C⁴I
2004-06

photo: Kazuo Fukunaga, courtesy of Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media [YCAM]

This piece is both a concert and a film that uses data as its material and theme, highlighting the ways in which data shapes our understanding of the world. Video images of landscapes are progressively abstracted into a language of data. Facts, figures and diagrams are used in a montage with dazzling graphic impact. The text excerpts elegantly punctuate the on-screen projections. Blurring the lines between nature, science and philosophy, the work subtly and hypnotically suggests the convergence of the real and the virtual. The soundtrack synchronises perfectly with the graphical and video images to create a piece of undeniable power and beauty. Derived from the natural world, from global systems such as economics and from research mathematics, data forms a new material for artistic explorations. C⁴I, in its meticulous composition and technical sophistication, reveals sublime views of reality.

credits

directed by Ryoji Ikeda
concept, video, music: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, video editing: Shohei Matsukawa, Daisuke Tsunoda
commissioned by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), 2004