Tatsuo Miyajima
VAULT considers one of the greatest explorers of art and technology, the inimitable Tatsuo Miyajima.
Image credit: Tatsuo Miyajima, Region no 126701 - 127000 (detail), 1991, 300 units of light-emitting diodes mounted onto aluminium panels, interconnected circuitry, 30 power supply units, black painted wall, duration: continuous, 190 x 1200 cm overall, Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1995. Photo: © Art Gallery of New South Wales. © Tatsuo Miyajima
In a darkened room, 300 LED panels are counting something. Some galloping, some meandering, each one flickers from one to 99 before blinking back to one again, all progress wiped from their digital memories. Out of order and out of sync, the red and green lights orbit around one another from their fixed places on the wall. Count, loop, count again.
Tatsuo Miyajima’s Region no 126701 - 127000 (1991) is a milestone in automated artmaking. In the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGSA), the work documents the technological advancements that are continuously transforming artistic boundaries. It’s just one example of a suite of kinetic sculptures that has catapulted Miyajima into international acclaim. Through immersive installations, the artist plunges the viewer into environments that hint at an oncoming future in which the digital and the organic become indistinguishable from one another.
Region is a rare kind of artwork, one that remains stubbornly relevant as time passes. Exhibited as recently as 2017, the work is a testament to the enduring fascination surrounding technological interventions within the realm of artmaking. We see this now more than ever: in the empathetic virality of Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s Can’t Help Myself (2016–19), in the emergence of 3D-printed ceramics and, perhaps most significantly, in the increasing popularity and accessibility of generative AI software. While AI has only recently come to the fore in art making (Tatsuo began introducing AI software into his work in 2014), unlike other automated processes, it marks a shift in the ... Subscribe to read this article in full
