AVnight 1: Ryoichi Kurokawa

nD is a diptych audiovisual performance piece and the third version of the audiovisual project “cm:av_c,” which has been developed over many years. In this piece, the phenomena of sound and vision, the modes of abstraction and concreteness, and the qualities of meaningfulness and meaninglessness are embodied in the continuous fluctuation between duality and non-duality. The diptych is not arranged solely to present opposition or difference, but rather as a site in which our perception oscillates between separation and inseparability. By treating and fusing sound and image at an abstract level, it creates an intense audiovisual experience that simultaneously stimulates sight and hearing. This pure audiovisual expression, stripped of meaning, liberates the audience from the constraints of interpretation, guiding them toward a more direct and sensory experience.

This project, “cm:av_c,” a long-standing pursuit since the early stages of Kurokawa’s career, strongly reflects his unique and iconic artistic language. The first version, “cm:av_c,” premiered in 2005 and has since been presented worldwide, including at Tate Modern (UK), Ars Electronica (AT), and MUTEK (CA). In 2011, the second version, “syn_ [ cm:av_c 2 ],” was released and performed in over 20 countries over several years. “nD [ cm:av_c 3 ]” is the third version, representing a further evolution of this project.

The presentation of nD [ cm:av_c 3 ] will mark the Polish premiere of this latest iteration of the project.

The project is being presented in collaboration with the Goethe Institut in Krakow.

In a world of constant connectivity, time becomes a resource to be filled with information, while human life is increasingly treated as raw material for the digital economy. Every gesture, choice, and movement can be recorded, converted into data, and used to predict and shape future behaviour.

The work reflects on the logic of surveillance capitalism, in which technologies do not merely observe users, but influence their decisions through suggestions, stimuli, and rewards. The individual becomes part of a system whose responses can be analysed, anticipated, and programmed.

The performance translates this logic into three simple rules: every impulse produces an immediate consequence, movement is the only way forward, and the past shapes the future. What emerges is a simulation of a world driven by a continuous flow of data, where the boundary between autonomous choice and behaviour prompted by the system becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish. The work asks how much agency remains when reality itself is constantly learning to anticipate our next move.