Ryoji Ikeda +/- [the infinite between 0 and 1]

Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda creates at the extremes of sound, light and mathematics to produce complex transformative works of singular beauty. In Paris last year he projected vast blinding white light up into the city's night sky from sixty-four floodlights situated in front of Tour Montparnasse, France's tallest skyscraper. spectra [paris] was a version of spectra [amsterdam], Ikeda's commission for DREAM AMSTERDAM which lit the city's Vondel Park, Van Gogh Museum, Wastergasfabrick cultural space and Java Island.

In April Ikeda presents Ryoji Ikeda +/- [ the infinite between 0 and 1], his first major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT). The exhibition includes new commissions, large-scale and audiovisual projections, sound works and sculptural pieces, evolving the synaesthetic effects of Ikeda's earlier works, fusing sound and image in intensely physical experiences.

Ryoji Ikeda +/- [ the infinite between 0 and 1] presents some works developed from datamatics, Ikeda's series of "experiments that explore the vast universe of data in the infinity between 0 and 1", as well as from his dialogue with Harvard mathematician Benedict Gross. It also develops a prime number / a natural number, Ikeda's large-scale photographic work for Le Laboratoire, which explored the idea that perhaps nothing in the universe is random.

Other works include data.matrix [nº1-10], a multi screen installation featuring video sequences from datamatics [ver.2.0], Ikeda's audiovisual concert; and matrix [5ch version], a pure sound installation formed by a grid of speakers through which visitors walk.

Similar to Ikeda's spectra [paris], which also featured a grid, visitors' movements interfere and disrupt the carefully composed soundscapes.

In addition, MOT presents data.tron [3 SXGA+ version], a larger version of an earlier floor-to-ceiling screen of data which seeks to physically overwhelm visitors with a staggering array of 0s and 1s. Ikeda's established work data.film [nº1-a] will also be showing, - a mesmerising very narrow 10m long lightbox of data codes and patterns.

Ryoji Ikeda Ryoji Ikeda is Japan's leading electronic composer and sound artist who has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. Music, time and space are shaped by mathematical methods as Ikeda explores sound as sensation, pulling apart its physical properties to reveal its relationship with human perception. Since 1995, Ikeda has been intensely active through concerts, installations, and recordings, integrating sound, acoustics and sublime imagery.

Previous works of Ryoji Ikeda An earlier installation, spectra II (currently exhibited at the Nam June Paik Centre in Seoul), and its adaptation for Terminal 5 at JFK Airport, faced viewers with a long corridor, which alternated between total darkness and intense, dazzling brightness and could only be navigated by the acoustic interaction between sound and the architecture of the spaces. Another work, db, combined the totally dark space of an anechoic chamber with a silent white, reflective room illuminated by hundreds of fluorescent tubes. A further adaptation of this concept, spectra III, was exhibited at Le Laboratoire, Paris (2008). At the start of 2009, an enhanced version of data.tron was commissioned for the opening of the Deep Space venue at Ars Electronica Center, and in celebration of the City's mantle as Capital of Culture this year. Ikeda's acclaimed installations and his large-scale, public works spectra [amsterdam] and spectra [paris] (both 2008), continue to diffuse Ikeda's aesthetic of 'ultra minimalism' to the art world. Using computer and digital technologies, Ikeda's audiovisual concerts datamatics (2006 - present), C4I (2004 - 2007) and formula (2000 - 2006) suggest a unique orientation for our future multimedia environment and culture. For the past six years, Forma has produced and toured Ikeda's exhibition and performance projects worldwide.

Ryoji Ikeda
+/- [the infinite between 0 and 1]