Numbers that soothe us

Just as some books are meant to be read only at night, some exhibitions can only be truly experienced at Amos Rex. The expansive spaces of the Helsinki museum provide the perfect backdrop for Ryoji Ikeda’s works – an empty one. In the vast halls, the Japanese artist's visuals resonate fully, enchanting us with the symmetry of contrast.

Our journey through Amos Rex begins with ‘Mass’ and ‘Spin,’ two seemingly simple installations. On the floor, a stroboscopic visualization dominates, oscillating between blinding white and profound black, culminating in bursts of swelling circles. Above us, ‘Spin’ gazes down, a series of interwoven rings slowly spinning in suspension, in the void. The eloquence of this minimalist contrast suddenly creates a wealth of sensations. Through the movement of a few shapes, our senses travel deep into space, to the last flashes of a dying star, only to return to earthly matters and, in the intersecting rings, see hypnotic dancers. This is the power of Ikeda’s simple message, which doesn’t impose conclusions but allows us to get lost in it.

This ability to involuntarily transport the viewer from the macro to the microcosm becomes even more evident in the next hall, split in half by two massive screens. The deep blackness of the surroundings is illuminated by the visuals of ‘data-verse 1’ and ‘data-verse 2,’ which feature megabytes of data from sources like NASA, CERN, and the Human Genome Project. We travel from quantum levels to the corners of galaxies, from proton collision experiments to planetary composition analyses, from DNA sequences to visualizations of movement in metropolises. Each image appears before our eyes accompanied by the sounds of sinusoids, white noise, and shifting frequencies. Sitting before these massive installations, following the overwhelming cascade of information, the viewer shrinks with each passing second. This experience could be overwhelming if it weren’t strangely soothing.

The rhythmic sound repetitions accompanying the artist’s works tell a story of the countless amounts of data flowing around us every day, unnoticed and ignored. The steady beep-beep-beep draws us into a trance, making the world of megabytes not only open up to us but also hypnotize us, stepping out of the background into the center of the room, if only for a moment, to capture our full attention.

In this work of extremes, nestled in the darkness of Amos Rex, blinded by the light of the installations, between simplicity and abundance, we finally begin to notice the hidden information around us. At a time when technology is often seen as an enemy, especially of art, Ikeda’s masterful integration of the two makes data almost a hero in our reality. It offers us certainty, regularity, and clarity amidst the ubiquitous chaos.

With something as obvious as information, Ikeda takes us on a journey – hypnotic and dizzying, yet calming. Beneath everything around us, numbers and a web of connections lie hidden, wrapping around us and giving us the certainty that everything, absolutely everything, can be measured.

Ryoji Ikeda's exhibition was on view at Amos Rex in Helsinki until February 25, 2024.