Binary as an Art Material by Kenji Kojima

The Effect Cataracts on Late Years Claude Monet
3 minutes Digest

Click on Image: Open YouTube

The project interpreted paintings of the late years of Claude Monet who was affected by Cataracts as piano music by binary data. The artwork is 3 minutes digest. The artist Kojima analyzed the image data of 8 paintings on a 12-tone scale. You may find common elements between the paintings. Kojima developed a computer application that converted color data into musical notes. He tried to evaluate the musical sounds of binary visual data of images, not intuition music. His algorithm exchanged visual data to a different output format of music.

Kenji Kojima / 小島健治
Show: Biography (English & 日本語) & Artist Statement

Hide: Kenji Kojima's Biography & Artist Statement
Kenji Kojima's Biography
I have been experimenting with the relationships between perception and cognition, technology, music and visual art since the early ’90s. I was born in Japan and moved to New York in 1980. I painted egg tempera paintings that were medieval art materials and techniques for the first 10 years in New York City. My paintings were collected by Citibank, Hess Oil, and others. A personal computer was improved rapidly during the '80s. I felt more comfortable with computer art than paintings. I switched my artwork to digital in the early '90s. My early digital works were archived in the New Museum - Rhizome, New York. I developed computer software "RGB MusicLab" in 2007 and created an interdisciplinary work exploring the relationship between images and music. I programmed the software “Luce” for the project “Techno Synesthesia” in 2014. My digital art series "Techno Synesthesia" has been exhibited in New York, at media art festivals worldwide, including Europe, Brazil, Asia (except for Japan), and the online exhibitions by ACM SIGGRAPH and FILE, etc. Anti-nuclear artwork “Composition FUKUSHIMA 2011” was collected in CTF Collective Trauma Film Collections / ArtvideoKoeln in 2015. LiveCode programmer. Kenji Kojima Resume

小島健治　略歴
日本生まれ。コンピューターを使用した、知覚・認識・時間の関連を探求するアートをニューヨーク市で続けています。ニューヨークに住み始めた1980年からほぼ10年間は、ビザンチンから初期ルネッサンスの技法エッグ・テンペラで現代絵画を描き、シティバンク、ヘス石油等のコレクションになりました。その頃コンピュータは急速な発展を遂げ、90年代始めからデジタルにアートの可能性をより感じてスイッチしました。20世紀の主なデジタル作品は、ニューヨーク市ニューミュージアム（Rhizome）にアーカイブとして保存されています。2007年コンピュータ・アプリケーション「RGB MusicLab」を開発。RGBミュージックは、画像のカラーデータをアルゴリズムで音楽に変換するプロジェクトです。これは感覚から作られたビジュアル・ミュージックではなく、コンピュータを使った確実なデータに基づいて、視覚と聴覚の境界を越えるテクノロジーで共感覚を探求するアートです。2014年にプロジェクト・タイトルを「Techno Synesthesia（テクノ共感覚）」と改め、ビデオの時間軸からの音楽変換を始めました。RGBミュージック＆テクノ共感覚シリーズは、ニューヨーク市の個展、世界各地のメディア・フェスティバル（ヨーロッパ・ブラジル・中東・日本以外のアジア）、オンライン・エキジビション（ACMシーグラフ2015：米国コンピュータ学会CG部会）、FILE：電子言語国際フェスティバル）等で展示されました。福島原発事故の報道写真を音楽に変換して時間軸に並べビデオに編集した「コンポジション福島2011（日本未公開）」は、世界各地のメディア・フェス等で公開され、アートビデオ・ケルンのトラウマフィルム・コレクションに保存されています。アート・プロジェクトを開発しているプログラミング言語 LiveCodeの「初心者開発入門 (日本語)」を執筆。最新プロジェクト「古典絵画から音楽」。

