International artist-composer Ryoji Ikeda presents his first large-scale solo exhibition in London

As part of a year of site-specific installations at Brewer Street car park in Soho, The Vinyl Factory are premiering a new work by Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda. The work is an intense exploration of the intersections between music and visual art through mathematics, quantum mechanics and logic, drawing on Ikeda’s residency at the world’s largest particle research institute, CERN (Centre For Nuclear Research) in Geneva. CERN is currently testing ‘supersymmetry’, a theoretical mathematical model that helps explain why particles have mass and the basis for Ikeda’s work.

“Our focus is audio-visual art, where sound and vision combine to create a visceral as well as cerebral experience,” explains Vinyl Factory’s creative director, Sean Bidder. “That runs true with all our artistic collaborations - from our vinyl editions, which we strive to make a tangible audio visual experience with an emphasis on pushing unique concepts, artwork and music - to the exhibitions we curate, and one is often an extension of the other.”

As we investigate in our next Observation ‘Museum 2.0’, artists and curators are looking outside the confines of the typical gallery exhibition, instead creating multi-sensory, immersive experiences. Sonic Cinema recently teamed up with Elektra and Mutek, two digital art festivals from Québec, to present a bold and ambitious series of live audiovisual performances, again, at the intersection of music, sound and digital art.

Photography by Jana Chiello