Ryoji Ikeda is a Japanese composer and sound artist who lives and works in New York City. Ikeda focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound in relation with human perception and the mathematical dianoia applied to music, time and space.
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Ikeda has been intensely active through concerts, installations, and recordings, integrating sound, acoustics and sublime imagery. In the artist’s works, 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.
spectra II The installation relies on the intersection of sound and architecture and continues Ikeda's interest in phenomena - be they light, tone or sound - and how they materialise and manifest themselves in the world. The piece is built as a narrow, ceiling-covered corridor, allowing only one visitor to enter at a time. In the corridor space, red laser lights mark out the architectural construction of the otherwise darkened space and divide it into sections. Along the length of the space, speakers and strobe lights are mounted in the ceiling. The flashing strobe lights and high frequency sounds are synchronised and continuously change the experience of the space. Aiming at purity and simplicity in the sound, Ikeda deploys high frequency sine waves, only to subject them to his exploration of how pure tone and sound are distorted by the resonance and reflective qualities of a given architectural setting and the presence and movement of the public. Visitors can hardly recognise the dimensions of the space, which is almost invisible due to its intense darkness/brightness and inaudible due to its ultra-frequencies. However, as they pass through the corridor, subtle oscillation patterns occur around their ears, caused by their own movements interfering with the sounds. The sound itself may be subtle and minimal, but the experience of the sound in the installation is active and dynamic. It is only through the public's physical engagement in the sound space that the real character of the work can be perceived.
spectra The luminal tunnel of Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport was always the perfect symbolic experience of the future. With its plunging vanishing point and soaring roofline, Saarinen's theatrical passage embodied, if not created, Utopian ideals of transcendence and transportation in travel.
formula, a constantly evolving work updated with each presentation, is a perfect synchronization between Ikeda's sound frequencies and the movements on the screen. It places the viewer in a binary geometry of space, and exploits the darkness to amplify the perceptions, with outstanding success. Ikeda aims for the complete integration of the various elements, composing music, images, lighting and orchestrating the relationships between them through a highly precise score.
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