There are a ton of art exhibits in Tokyo. I mean seriously a ton. Maybe there are in LA too but my impression is there are alot more in Tokyo. Several magazines list the new exhibits and today I checked out one that sounded interesting.

It's called R111 by Michael Saup + supreme particles. It was labeled as a multi−media exhibit and as I have nothing better to do I thought I'd take a look today after school.

It's in a two story around room. On one side is a tall, maybe 10 foot high projection screen with a particle system running. There's a PC on a stand with a touch LCD screen with grid of squares running blue static and you can drag an "energy source" around the grid which some out effects the "energy" of the exhibit.

In the middle of the room is a 10 by 10 foot platform with computer image being projected on it. The platform is pressure sensitive and as you walk on it the image ripples where you walked.

Opposite the big screen is a smaller screen, maybe 5x5 feet and infront of that is a dish of liquid connected to 4 speakers that is sitting on an overhead projector aimed at the screen so that as the speakers vibrate the liquid the patterns in the liquid appear on the screen.

Also, there are 4 pyramid shaped speakers around the room that are effected by people's position on the center platform. Most of the sounds are very ambient and low and vibrate the room.

One other part of the exhibit is a maybe 3x3 foot plane with ballbarings poured over it and underneath are computer controlled magnets slowly moving them around.

It wasn't the coolest thing I've ever seen but it was pretty neat for 10 or 20 minutes to see, hear and experience.

You can check it out here as well as photos here and even live video here though of course it's on Tokyo time 11am to 8pm which is like 7pm to 4am PST.

One thing that I'm really curious about though is how does this stuff get made? How did somebody get the money for all that equipment and the room etc. That room is in Omotesando which is one of the most expensive places in Tokyo. It seems like it would be really fun to contribute to something like that or maybe even to do it. Kind of like making some of the small things you'd see at a rave but that particular exhibit easily cost $50k to $100k in equipment alone. That doesn't include labor, rent of the place that designed/built it, paying people to move it and set it up etc and of course the cost of the space itself. There were at least 3 people on staff to answer questions and the exhibit is free.

It runs until 6/17/2001 which is only another couple of weeks. I'm curious what will be up next.