SHOWWX Powered Art Exhibit: Desire of Codes

Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media: Desire of Codes

Seiko Mikami, new installation "Desire of Codes"
20 March – 6 June 2010
10:00-19:00

From perceiving cells to the coded individual

The desire of encoding vs. the human body's refusal of being coded

Seiko Mikami creates precise depictions of the gradually transforming relationship between information technology and sensory perception in artworks focusing from unique perspectives on the human body and its forms of existence. This retrospective overview of her activities is a large-scale solo exhibition centering around a new installation piece (commissioned by and created at YCAM), shown here along with two related new works.

The new piece titled "Desire of Codes", exhibited at YCAM's Studio A with 3 different pieces. One is consists of a wall installation of objects responding to the movements of audiences, "laser projector" was equipped with 6 robot arms are follow the movement of the audience from the ceiling and special 3.5m screen that resembles an insect's multifaceted eye.

The entire inorganic apparatus begins to move like a wriggling living being according to the motion detected by built-in small surveillance camera in the exhibition space. The images recorded by these cameras are mixed with footage from surveillance cameras installed at places around the world. Create own database of audience's images the resulting fragmentary recombinations of time and space are projected onto a large insect eyes compound screen.

The central theme of this exhibition is the state of a society in which programming languages, genetic codes, personal information, and even matters of individual interest and taste are being converted into codes. Audience who experience this artwork stands face to face with his or her own observed and encoded existence, the resulting data/codes, and ultimately, the repercussions of "the body as data" and "the desire of codes." By turning the audiences bodies into both the objects of observation and artistic expression, this work aims to redefine our position in a time when all kinds of environments - including those of everyday life- are increasingly being information oriented society.