Ryoji Ikeda’s immersive exhibition at the High Museum of Art delves into human connection in a digital world, featuring installations that challenge perceptions of reality and unity.
Absolute black. Absolute white. The point of no return. Infinity. These concepts lie at the outermost edge of what our minds can comprehend, and they are at the center of Ryoji Ikeda‘s exhibition ‘data-verse’ at the High Museum of Art.
Ryoji Ikeda is a renowned Japanese contemporary artist known for his immersive and interactive sound installations.
Born in 1966, Ikeda's work often explores the relationship between technology, nature, and human perception.
His pieces frequently incorporate data visualization, algorithmic music, and digital art to create an otherworldly experience.
With exhibitions worldwide, including the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Ikeda has solidified his position as a leading figure in contemporary art.
The exhibition begins with ‘point of no return’ (2018), a two-part video and light installation that features a large wall onto which is projected a perfectly round black circle bordered by a rapidly flickering ring of white light. The ambient soundtrack, featuring a low-level hum, amplifies the feeling of immensity in this void. On the backside of this video projection is a similarly massive perfect circle of white light generated from a freestanding lighting fixture in the gallery.
Data verse refers to a vast, interconnected network of digital data.
It encompasses various forms of data storage, from cloud computing services like Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage to traditional hard drives and solid-state drives.
The growth of the data verse has been exponential, driven by increasing demand for online storage and processing power.
According to a report by IDC, global data storage capacity is expected to reach 174 zettabytes by 2025.
As data volumes continue to surge, innovative solutions are emerging to manage and utilize this vast digital landscape.
The two halves of this installation are inverses of one another and cancel out perfectly. The title of the artwork is drawn from the moment when escape from a black hole becomes impossible, turning around is no longer an option. This ominous beginning sets the tone for the exhibition, which says only unknowable things lie ahead, and we can do nothing to stop ourselves from meeting them.
A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, including light, can escape.
They are formed when massive stars collapse in on themselves.
The point of no return around a black hole is called the event horizon.
Once something crosses this boundary, it is trapped forever.
Black holes come in various sizes, from small, stellar-mass black holes to supermassive ones found at the centers of galaxies.
Their existence was first proposed by Einstein's theory of general relativity.
As the viewer navigates the exhibition, they will encounter ‘mass‘ (2023), a near replica of the projected wall in point of no return, albeit even larger this time. This installation features the same black void with flickering peripherals but is not static. As the viewer watches, the void in the center of the projection constantly expands until it consumes the entirety of its peripherals, dousing the gallery in near-complete darkness.
mass is the enactment of us stepping through the doorway of point of no return—a visualization of our bodies being swallowed by a black hole. This artwork reminds us that we are beyond knowing; we are beyond our world, into something indefinable. The line between reality and chaos blurs in this installation, leaving the viewer with a sense of unease.
The Line of Uncertainty
In stark contrast to the darkness of point of no return and mass, ‘Line’ (2008) is a perfectly uniform line of white light running vertically from the floor to the top of the wall. This artwork is deceptively simple yet expresses multiple fundamental aspects of our universe—dimension, light, space, and place.
From the darkness arises the fundamentals in preparation for the chaos to come. The simplicity of Line belies its complexity, as it represents a fundamental aspect of our existence that is often overlooked. As we navigate the exhibition, we are reminded of the importance of understanding our place in the universe.
The Data-Verse
The next gallery features the pièce-de-résistance for this exhibition and its namesake: ‘data-verse 1/2/3’ (2019-2020). In this composite installation, datasets from CERN and NASA are transposed into composited visuals. Sometimes showing endless strands of raw data and other times showing visual manifestations of them, the video artworks begin in a relative lull, calm computation of endless items.
As the videos progress, this computation becomes increasingly frantic, with both the speed at which images and data appear on the screen and the ambient soundtrack swelling. This crescendo culminates in an image of the sun synchronously appearing across all three screens. The effect is staggering, leaving the viewer feeling small in the face of an unfathomable universe.
Perhaps this is precisely the point. In our contemporary era, we constantly face things that push our minds to the very limit of possibility and understanding. A president cutting civil services and consolidating unprecedented executive power. Climate change causing unheard-of disasters and weather patterns occurring at the most anomalous times. And buying a home feels forever out of reach for most young adults.
data-verse does not assuage this mental agitation in the palliative sense but serves an important role as an ego killer. It reminds us that our individuality is nothing compared to the vastness of the universe, and we are all connected through our shared humanity. As Ryoji Ikeda once said, ‘I want to disappear; ‘myself’ is not important.’ The experience of this exhibition accomplishes this and more, leaving the viewer with a sense of unity and commonality.
The exhibition ‘data-verse’ at the High Museum of Art is on view through August 10.
- observer.com | At the High, Ryoji Ikeda’s “Data Verse” Is an Ego Killer
