Ryoji Ikeda's DATA.TRON Exhibit Opens Today at Pittsburgh's Wood Street Galleries

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has announced an innovative new exhibit opening at Wood Street Galleries as a part of the today's July 12th Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District. Ryoji Ikeda's data.tron is part of the datamatics project, which is a series of experiments that explore such questions, physically and mathematically. Visitors will experience the vast universe of data in the infinite between 0 and 1. data.tron is an audiovisual installation, where each single pixel of visual image is strictly calculated by mathematical principle, composed from a combination of pure mathematics and the vast sea of data present in the world. These images are projected onto a large screen, heightening and intensifying the viewer's perception and total immersion within the work.

The exhibit will be open to the public today, July 12 through September 8, 2013. Tonight, July 12 at 10:00 p.m., Ryoji Ikeda will perform a live set of "test pattern" at the Cultural Trust Arts Education Center, Pierce Studio located at 805-807 Liberty Avenue. Tickets are $10 (standing) or $15 (seating). For ticket information, visit: www.TrustArts.org or call (412) 456-6666.

Japan's leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. "The purest beauty is the world of mathematics," noted the artist. (Dazeddigital.com, 2008, Paris, France) Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations. "To me, beauty is crystal; rationality, precision, simplicity, elegance, delicacy. The sublime is infinity, infinitesimal, immensity, indescribable, ineffable." Ikeda has written. (Dazeddigital.com review of data.tron 2008, Paris, France)

For more information about the artist visit, www.ryojiikeda.com.

Wood Street Galleries Hours: Wed. & Thur. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public. For more information, visit: www.TrustArts.org.

Wood Street Galleries is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Support for Wood Street Galleries has been provided by the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Additional support provided by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh's most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country's largest land masses "curated" by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh's quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Cultural Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.