Ryoji Ikeda
Exhibition "Techno Worlds"

Ryōji Ikedas Techno Art

Ryōji Ikeda was already an acclaimed electronic music producer and popular techno DJ before working with visual media. Just as in his musical output, the Japanese artist focusses his visual works on the technological-structural aspects of various scientific fields, from medicine to astronomy to basic research in physics. Ikeda is regarded as an important figure in bringing together visual and musical phenomena. His installations and live sets combine the two disciplines in a unique way, often making use of the semiotic systems of technical visual languages as well as their mathematical precision.

Ikeda's Systematics is a group of works based on components of reels taken from an IBM computer from the mid-20th century. These punched cards were once used by the U.S. Department of Defence. Illuminated from behind and presented as lightboxes, they resemble technoid, constructivist compositions or minimalist works. Systematics represents various aspects of human development, the acceleration inherent to the computer age, the abstraction of information, and the alignment of human existence with technological processes.

The title of Ikeda's 4′33″ refers to the composition of the same name by John Cage. Like Cage, Ikeda has an interest in structures and the use of all different kinds of sounds. Various acoustic signals are captured and used for compositions. Cage's work marks a period of silence, a period without signals; in Ikeda's work, it is the pure physical presence of a medium: an unexposed 16mm film lasting four minutes and 33 seconds.

Biography

Ryōji Ikeda, born in Gifu, lives and works in Paris and Kyoto. As an electronic composer and visual artist Ryōji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ryōji Ikeda has gained a reputation as an international artist 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. Alongside pure musical activity, Ryōji Ikeda has been working on long-term projects through live performances, installations, books and CD’s.