first exhibited at the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

This large-scale audiovisual installation submerges the audience into a digital universe, where nature is replaced with data and technology. Ryoji Ikeda uses open-source scientific data of different origin obtained from institutions, including CERN and NASA, which is processed, transcribed and converted into visual and audio formats. Data-verse 1 is created with the help of extremely precise computer programming and graphics technology. This installation consists of a minimalist soundtrack and high-definition video of transformed scientific data, which is projected onto a large-scale screen. Through this interpretation of sound and light, Ikeda aims to scan the entire scale of our existence, to showcase how various dimensions co-exist in our universe, from the microscopic to macroscopic, where us humans stand in the middle. With the help of data-verse project, the artist raises an important question about our technology-driven society: are we drowning in data, which is surrounding us everywhere like the air we breathe?

This project has been realised with the help of Audemars Piquet Contemporary, whose mission is to support artists, who through their exceptional and complicated artworks demonstrate the complexity of manufacturing and precision. Data-verse is a result of a conversation between the artist and Audemars Piquet that has initiated in 2015 and has led to the commissioning of a 3-part project, which is still ongoing. The Swiss watchmaker believes in the importance of connecting artistic excellence and technical mastery, exactly how they are manufacturing their fine watches and how Ryoji Ikeda creates his artworks.

2. micro | macro (2015), first exhibited at ZKM Centre for Arts and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany.

This project has been developed during Ryoji Ikeda’s residency at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Switzerland, which is the largest centre for particle physics research in the world. Micro | macro is an audiovisual installation that aims to build a bridge between art and quantum physics, which has interested the artist for a very long time. In this work, Ikeda refers to the Planck Scale, which is the minimum limit of the universe, beyond which the laws of physics are not valid. By visualising this, he contrasts the scale of our human existence to the scale of microscopic or invisible.

Micro | macro consists of two inter-related audiovisual projections: the planck universe [micro] and the planck universe [macro], which are synchronised to transform the exhibition space into a single, large, unified audiovisual harmony. [Micro] installation is a large-scale projection on the ground that consists of moving patterns, such as floating coordinates and levitating genetic codes and atoms, which with time accelerate into insane and chaotic lines and then are transformed back into original patterns that slide across the floor of the dark exhibition space. [Micro] focuses on smaller components, from which all matter is made. The projection examines the microscopic elements of the universe. [Macro] installation is projected on a large-scale screen on the wall and demonstrates a sequence of movements that occur in deep space, which are occasionally interrupted by white specs that appear in the dark cosmic matter. [Macro] explores nature in a magnified macroscopic scale of the universe. Both projections are accompanied by deep, supernatural, high-pitch sounds, which help to submerge the audience into an atmosphere of incomprehensible, immeasurable and unexplored.

‘micro | macro’ (2015). Image Courtesy of Michael Young and ArtAsiaPacific.

3. supersymmetry (2013), first exhibited at Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media (YCAM), Yamaguchi, Japan.

Ideas of this installation have also been largely inspired by Ryoji Ikeda’s dialogue with the researchers and engineers at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Switzerland. Supersymmetry is an immersive and sensory audiovisual installation that aims to transform the complexity of quantum physics and particle science into an aesthetic experience, which consists of sound, visual data and high-speed light displays. In particle physics, supersymmetry is yet an unproven extension of space-time symmetry, it is a relationship between two basic classes of elementary particles: bosons and fermions. Supersymmetry predicts that each particle in a Standard Model has a partner particle, hence helps to explain why particles have mass. These partner particles anticipated by the theory would help to solve a major problem with the Standard Model - fixing the mass of the Higgs boson.

The supersymmetry consists of 2 inter-related audiovisual installations: supersymmetry [experiment] and supersymmetry [experience], suggesting a relationship between experiments and observations in science and particle physics in particular. The [experiment] installation features three 1m x 1m boxes, which emit bright light. Hundreds of microscopic spherical objects are floating on the surface of these boxes, forming various random patterns when the white boxes are leaning from one side to another in different directions. The [experience] installation comprises of a long corridor of 20-m long screens that are arranged parallel to each other on opposite walls. Those monitors are demonstrating how the data presented in the [experiment] installation has been analysed and interpreted. Data appears on those synchronised monitors and then momentarily fades away, leaving trails of bright light in a pitch-black environment. This pulsating flow of high-speed data and text is accompanied by electrocardiogram-like sounds, this symphony of bleeps, beeps and buzzes creates a hypnotic illusion, captivating the audience within this endless journey of data and sound. The two installations work as a sort of question and answer, as the [experiment] begins to ask the question, the [experience] responds with an answer.

‘supersymmetry’ (2013). Image Courtesy of YCAM.

4. test pattern [12] (2017), first exhibited at the Store X, 180 the Strand, London, England.

Test pattern is a series of works by Ryoji Ikeda that has initiated in 2008, which includes an impressive array of pieces created in different media, such as audiovisual installations, site-specific installations, performances and prints on paper. As a tribute to Ikeda’s forthcoming show at the Store X, let’s remember the artist’s first exhibition at the venue, which showcased an audiovisual installation - test pattern [12].

Test pattern system uses real-time computer programming that converts various types of data, including text, sound and moving image into barcodes and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. The project’s objective has been to analyse the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception. It forces the audience to question how much data, in all its forms, we take in on an everyday basis. Test pattern [12], exactly like its predecessors is an audiovisual installation that instantly immerses the audience into an atmosphere of the dark universe, which they can only navigate around with the help of flickering floor, its linear patterns and pulsating sounds. This project, like the majority of Ikeda’s work, requires the audience to be completely present within the installation. Test pattern [12] engulfs visitors’ senses with loud sounds and flashing lights, it cannot leave anyone indifferent, without feeling at least something, without starting to debate about the meaning of technology and data in our everyday existence.

‘test pattern [12]’ (2017). Image Courtesy of The Vinyl Factory.

5. data.flux [12 XGA version] (2017), first exhibited at Parallax, Yilan, Taiwan.

This installation is a part of the Datamatics art project developed by Ryoji Ikeda in 2006, which aims to explore the potential to observe the invisible multi-substance of data that impregnates our world. This project is a series of art experiments in various mediums - audiovisual concerts, publications and CD’s, which all seek to materialise data.

In data.flux [12 XGA version] installation, two sets of video images are projected onto two large scale opposite walls (38 metres each). Together, both walls are covered by twelve parallel video projections creating multiple minimalist electronic compositions, which synchronise with a precision of a metronome, turning massive scientific sets of data into maps of the universe, DNA sequences, molecular structures of proteins and superhighways of raw data. Data-flux creates a total sensory experience for the visitor. The installation uses mathematical language and scientific aesthetics to raise important questions about transcendent identity and our existence in the universe.

‘data.flux [12 XGA version]’ (2017). Image Courtesy of Parallax.