# The Swarm by Yoshi Sodeoka

Source: https://verse.works/exhibitions/the-swarm
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/The-Swarm-by-Yoshi-Sodeoka?index=0x66c4e577453f2f60f8848189d55bb1a3150c07c09c967cc01c6b85a3139e47d9c906c91d
Submitted by misha on 2024-08-20 UTC, 1 upvote, 0 comments

## Summary

Yoshi Sodeoka's exhibition *The Swarm*, presented by SOLOS in London on 30 August 2024, is his second show on Verse after *The Flood* in 2023, and it combines digital media to explore natural systems while blurring reality and artifice. The exhibition comprises two series, *The Swarm: r = 0* with 16 generative video works and *1.618* with 18 video works, and the structure reflects the golden ratio. The generative works run on 15-second loops segmented into 0.5-second intervals, and the use of green screens and "media offline" messages invites viewers to question the authenticity of their perceptions.

## Article

Exhibition

Yoshi SodeokaThe Swarm

Presented by

SOLOS

Event Friday 30th Aug, 2024 12 Mackintosh Lane E9 6AB London RSVP here

SOLOS is pleased to present The Swarm by Yoshi Sodeoka, an artist embracing not only the technologies and ways of understanding and exploring reality in the digital age, but also its erosion of traditional cultural stratification.

The Swarm is his second exhibition on Verse, following The Flood in 2023. Both exhibitions illustrate Sodeoka’s expansive practice which incorporates a wide blend of modern media, mirroring the contemporary cultural landscape and its flattened topography.

His work, characterised by a deep engagement with technology and a blurring of disciplines, invites us to reconsider the ways in which we construct and engage with reality in a world increasingly mediated by digital processes.

The Swarm builds upon Sodeoka’s fascination with natural systems. The works are multi-layered, constructed using a variety of digital media and techniques. Particle systems, AI image generation, and vector graphics foreground the production process and digital nature of the works through the use of green screen and ‘media offline’ messages.

Sodeoka plays with an inherent tension that arises from constructing synthetic realities to explore natural phenomena. This tension between the organic and the artificial not only reflects the complexities of our relationship with technology but also challenges us to reconsider the boundaries between reality and the artificial. Compared to some of his more abstract work, The Swarm offers imagery that lies closer to real-world environments, yet is imbued with a dream-like, almost dystopian hue. Through the incorporation of these AI-generated landscapes, figurative elements, and intricate vector overlays, Sodeoka constructs a complex visual experience that underscores the interconnected relationship between the natural and digital worlds.

‘I’m just making these for myself to imagine how the universe may be built around us.’

The Swarm presents two series: The Swarm: r = 0, consisting of 16 generative video works, and 1.618, which comprises 18 uniquely-crafted video works. This structure reflects the golden ratio (1.618), a mathematical expression that resonates with natural harmony. This reflection draws a direct line between the fundamental principles that govern both the organic and the digital. The generative works operate on 15-second loops, segmented into 0.5-second intervals to inject rhythm into each piece, drawing on Sodeoka’s background in sound engineering and musical production, as well as the omnipresent rhythms and cycles found in nature. Sodeoka’s fascination with patterns and symmetries is visible not only in the fluid motion of the birds, but also in the intricate vector overlays that punctuate the works. His work becomes a bridge, connecting the complexities of the natural world with the mathematical intricacies of the digital one.

While The Swarm primarily delves into the complexities of natural systems, it’s also reflective of the contemporary landscape. In a world where technology infiltrates every aspect of life, Sodeoka’s use of green screens, media offline messages, and other visual signifiers invites us to question the authenticity and stability of our perceptions. The vector overlays, which initially suggest a scientific order, are revealed to be purely aesthetic—further emphasising the uncertain nature of reality.

‘Some people seem to think those animations are from real footage, I wanted to show that these are not real. ’

The Swarm navigates the boundaries between the organic and the digital, between reality and imagination, asking viewers to engage with a world where understanding is increasingly blurred. In this sense, the work does not just reflect the digital age; it invites us to deeply examine the ways in which our experience of the world is mediated by the very technologies that are also able to create, distort, and obscure it, leaving us to navigate a reality that’s perpetually in flux.