Artist Statement
I have been thinking the sense of visual and audio has strong connections. Some people believe a painter Wassily Kandinsky was a synesthesia artist. But I have a suspicion whether he had synesthesia abilities or not. Artistic intuition is important, but the ability of synesthesia is too uncertain. In spite of that, I thought the sense of vision and the sense of hearing might have common areas. A composer Alexander Scriabin tried another way. He composed symphony "Prometheus: Poem of Fire" in 1910. He imagined a symphony of sound combined with a symphony of light. He made his system that was the 12 color circle. The top of the color circle was Red and C. Each color was assigned to 12 keys. The idea was based on Isac Newton's color wheel. He wrote the light (luce) part of the score by musical notations in the symphony. But his vision did not realize the technological limits of his own time. 100 years later, the performance of his work was realized by recent technologies. Composer Scriabin explored the common information of visual and auditory with the art of different expressions.
I was more interested in Scriabin's method than using intuition for synesthesia art. We can use computer technology in the 21st century. I developed an algorithmic composition program "RGB MusicLab" in 2007 that converted computer color data to 12 tone notes. The color value 120 is the middle C on a musical scale. Also, I found binary is a new art material. The current project "Techno Synesthesia" is based on RGB Music technology.
A cyborg is a radical evolution of physical extension that uses science and technology in the 21st-century. We have evolved extremely slow to recognize the surrounding environment by sensory organs such as visual, auditory, tactile, and others, and realized them as reality. However, we have not known how we perceived our environment and boundaries of sensory information, and how we handled them and chose our actions. What was the difference between human beings and deep-sea creatures have evolved distinguishing information from the outside world? The project "Techno Synesthesia" inherits the predecessors and experiments the fusion and compatibility of multiple sensory organs by computer technology.
Hide: Kenji Kojima's Biography & Artist Statement

"Stop, Caution, Walk" by Kenji Kojima
Egg Tempera, Gold Leaf on Panel. 10x10" Triptych, 1980
I started my artist career in 1980 as a contemporary egg tempera artist.
A personal computer was improved rapidly during the '80s.
I felt digital art was more comfortable and clean.
I switched my artwork to digital in the early '90s.
Now I am interested in how we perceive the outside world
more than constructing physical art.

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Participation in Art Festival 2022

45th AAIFF, New York on August 3 - 13, 2022
Asian American International Film Festival 2022

The Great Wave / Red Fuji / Choju Jinbutsu Giga

São Paulo, Brazil on July 13 - August 28, 2022
FILE 2022 (Electronic Language International Festival)

Withering Tulips: Mystic Chord / Whole Tone Scale / Twelev Tone Scale

Traverse, France on April 6 - 30, 2022
XXVe Rencontres Internationales Traverse

The angel Gabriel is about to tell

Mar. 2022
Gandhi Spinning
The Original Film "Gandhi Spinning" is Public Domain

Duration 01:30

Jun. 2020
Gandhi Walks
Music interpretation by Binary

Duration 05:00

"Create Music from a Classic Painting"
Project: Started in 2021

The project interprets classical paintings in binary. Kenji Kojima had refrained from going out to shoot a video since the corona pandemic. He recalled that could use free painting images. It was a good opportunity to reflect on the digital world to the long art history. Kojima pursues an interpretation of the descriptive method that does not depend on language from visual data. The algorithm reads the color data of paintings in binary and converted them into musical notes, and the notes are played by MIDI piano.

July 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
Albrecht Dürer Self-Portrait with Fur-Trimmed Robe

Duration: 3:13

May 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
Madonna Enthroned
Cimabue & Giotto
voice: Alice

Duration: 5:12

May 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
7 Portraits by Paul Cézanne
What Madame Cézanne was thinking.
Three Minutes Digest

Digest Duration: 3:00

What Madame Cézanne was thinking. Full Edition 14:15
1) Portrait of Madame Cézanne 1885-1887
2) Madame Cézanne in a Red Dress 1885-1887
3) Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Armchair 1888-1890
4) Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair 1888-1890
5) Portrait of Madame Cézanne 1890
6) Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory 1891
7) Madame Cézanne with Green Hat 1891

Apr. 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
Vincent van Gogh's Seven Self-Portraits
What made Van Gogh cut off his Ear. 1887-1889
Three Minutes Digest

Digest Duration: 3:00

Seven Self-Portraits 21:00 / Three Self-Portraits 10:00
1) Self-Portrait / Spring 1887 /
2) Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat / Winter 1887-88 / 1)
3) Self-Portrait as an Artist / Early 1888 /
4) Self-Portrait (dedicated to Paul Gauguin) / September 1888 / 2)
5) Self-Portrait / 1889 /
6) Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear / January 1889 / 3)
7) Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe / January 1889 /

Apr. 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
The Effect of Cataracts on Late Years Claude Monet.
8 Paintings 1916 - 1925

3 Minutes Digest / Duration 03:00

Eight Paintings 24:15 / Four Paintings 10:00
1) Water Lilies, Willow Reflections 1916-19
2) Water-Lily Pond and Weeping Willow 1916
3) The House among the Roses 1917-19
4) Weeping Willow 1918
5) Weeping Willow 1918
6) The Japanese Footbridge 1920-22
7) The Rose-Way in Giverny before 1922
8) Wisteria circa 1925

Mar. 2022
The Music Interpretation of Painting by Binary
It compiled 12 videos of this project in 50 minutes.

