Ryoji Ikeda
born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan
lives and works in Paris, France
Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda 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.
Alongside of pure musical activity, Ikeda has been working on long-term projects: 'datamatics' (2006-) consists of various forms such as moving image, sculptural, sound and new media works that explore one's potentials to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world. The project 'test pattern' (2008-) has developed a system that converts any type of data - text, sounds, photos and movies into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s, which examines the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception. The series 'spectra' (2001-) is large-scale installations employing intense white light as a sculptural material and so transforming public locations in Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Nagoya, Tasmania and Sharjah, where versions have been installed. With Carsten Nicolai, Ikeda works a collaborative project 'cyclo.' (2000- ), which examines error structures and repetitive loops in software and computer programmed music, with audiovisual modules for real-time sound visualization, through live performance, CDs and books (Raster-noton, 2001, 2011, 2013). He is awarded the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@Cern 2014.
