Ryoji Ikeda:
data-verse
PLEASE NOTE: Spaces in this exhibition are dark, and some works feature loud or sudden sounds, as well as flashing lights and strobe effects. Please proceed with care.
1. point of no return
an audiovisual installation that condenses the unknowable chaos of a black hole into order and balance.
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Tomonaga Tokuyama
2. mass
an audiovisual installation that projects abstract geometries and alphanumeric symbols on the floor, immersing visitors in the vastness of the universe.
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Tomonaga Tokuyama
3. line
an intense white light that beams through a thin, narrow opening, drawing one toward the end of a corridor. the bright white line has both sculptural form and immaterial incandescence.
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
4. data-verse 1/2/3
an audiovisual installation that immerses the audience in a seemingly endless flow of overwhelming data and explores the relationship between microscopic and macroscopic depths of the universe. data-verse incorporates colorful, open-source imagery from institutions such as NASA, CERN, and the Human Genome Project.
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Norimichi Hirakawa,
Tomonaga Tokuyama, Ryo Shiraki, and Satoshi Hama
commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary
5. grid system [nº1-a]
a laser-cut acrylic light panel that diffuses light in space when a translucent panel is placed upon its surface.
laser etching on acrylic panel, LEDs, and stainless steel
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
6. data.gram [nº7]
45 data sequences across 18 screens that are all tightly synchronized to make an ensemble or a symphonic whole as a single audiovisual installation. data.gram is a new series of reorchestrated versions of data-verse 1/2/3.
18 LED screens, computers
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Norimichi Hirakawa, Tomonaga Tokuyama, and Ryo Shiraki
7. 2D works
This series of 2D works transforms data into barcodes and binaries of 0s and 1s. shown as a whole, the 2D works unpack mathematical definitions of infinity and juxtapose dichotomies such as darkness and brightness, death and birth, doing and being.
Questions to Consider
How do we visualize time and space?
How do we see ourselves within the expanse of the universe? How do we make sense of the scale difference between ourselves and the universe? What are the limits of human perception? How far can we see or hear or feel? What are the limits of human knowledge?
How do we think art and technology intersect?
What do data and technology help us see more clearly? What do they obscure? Are there limits to what technology can help us “know”?
What are some of the dualities that the exhibition helps us consider?
(Science and philosophy, technology and art, sound and silence, light and dark, micro and macro, etc.)
Ikeda’s art is a form of abstraction, though perhaps not what we’ve been taught to expect of abstract art.
What does this approach to abstraction make us see? Make us feel? Make us consider?
About the Art
Ryoji Ikeda creates immersive works that push the limits of our senses and our knowledge, changing the way we experience art. His art challenges how we understand the universe and our place in it through sound, light, materials, mathematics, and physics composed into stimulating immersions into the unknown and the infinite. Ikeda’s work is known for its mathematical precision, exploring the fundamental qualities of space and time. He often uses frequencies and scales that are hard for the human ear and mind to grasp, turning the invisible visible through visual and auditory experiences that test the limits of perception and technology.
A key part of his approach is blending opposites—such as light and shadow, sound and silence—often contrasting intense activity and torrents of information with simple, minimalist lines and moments of complete darkness. Viewers can experience Ikeda’s work in two ways: as analytical, data-driven information or as pure sensory experiences that vibrate through the body. He orchestrates elements like pixels, sound waves, space, and data into larger compositions. Pulses of sound and light electrify the body, while data coordinates, genetic codes, space-time sequences, molecular information, numbers, lines, and letters electrify the mind. Ultimately, his works provide a personal, somewhat indescribable experience, expanding our way of seeing and experiencing reality.
Together, the works in the exhibition offer a multisensory journey that refreshes and renews how we perceive and understand the vastness of the universe, a central theme of Ikeda’s work, which he prefers to be experienced rather than analyzed.
I tend to take a more macroscopic viewpoint towards ART instead of taking ART as the sum of segmented categories such as painting, sculpture, music, dance etc. If I take ART as ART, it simply expands and becomes so broad and diverse to me. Thus, I don’t stay in the music scene or visual art scene as it restricts creative possibility and artistic freedom. I prefer to traverse both fields and beyond, which I have been doing for many years.
Ryoji Ikeda
About the Artist
Ryoji Ikeda lives and works in Paris and Kyoto. Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist, Ikeda (born Gifu, Japan, 1966) focuses on the essential characteristics of sound and light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. He began as part of Dumb Type artist collective in Japan while also being active in the electronic music scene and working as a DJ. Ikeda sought to compose music free from cultural associations, as transparent and universal as mathematical equations. He has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena, and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations, and his work has evolved over the years to encompass the latest iterations of data-driven research. Alongside pure musical creation, his longterm projects have taken a multiplicity of forms, from live performances and immersive audiovisual installations to books and CDs.
Ikeda has exhibited his work in some of the world’s leading contemporary art venues, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Carriageworks, Australia. He has also taken part in key digital art festivals such as Sónar Barcelona and Elektra Montreal. In addition, he creates artistic interventions with public works everywhere from Amsterdam, London, and Paris to New York and Los Angeles.