Architecture, Multi-Dimensional Domains & Tracing Paper: An Interview With Ryota Matsumoto
Ryota Matsumoto has seen the world and then some. Growing up between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Japan and studying in the UK, inspired his artistic experiments featuring traditional techniques fused with digital media.
His work is a captivating look into how our societies are changing amid rapid social, economic and cultural shifts - it's truly out of this world!
His work opens a portal to challenge pre-established realities and expectations, giving room for creative expression without external restriction. It provides an environment of liberation that invites exploration beyond traditional architectural and artistic boundaries.
Join us as we uncover the creative process of this remarkable journey!
Ryota Matsumoto. Image courtesy of the artist.SAH: Please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
RM: I started out as a practising architect involved in urban planning and civic building design. That was when I spent several years in Vietnam and China supervising various redevelopment projects that were under construction.
I then had a major career change, working as a video producer and as a consultant for the Japanese railway company.
That was when I worked with Peter Christopherson of Coil and Throbbing Gristle.
After leaving the corporate firm where I was a senior architect, figuring out what I wanted to do took me almost a decade of uncertainty and reflection. Now, I am working as an academic teaching interdisciplinary design and visual arts. But I still dabble with some architectural projects from time to time. My life is certainly coming full circle at this moment in time.
SAH: You studied at such interesting institutions all over the world. Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Studies at the Architectural Association in London, Mackintosh School of Architecture, and Glasgow School of Art, to name a few. How did this international education influence you artistically?
RM: My study in the UK was a pivotal moment in my education. I belong to the last generation working with a T square, tracing paper, and masking tape in-studio classes. A solid foundation in sketching and hand drawing gives you a perspective on how to formulate ideas visually and literally engage in three-dimensional thinking.
During my undergraduate studies there, I also met interesting theorists in the field of sociology and educators working in multidisciplinary fields. I was particularly mesmerized by the hyperreal drawings by Andrew Holmes, who taught at the AA at that time. My graduate study was an opportunity to reformulate my design approach with regard to digital applications.
Ryota Matsumoto. The Celestial Map of Dream Sequences,SAH: What are you working on at the moment?
RM: There are some multidisciplinary projects involving electronic literature, and network culture underway. We live in a great time where we can collaborate with artists online by exchanging files.
This new paradigm brings together like-minded people in the art community, even if we live miles apart from one another.
However, I am also enjoying the unpredictability of not knowing what I will do next in my life.
SAH: How do you go about transforming an idea like that into a finished artwork?
RM: I incorporated the concept of a hybrid object as a primary motif for transforming my ideas into the artwork.
It might be more apt to speak of the process of actualization from the virtual in this regard.
This creative approach is a reinterpretation of multiple reality theories addressed by Gallagher for his psychoanalytical practice.
The hybrid object is interpreted as an assemblage of multiple agencies that transcend the space–time dimensions of reality.
It represents the object-image as the reciprocity of perspectives in regard to intersubjective relationships traversing the human body, nonhuman agents, and urban artefacts. In my work, the individuation process of the hybrid object is employed as the visual abstraction in the perceptions of communities, civilizations, and ecosystems.
Ryota Matsumoto. Recursive Topography of Uncertainty.
Ryota Matsumoto. Still from Cities of Inextricable Velocities.SAH: What kind of impact do you hope that your work has?
RM: I don’t think I’ve achieved anything particularly new if you consider my work with respect to novelty. But I believe that there are several tenets in my art practice that I perhaps share in common with other artists. First, my artworks explore hybrid techniques, combining both traditional and digital media.
Second, my adaptive agent approach allows the work to transcend the boundaries between two- and multi-dimensional domains.
Finally, the transduction process of the intensities as a time-image is transcribed in my artworks as a transversal interface between the necessary actual and the possibilist virtual within a spatiotemporal continuum.
SAH: Where do you get your inspiration from? Is there a particular artist that inspired your practice?
RM: My knowledge of artists is limited, so I don’t know if I actually get inspiration from fine art per se, and I am still learning about the contemporary field now. However, there are architects whom I admire for their meticulously detailed drawings: notably Takis Zenetos, Jan Kaplinsky, Peter Salter, Michael Webb, and visionary collectives from the ’60s.
Also, certain aspects of the work of Constant Nieuwenhuys always inspire me. His project New Babylon has several variations, and it evolves over time. He perceived the project as an ongoing project without any end date in sight and probably never actually completed it, at least as far as I know. His notion of architectural practice as the constant flux of becoming always inspires me.
Ryota Matsumoto. The Reverberant Ambience of Interpretative Codes for an Ancient Artifact.SAH: You are the recipient of many awards; how has this impacted your career?
RM: It hasn’t changed my career or life much, but I am sincerely grateful to people who have begun to recognize my work or have worked with me.
SAH: Do you remember the earliest memory of when you wanted to do what you do today?
RM: I initially studied etching and lithographs before embarking on my architectural education. Therefore, I always wanted to be a visual artist from the get-go. The process of visualizing ideas might evolve over time, but the medium is something I am less concerned about, be it analogue, digital, architectural, or hybrid media.
SAH: What are you watching, listening to, or following that you would recommend?
RM: I usually watch a lot of documentaries, but not many movies. It is hard to pick my favourite one. As for music, I recommend the newly remastered albums of Guy Reibel, Akis Rozmann, and Bernard Parmegiani, as well as the box set of Iannis Xenakis’s electroacoustic music.
Ryota Matsumoto. Imaginary Echo Chamber.SAH: What advice would you give somebody who has just started their artistic career?
RM: I am starting out on my artistic career as well. To be honest, I would rather hear advice from readers, as I am not certain that I am qualified as a professional artist. There is a fascinating quote by John Cale in his autobiography, where he calls Brian Eno an expert amateur. That is what I always dream of being. If anything, my advice would be to defy easy categorization and invent your own career path.
About the artist:
Ryota Matsumoto is an artist, designer and urban planner. Born in Tokyo, he was raised in Hong Kong and Japan. He received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 after his studies at the Architectural Association in London and the Glasgow School of Art in early 90’s.
Matsumoto has previously collaborated with a cofounder of the Metabolist Movement, Kisho Kurokawa, and with Arata Isozaki, Peter Christopherson, and MIT Media Lab. He has taught architecture, art and interdisciplinary design as a lecturer and visiting critic in the United States, Europe and Japan.
More information:
🌐 Artist Website: ryotamatsumotostudio.com
🌐 Ryota Matsumoto on Instagram