Ryoji Ikeda, born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan, and active in Paris and Kyoto, is recognized as one of the world’s leading composers and media artists. Currently, The High Museum in Atlanta is hosting the U.S. debut of Ikeda’s exhibition, data-verse. This exhibition showcases a trilogy of monumental, immersive light and sound installations that reflect over two decades of Ikeda’s research, examining the progressive digitalization of an integrated global society. Alongside existing works, the exhibition will also unveil new pieces, including data gram, a collection of eighteen monitors that deconstruct, analyze, and remix information within data-verse.
Ikeda’s installations include immersive video projections displayed from floor to ceiling in the museum’s largest exhibition space. These projections visualize data extracted from various mathematical theories and quantum physics studies. His recent work, particularly in data-verse, integrates open-source imagery from prominent institutions like NASA, CERN, and the Human Genome Project.
data-verse consists of three “chapters,” in which Ikeda transforms open-sourced datasets through self-developed programs that generate the visual output, synchronized with an electronic score. This confluence of music, video projections, and the museum architecture creates a dynamically balanced, self-contained experience. Ikeda’s work invites audiences to immerse themselves in an incessant flow of data, exploring the expansive depths of the universe and our relationship with it, all within the context of The High Museum in Atlanta.
