Data Visualization in a BI World

Data Anatomy by Ryoji Ikeda

Berlin, 19 April – 1st May

"data.anatomy [civic] is a new audiovisual installation by Ryoji Ikeda, arising from a unique collaboration with Mitsuru Kariya, the development leader of the new Honda Civic.
Exhibited as a 3-screen video projection, data.anatomy [civic] immerses viewers in an intricate yet vast audiovisual composition derived from the entire data set of the car... "

For more images and videos of the exhibition, see here.

In the comments of this Creative Applications article, someone suggests that this project is "beautiful but at the end its really really flat", apparently referring to the fact that the installation is fairly commercial in purpose and lacking in depth. But regardless of the purpose of the installation, it remains just that. An installation. Art is subjective by nature.

In this day and age where data is such a relevant hot topic, it's interesting that companies are adopting creative means of associating with the data deluge. Information design seems to becoming a popular aesthetic, and businesses taking advantage of this popularity also means those artists and creators such as Ryoji Ikeda who contribute to the field are being given a platform to share their work.

It's also interesting to see the increasing adoption of art and creativity as a means of reaching an audience, both to explain and discuss products and to reach customers on an emotional level.

About Ryoji Ikeda

Japan’s leading electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself. His work exploits sound’s physical property, its causality with human perception and mathematical dianoia as music, time and space. Using computer and digital technology, Ikeda has been developing particular “microscopic” methods for sound engineering and composition. Since 1995 he has been intensely active in sound art through concerts, installations and recordings: the albums +/- (1996), 0 degrees (1998) and Matrix (2000) have been hailed by critics as the most radical and innovative examples of contemporary electronic music. With Carsten Nicolai, he works the collaborative project ‘cyclo.’, which examines error structures and repetitive loops in software and computer programmed music, with audiovisual modules for real time sound visualization. The versatile range of his research is also demonstrated by the collaborations with choreographer William Forsythe/Frankfurt Ballett, contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, architect Toyo Ito and artist collective Dumb Type, among others. Ryoji Ikeda received the Golden Nica prize at Prix Ars Electronica 2001 in the Digital Music category.