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Ryoji composes minimal electroacoustic with a tint of post-techno and IDM. He also builds minimal installations and psychedelic videos in loops.

And that’s a very minimal description. Ikeda’s work as a sound and visual artist is in fact very complex, but he doesn’t want you to know that. His art is based on the logic of mathematics, building on the impenetrable workings of computer codes, or in simpler words, DATA ART…

At the press presentation, the commissioner John Zeppetelli gave us a very documented tour of every piece, from the square prints in shades of grey representing the three mathematical constants π, e and ø to the punched card from vintage computers and piano rolls for player piano. What I retained from all this is that the artist was aiming at addressing the full span of the sublime with infinite micro parts of an electronic and numerical world that is impossible for the average person to grasp.

Irony is that the exhibition does not feature any of that explanation. Ikeda wants you to walk through his pieces with the innocence of a child, to be able to appreciate its pure beauty. Mathematicians make the finest aestheticians. As a composer, he sees his job as that of a cook, who prepares a great dish behind the closed doors of a kitchen, which the guest will best enjoy with his eyes closed to get the full range of flavours.

Yet aren’t open kitchens a trend right now? Anyway, if you don’t find reflecting on the Ryoki’s artistic process as much as I do, you should at least go to the satellite building to check the noisy video installations called “datamatics”. If you get close enough to the big screen of “data.tron” it can be disturbing. You will be immersed in the visual rendition of morse code, computer crashes and a hypercube, looping indefinitely, punctuated by piercing white noise.It is disorienting to say the least.

And there is even an app to guide you to and through this complex numerical world: download here

Ryoji Ikeda @ DHC/ART
06/14/12 – 11/18/12
Wednesday to Friday: 12-7
Saturday and Sunday: 11-6
Admission: Free