Code-Verse
Code Verse, Ryoji Ikeda’s audiovisual installation, is presented on a large screen format that scales the size of the room. Ikeda developed this piece with the assistance of the Moscow based Garage Museum of Contemporary Art at the Centre Pompidou in France. This large screen features intense computer generated graphics which are translations of a wide range of numerical data.
The Paris based artist, Ryoji Ikeda, was born and raised in Japan and now focuses on various sound and visual installations. Ikeda also composes music for artists and theatre acts all around the world. Ryoji is interested in expressing the hidden structure of reality and the invisible codes we cannot see through his visual work.
Courtesy of https://www.designboom.com/art/ryoji-ikeda-data-verse-2019-venice-biennale-05-11-19/
With the help of musical pitch, Ikeda creates what he calls “phrases”. Code Verse features these phrases which are audiovisual compositions that were created from various kinds of data. The output creates a black and white abstraction that creates fast moving glitches. In this installation, he translates mathematical code into a polyphonic work.
The white noise present in the installation gives off a humming noise that gradually increases with time. Both the music and graphics are connected and translated as one. The viewer is meant to be completely immersed in the work as Ikeda recommends laying down in the exhibition to completely experience his work.
Code Verse reflects upon the idea of hidden codes that build and structure the reality we inhabit. Ikeda does a great job at anaylzing how humans understand time. Code Verse is an extremely intense audiovisual that moves too fast for the human eye to fully digest. Ikeda wanted to look at the similarities and differences the cyber world has with human perception. To Ikeda, these chaotic codes are beautiful poems that can create both structure and accuracy.
“an attempt to explore the gap between science and the esoteric codes that will stay secrets and external to human comprehension, maybe forever.
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Ikeda wants his audience to feel deeply immersed in the work as one’s perception of reality starts to get lost with the endless data. Ikeda chooses the intense white noise effects to greater enhance this new reality viewers enter leaving his viewers lost in the endlessness of data. The work challenges the human brain to reflect and perceive without interpretation.
“‘It seems to be obvious that the form, style and way of representation will be endlessly transformed by technological trends, which has long been a tradition within music — from the invention of notation, or instruments such as the pianoforte, to digital downloads today.”
Ikeda places heavy importance on the audio in all of his work. Ikeda touches on the importance and capability of digital based music. Every instrument is built with some form of technology, and Ikeda realizes the progression of music is in a way a form of data. A sort of mathematical code that can be translated. These translations express the magnitude and speed that occurs when interpreting data.
His work, Data.tron, is an audio visual installation that is set in a large room with the ground floor covered in black carpet. Data.tron, is also shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. This piece is very similar to Code Verse as it shows high speed calculations of numbers and specifically the data set between 0 and infinity. Both Code Verse and Data.tron are meant to be shown together, and conduct very similar experiences. The pieces both incorporate phrases from musical tones that are then, in turn, translated digitally into graphics.
Courtesy of Ryoji/Ikeda.com
Other artwork such as Ryoichi Kurokawa’s ad/ab Atom, looks at where the law governing nature blurs. The work features an 8 minute loop of a “sculptural-style electroscopic installation”. Ryoichi Kurokawa’s ad/ab Atom asks questions similar to Ikeda about the extent that data holds on our lives. In the loop he turns data and scientific material into an audiovisual experience. Kurokawa combines data from molecular studies and translates them into audiovisual representations.
“The Japanese artist takes us on a sublime tour through the scales of existence, to a world stripped to its mathematical bone”
Courtesy of GNRation.com
Code-Verse is not an aesthetically pleasing piece to look or listen to, and that was not the intent of the artist Ryoji Ikeda. The piece is meant to be sublime, stripping the world we know of back to its mathematical foundations. Ikeda wants his audience to feel the fear, and chaos of his work. Code-Verse is a piece that the human mind struggles to navigate, and once one surrenders to it, they are no longer in battle with their senses and are fully immersed in the work. Like data, music can be extremely complex, but once one surrenders themselves to it, they can appreciate its beauty. Ikeda does a wonderful job of allowing his viewer the opportunity to become apart of his work and not just be a spectator. Leaving the viewer conscious of the mathematics that makes up the world they live in.
Sources: (Chicago Style)
“Taipei Fine Arts Museum.” e. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/273095/ryoji-ikedaa-cosmic-journey-from-infinitesimal-to-astronomical/.
“Ryoji Ikeda Exhibits Audio-Visual Trilogy Data-Verse at 2019 Venice Biennale.” designboom, May 10, 2019. https://www.designboom.com/art/ryoji-ikeda-data-verse-2019-venice-biennale-05-11-19/.
“Code-Verse (2018).” code-verse (2018) directed by Ryoji Ikeda • Reviews, film cast • Letterboxd. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://letterboxd.com/film/code-verse/.
EvanPricco. “Ryoji Ikeda Immersive ‘Code-Verse’ Video Installation @ Centre Pompidou, Paris.” Juxtapoz Magazine. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/installation/ryoji-ikeda-immersive-code-verse-video-installation-centre-pompidou-paris/.
