Sights and Sounds of Big Data: Ryoji Ikeda’s Immersive Installations

Abstract

The Japanese multimedia artist Ryoji Ikeda’s work can be interpreted as a contact between mediums, but also as a contact between disciplines. Most of his video installations are based on concepts borrowed from the field of mathematics, physics or information technology. In this paper I will examine Ikeda’s audiovisual installations by presenting these multimedial installations as possible methods of visualizing digital data in the context of contemporary art. Considering their digital and abstract nature, these works can also be analysed as unique audiovisual environments built from different media based on the same data-sets, offering the possibility of immersion. By unfolding the medial relations within Ikeda’s work I will try to demonstrate how the combination of sight and sound creates the inter-sensual experience of getting in touch with digital data.