Test Pattern

Test-pattern is a project by Ryōji Ikeda, a composer and media artist from Japan, who has formed a repetitive discourse on the translation of digital signal sources into receptive formats. In order to attain this he makes use of a variety of sources, namely photographs, sound, video, and text, which are then compressed into monochrome black-and-white patterns in a real time process and furthermore combined with a powerful sound composition. These processes are of a bidirectional nature. Due to the physical approach to borders that can both be portrayed and heard their appearance reminds of technical processes used for the evaluation of acoustic as well as image parameters.

The acoustic impulses hit the ear at breath-taking speed and unite with the correlating patterns, which remind of energetically highly compressed barcodes. This complete irritation as a whole produces an audio-visual surrounding seemingly impossible to escape from. Carried out with serial perfection, the intensity of the space thus created appears to produce its very own temporality and dimension wherein everything seems to oscillate and vibrate as it envelops the body in all its physical existence as a contrasting element within a complex reality of space, light and sound.

Ikeda has been working on an audio-visual bridging of binary processing strategies of computer-based data streams and information technologies since 2006 and has presented his work in a variety of formats since 2008 prior to showing the large-format installation test-pattern no. 12 in London in 2017.

In addition, the audio format test-pattern (R-NO93) can be found on the Raster-Noton label's website, offering a pure acoustic experience.