Oscillating Continuum

Audiovisual sculpture / 2ch square display, 2ch sound, 2013, duration: 08:00 loop, dimensions: 924 x 800 x 422 mm

Like physical light, Ryoichi Kurokawa’s works are a phenomenon that can hardly be fully defined within a category.

Both are too complex and different in their attributes and characteristics, than to be understood from only one view, or be summarized in only one interpretation.

The recipient finds a possible interpretation strategy in the definitional structure of modern quantum physics, whose laws largely elude direct human intuition, and whose empirical success nevertheless counts among the best-secured human knowledge. This defines, with the wave-particle dualism, a fundamental realization of the modern world, according to which objects are assigned the same properties of classical waves, as well as those of classical particles. Thus it is that the most accurate description of a thing often arises from different perspectives from which the divergent features in different form become perceptible.

A light quantum can not be assigned to a defined location, but a residence probability, which can be more specifically described by a probability wave. Based on the methodology of quantum physics, the content of Oscillating Continuum defines itself as a particular aspect of the individual and as an interaction of it in its entirety.

Interference takes place in the totality as well as in the singularity of the individual. Both properties seem mutually exclusive and yet are equally proven. The specific experience is determined by a discrete stimulation of interpretive possibilities.<br /> From a physical point of view, our world can be described as an instance of oscillating matter waves. From this continuum the properties of different approaches can be combined into a holistic understanding.

With Oscillating Continuum, Kurokawa presents an audiovisual sculpture, shaped as a white double structure embedded in a monolithic aluminum block and representing the principle of oscillation and dualism in detail. A futuristic container made of two tilted polygons, houses two square HD displays. in its surface and maintains its presence in space. The number ‚two‘ is one of the fundamental threads found throughout the structure of the work. Inside each of the two cubes, a single loudspeaker is installed, whose respective mono signal fuses in the showroom into a stereo signal.

A slightly spatial and signal-side shift of the individual signal forms an additional acoustically three-dimensional space, which overlaps with the architectural sense of space. Both signal sources – despite their temporary synchronous activity -, remain independent addressees of their respective signal instance. The two is physical structures are connected with their geometric arrangement in a collective central body, which constitutes the bilateral statics. Independently of each other, the two parts could not assume their present position, as their specific form provokes an imbalance.

In solidarity, two contrary elements create a successive balance, which is also reflected in the visual-active part of the installation. Two screens embedded in the surface of the two polygons show synchronously generating textures whose elements are related to each other. The textures oscillate between synchronicity and chaos and form a dynamic sensory overload from the alternation of stability and instability.

The highest energy density is formed where stability collapses; the more intense the contrast between balance and impermanence, the more the viewer’s consciousness is focused on the point of intersection and the transcendental intermediate plane.

Kurokawa expands this ephemeral point of highest resonance with pulsating sounds into an oscillating surface, on this vibrating level the viewer is detached from the spatial and temporal relation and surrounded by the visual stimuli.