Duration 50:00

1) The Happy Accidents of the Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
2) The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834
by Joseph Mallord William Turner
3) Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants by Paul Cézanne
4) Original Wood Block Painting by Katsushika Hokusai
5) Original Wood Block Painting by Katsushika Hokusai
6) Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
7) Juan de Pareja by Diego Velázquez
8) the Costume as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion Tilla Durieux by Auguste Renoir
9) Elizabeth Farren by Sir Thomas Lawrence
10) Annunciation Triptych by Workshop of Robert Campin
11) from the Unicorn Tapestries The Unicorn Rests in a Garden
12) View of Toledo by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokooulos)

Mar. 2022
The Red Rock by Paul Cézanne
data reading in French: Audrey
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 02:33

Jan. 2022
Still Life by Paul Cézanne
with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants
with Apples and a Pot of Primroses
data reading in Japanese: Kyoko
data reading in Chinese: Sin-jin
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 07:00

Jan. 2022
The video is constructed with 4 short videos total.
"Robert Campin meets Paul Cézanne"
"Paul Cézanne meets Robert Campin"
"13 language voices"
Leaning Tables
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 13:50
Image: Annunciation Triptych by Workshop of Robert Campin, ca.1427–32
Image: Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants by Paul Cézanne, 1893–94

Dec. 2021
Monk Kuya Passes in Front of Simone Martini
Visible Voices
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 4:35

Feb. 2022
Choju Jinbutsu Giga
鳥獣人物戯画
Music Interpretation by Binary

Animals Bathing and Swimming
Duration 5:20

Dec. 2021
Auguste Renoir meets Sir Thomas Lawrence
Actresses
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 2:55

Dec. 2021
Vincent van Gogh Self-portrait
No Bandaged and Bandaged
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 5:50

First Version, Dec. 2021
Robert Campin meets Paul Cézanne
Leaning Tables
Music Interpretation by Binary

Duration 4:55

Left Image: Annunciation Triptych by Workshop of Robert Campin, ca.1427–32
Right Image: Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants by Paul Cézanne, 1893–94

Painted by Georges Seurat
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Music Interpretation by Binary (1st - 5th movement)
19 minutes full version / 3 minutes Digest

Duration 03:00

5 Self-Portrait Paintings by Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh's Self-Portrait Music Interpretation by Binary
16 minutes full version / 3 minutes Digest

Duration 03:00

Three Cypresses Paintings by Vincent van Gogh
Cypresses Paintings | Vincent van Gogh
Algorithm | Kenji Kojima

Duration 09:00

3 Cypresses Paintings by Vincent van Gogh
Road with Cypress and Star
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Cypresses

Sounds of Strokes, Dots, and Colors
Paintings of Vincent van Gogh
3 minutes Digest
Created music from binary data of the paintings

Full Version: 21:30

Most people tend to talk about the madness of Van Gogh's paintings
but he painted the influence of Pointillism with optical consideration.
The piano music in the video converted the binary data of colors
of strokes and dots collected from Van Gogh's paintings into music.

Original 6 Paintings by Vincent van Gogh.
Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat
First Steps, after Millet
Olive Trees
The Sower
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Cypresses

都市の守護神
Guardian Deities In the City
3 minutes Digest
Original 8 Egg Tempera Paintings by Kenji Kojima. 1981-1984
Created music from binary data of the paintings


Duration 03:00

Create Music from a Classic Painting / Luce 2021
Binary as an art material:
Lascaux Palaeolithic Cave Paintings

Lascaux-IV 10
3 minutes Digest

Duration 03:00

Lascaux-IV 11
3 minutes Digest

Duration 03:00

Create Music from a Classic Painting / Luce 2021
Binary as an art material: Irises at Yatsuhashi
伊勢物語　第九段　八橋
by Ogata Korin
a pair of six-panel folding-screen paintings

Duration 09:30

Create Music from a Classic Painting / Luce 2021
Binary as an art material:
The Great Wave and Red Fuji
from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
by Katsushika Hokusai