Ryoichi Kurokawa, arranging the audiovisual display
Ryoichi Kurokawa creates stunning audiovisual work for music concert and installation settings. His aesthetic has a recognisable visual and sound, although that aesthetic does appear in lots of other visual and sound approaches by other artists working at this time, one can still recognise Kurokawa’s work. I did a bookmark type blog post in 2009 about his work.Revisiting his work and examining the documentaiton on his website (a really lovely experience in itself), his work has really developed in the interim period and in particular what is of note is his use of the display in his work in which he arranges in unusual positions. For example, in rheo: 5 horizons, the 5 HD plasma displays are arranged not horizontally but vertically and in sequence, each of these displays are fed a channel of video and there is 5 channels of sound. His recent work unfold (2016), consists of three projections arranged in a curvature presentation, so that the arrangement comes towards the spectator in some way, like a type of awning and shelter. This work consists of three channels of video and 6.1 channels of surround sound. He has created an audiovisual sculpture with an unsual arrangement of displays, in his work oscillating continuum (2013), here they are arranged in a parallelogram base, each channel of video is like a structure that has an audiovisual aesthetic attached to it.
SSuch precise combination of channels of video and channels of sound, results in the work emerging from the whole of these separate channels. Each video channel has its own audio precisely aligned to it, and so when the video channels are played as intended in concert, one gets a sense that what is happening is a new type of orchestration. Each channel representing its own audiovisual unit, but one can have from one audiovisual unit up to as many as one can manage to make. There is a simplicity of form in this approach, but in my opinion, there is a beauty in this simplicity. Parts link to parts and the parts link to the whole and the whole acts in concert. The form of his work in his aesthetic is carried through to the form of his work in using displays in this orchestrative type of way.
Works that I have checked out from the documentation on his webiste are:
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Ryoichi Kurokawa - oscillating continuum |
syn_
(2011) An audiovisual concert using 2 channels of video and 2.1 channels of sound"Crucially, I do not intend to give guidance to the viewers on my works, and specifically with animated works like syn_, as I remove entirely the conception and emphasis of the behaviour of an audiovisual phenomena to [allow an audience to] perceive and experience physically sound and images more purely."[Sedition Interview with Ryoichi Kurokawa- details below]
ground
(2011) An audiovisual installation using 3 HD displays (3 channels of video) and 3.1 channels of multi sound"This work represents audiovisual expression by reconstructing the factual landscape that was originally recorded in the Middle East and South Asia by Belgian war reporter Daniel Demoustier. With Ground I do not intend to guide the viewer even if I refer to those materials. In fact I seek to purposely abstract the meanings."[Sedition Interview with Ryoichi Kurokawa- details below]
rheo: 5 horizons
(2010) An audiovisual installation using 5 plasma HD displays (5 channels of video) and 5 channels of multi sound"This installation is composed of five flat-panel-displays with five multi-channel speakers whereby the images are paired with a mono-channel sound, as each video is synchronised to a particular audio. By synthesising the individual images, the sound cognition can be enhanced accordingly – in order for the behaviour of the resulting imagery to reveal its own sound source position, sonic direction and drive. As the work provides the space to rediscover the sonic movement, position, and the relation between ego and sound. These resonances have an impact on sensory perception in order for it to develop a similar synesthetic experience. The sounds also add width and depth via an integration of auditory and visual sensations, and it continuously builds spatial audiovisual construction which offers a renewed recognition of space."[Sedition Interview with Ryoichi Kurokawa- details below]
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rheo: 5 horizons |
oscillating continuum
(2013) Audiovisual sculpture using 2 HD square displays (2 channels of video) and 2 channels of soundhttp://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/oc.html
"It is an audiovisual sculpture presented as a dual white structure, consisting of two displays on a parallelogram base, each of which contains a speaker. These two structures would not stand up straight if it were not for them keeping each other balanced through a coupling plane. The two displays are opposite to one another but on the same axis. Intrinsically, every force and all matter in our universe oscillates continuously, and we maintain equilibrium by being bias and acting with feeling. The drama occurs when all stability breaks down, where upon the higher the instability is, the more it has the possibility for greater energy. As the structure of this work micro and macroscopically exhibits these laws, and the audiovisual components inside the structure states the disorder to order. And fundamentally two different images, communal in form, with complementary and opposing elements balance the duality of the periodic flow." [Sedition Interview with Ryoichi Kurokawa- details below]
unfold
(2016) Audiovisual installation using 3 HD projection (3 channels of video) and 6.1 surround sound and a tactile transducer) |
| Ryoichi Kurokawa - unfold |
Ryoichi Kurokawa - Vimeo
rhea: 5 horizons
rheo: 5 horizons from RYOICHI KUROKAWA on Vimeo.
unfold
unfold from RYOICHI KUROKAWA on Vimeo.
Further Information
Sedition Interview: Ryoichi provides more information about the works above in an interview he conducted for Sedition and they have been quoted above underneath the relevant work. Text by Rajesh Puni. The interview can be read at the following link:Sedition - Interview with Ryoichi Kurosawa: Synaesthetic Experience.
Creator's Project Interview [VIDEO]:
[Video] Synesthetic Sensory Stimulation With Ryoichi Kurokawa, Zach Sokol — Nov 26 2013
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/video-sensory-overload-with
Direct link to video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XAK248_apY
Websites
http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project.html
http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/ground.html
http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/5horizons.html
http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/oc.html
http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/unfold.html
https://vimeo.com/ryoichikurokawa/videos