In 2022 you presented a series of works that create immersive experiences through multimedia technologies, can you tell us how the design of this body of installations came about?
I have been creating immersive works in various forms over the past two decades, not just last year. Regarding the spatial design of installations, I assemble it along with the rough ideas of the concept, sound, and light in the plotting stage. Therefore, it is created before specific time-based content such as visual and auditory media. When designing installations, I basically consider the most visually effective design for the viewers, including the content of visual media, such as when I want to show the visual details or want to make it more dynamic and effective as light. Simultaneously, the technical aspect becomes equally crucial. I often work alongside technical riders, taking into account considerations such as equipment combinations and architectural feasibility. In this way, considering both artistic elements and technical aspects, I optimize and develop the design of the installation.
In your work you tend to explore the various possibilities and combinations offered by audiovisual forms, juxtaposing sound with moving images, where does your interest in this synesthetic research come from? What do you investigate through this sensory interchange?
When I initially immersed myself in the realm of audiovisual art, the notion of synesthesia was unfamiliar to me. It was not until others began to characterize my work in such terms that my inquisitiveness was piqued, and I began to explore this captivating phenomenon. Approximately twenty years ago, I delved into synesthesia by reading works from the likes of Richard E. Cytowic. Since then, I have incorporated it into my creative concept and made it one of my primary focal points. Although I myself am not synesthete, I employ this function in my artwork to offer a synthetic experience to viewers with multisensory faculties such as visual, auditory, and tactile. Through such sensory experiences, what I would like to offer to the viewers is not so much a specific message, but rather the ability to inspire them.
Your works consist of audio-visual sculptures with a high visual and sensory impact, it is possible to detect various references to natural elements in your art; and recently you talked about how your aesthetic is slightly influenced by Japanese culture and the aesthetics of ‘intervals’. Can you tell me more about the cultural contaminations that most influence your vision?
That’s right, nature; the physical phenomena and the laws of nature, is one of the main motifs of my artwork, and capturing nature and distorting it to reconstruct it again is one of the pillars of my creative process. Therefore, morphed and reconstructed natural components can be seen in many of my artworks. I obviously have peculiar Japanese conception and attitude as everyone who has own national cultural influence as part of identity. For my creation, I don’t intend to incorporate it consciously into my artworks but it definitely affects my view. About ‘interval’ that I’ve mentioned is the Japanese word ‘ma’. It is equivalent to ‘negative space’. In Japan, this term refers to the area between objects in the context of the space, and in the context of time it’s the period between events. This concept is a very important element for me in constructing space and time, but I’m not deliberately trying to incorporate Japanese characteristics into it. I think it’s an unconscious thinking process that is working. It’s not a special thing, and I believe that people from any cultural background have their own philosophical and aesthetic sense, and this is one case of them.