Through the Eyes of Ryota Matsumoto | Art by Nature Number 4 2016

THROUGH THE EYES OF RYOTA MATSUMOTO
I was born in Tokyo and had spent most of my childhood and the better part of my 20's in Hong Kong, the United States and Britain. My experience of living and studying abroad at an early age has certainly fostered my creativity and helps me to approach things from multiple angles.
< Artwork: "Transient Field in the Air and Sketches. The story: The whirlpool of chaos at the primordial stage of self-organization of bioorganic entities.
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"I COULD SAY BOTH PATHWAYS MERGED NATURALLY FOR ME." My interest in technology, science, sociology and art initially led me to take up architecture as my profession. While I practice as a designer, I always paint whenever time allows. In my view, both fields have certain similarities in terms of creative outlets and complement each other well as far as visual communication methods are concerned. Suffice to say that art and architecture share a lot in common in terms of engaging with forms, structures and color. So I could say both pathways merged naturally for me ever since I graduated from the college. ^ Artwork: "Imaginary Echo Chamber" and Sketch ^ Ink and graphite sketches as springboards for initial inspiration ART BY NATURE

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T What is the the process behind your paintings? R My blended background in architecture and visual art led me to explore a hybrid approach in drawings whereby I combine and merge the traditional media and digital media in the working process. The various constituent methods of architectural, graphic and mixed media conventions are synthesized seamlessly in this approach. The method involves base images that are composed by 3D modelling software incorporating generative and recursive procedures. Then they are overlaid with traditional media such as acrylic, ink and graphite, as well as scanned images of found objects. These are further processed and looped ART BY NATURE

THROUGH THE EYES "THE HYBRID TECHNIQUE ALLOWS FOR A CERTAIN DEGREE OF UNPREDICTABILITY OF VISUAL DYNAMICS." through a series of arithmetic and stochastic operations by image editing programs and plugins. The hybrid technique allows for a certain degree of unpredictability of visual dynamics. Furthermore, painterly, organic sentiments reveal themselves amidst the otherwise detached precision of digital drawings. By employing this specific approach, the degrees of depth, spatial dimensionality and scalability vary, distort and warp the finer details and the overall composition. The drawings are effectively liberated from the restrictive traditions of the Cartesian coordinate system. The application of this working process allows the work to bridge the gap between analog and digital media as well as between two- and multi-dimensional domains. My compositional technique imbues the work with the very essence of post- digital constructs beyond the conventional protocol of architectural and artistic formalities. ^ Artwork: "the Indistinct Notion of an Object Trajectory" and Sketches. The story: The stacks of biologically enhanced urban farm towers embedded with multi-functional components. ART BY NATURE

THROUGH THE EYES OF T How do you connect with nature if you have such a technical process? Is this when you come up with the basis for your design? And in what way? R My work speculates about the morphological transformations of ever-evolving urban and ecological milieus that are influenced by the eco-political reality of the Anthropocene epoch, emerging technologies of genetic modification, the advancement of biomaterial technologies, a socially "...I ALWAYS FIND THE WAY TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS BETWEEN FIELDS..." constructed value system and rapid environmental transformation accelerated by the interplay of socio-economic activities and technological innovations. They are notable agendas emerging from current critiques of the relationship between humans and nature. Moreover, most of my technical aspects of work are based on generative dynamical and agent-based systems that simulate organic behavior and spontaneous irregularities. They are elements immanent in nature. T Does your Japanese heritage play a roll in your inspiration and style? Were you creative as a child? R I never have chance to settle down in one place for more than five years and live a life of constant travel since my childhood. So I am inspired and influenced by people from different cultural backgrounds rather than from a particular cultural heritage. T Why did you live abroad and in what way did living and studying abroad at an early age foster your creativity and in what angles? R As I mentioned earlier, the experience expands my perceptions of creative industries in general. It seems to me the ^The generative templates as integral basis for final works ART BY NATURE

> Artwork: "Field Scope Observations in Post Landing" The story: The biomorphic cellular units begin to merge into each other to form habitable urban agglomerations. Each unit is the composite of semiorganic, biomimetic structures made of eco-based biomaterials. boundaries between art and design disciplines are no longer of any significance and they tend to blur more often than not. As a designer, we tend to work as a bridging point among various disciplines. From our formative years, we are trained to pick things up quickly from different fields and apply them to address various architectural agendas. In that respect, interdisciplinary thinking comes naturally to me and I always find the way to break down barriers between fields rather than balancing between them to cultivate common ground, even when I am engaged in art or any other related fields. ryotamatsumoto.com ART BY NATURE