Ryoji Ikeda: Datamatics

One of Japan’s leading electronic composers, Ryoji Ikeda (born 1966) manipulates sound in various “raw” states, often using frequencies at the very limits of human hearing. Occupying a unique soundworld between ambient electronica, sinewave noise and glitch beats, Ikeda’s music has expanded into art contexts more extensively than any of his contemporaries. Datamatics is a long-term art project that explores our reception of miniscule audio and visual data. Developed between 2006–2012, it consists of an audiovisual concert, installations, publications, a radio program and a CD. This book documents most of the works from the series, emphasizing three major datamatics exhibitions presented in Yamaguchi (Japan 2008), Bogota (Columbia 2011) and Gijon (Spain 2012). Alongside graphic material relating to the production processes such as data sources, graphic scores and technical diagrams, the book also includes texts by curators Kazunao Abe, Maria Belen Sez de Ibarra and Benjamin Weil.