collaboration; Atsuhiro Ito

Colavo > collaboration > Atsuhiro Ito

Atsuhiro Ito was born in 1965. In the late '80s he began creating visual art works, and in '98 started putting on sound performances in contexts such as art exhibitions. He made use of the fluorescent lighting that is an element of his art work to create a new musical device he called the optron. Adding more and more innovations to the optron, he continues to approach sound and music from the perspective of contemporary art. Currently, he produces sound/music/imagery and live performance events at the gallery/free space Off Site in Yoyogi, Tokyo.
http://www.japanimprov.com/aito/index.html

"opt-01-03-2002" 2002 40w fluorescent tubes, cables

Installation at Mori Art Museum 2004

"OPTRON "
At first glance the OPTRON appears to be alighting system comprising 3 ordinary fluorescent tubes like those which can be seen in most Japanese homes and offices. However, a pick up microphone as used in the electric guitar has been fitted into each of the tubes. When the voltage applied to the tubes is altered, the lights flicker ,and the microphones pick up electromagnetic noise perfectly stnchronized with the flickering light,amplifying it through a musical instrument amplifier or PA system.The delicate flickering that is generated together with the intense noise creates a visual hallucination in which the observer sees supposedly non-existent colors and patterns. What ITO is attempting can probably be described as the expansion of[phenomenon]. His primary concern is to realize the potential,visually and aurally, of phenomena caused by electrical appliances in our everyday lives, such as the fluorescent tube. Through this, ITO is attempting to create a new way of looking at this world. And when he does this, ITO abandons the privilege of the artist by attempting to reveal the phenomenon as what it is, with the least manipulation.