Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FERROFLUID ART
Stephen Nomura
Art History 381
November 18, 2008
SACHIKO KODAMA: FERROFLUID ART
Introduction
Sachiko Kodama is the poster child of ferrofluid art, which uses magnetic liquids as a
sculptural medium. By its self, ferrofluid resembles crude oil - cold, dead, and static. However,
electromagnets are used, the ferrofluid’s behavior is anything but cold and digital.1 The fluid acts
with emotion - sometimes calm and peaceful, other times aggressive and agitated, sometimes
even violent. When the magnet is deactivated, the liquid silently crumbles back into lifelessness.
Kodama’s art is fascinating because it draws ideas and concepts from a wide variety of sources,
the most important of which are the Monoha movement, Expressionism, and Digital Art.
In brief, Kodama’s associations with the Monoha movement are most explicit concerning
her rejection of traditional image and her usage of relationships between everyday objects and
settings. However, Kodama also embraces ideas from the western sphere of art, particularly
Expressionism. This is most evident in her intention to provoke primal emotions and in the
dreamlike installations she creates. The third section will explore Kodama’s similarities with two
contemporary Digital Art trends, interactivity and digital image. The interactive art of Victoria
Vesna and the digital image art of Yoichiro Kawaguchi will be compared with Kodama’s art. In
conclusion, modern technology and the questions her art poses with regard to the crumbling
dichotomy of the living world and the machine world will be explored.
1 Sachiko Kodama, “Dynamic ferrofluid sculpture: organic shape-changing art forms,” Communications of
1
Nomura 2
Monoha
The Monoha movement of the late 60s and 70s was all about viewing the everyday world
as it is, directly and unfiltered.2 Their goal was to reduce the role of the artist and emphasize the
relationships between materials and environment.3 They accomplished this through the
placement of common materials and objects in everyday local settings. Monoha artists
manipulated the relationship between object and environment, both spatial and conceptual; not
the materiality of the objects themselves.4 They rejected the traditional arts, such as painting,
with the argument that only through the simple and mundane could one transcend illusions.5
Furthermore, they believed “the artist should not make things, but merely show them as they
are.”6
Kodama embraces the Monoha idea that image representation is flawed. She operates
under the pretense that ferrofluid more accurately represents reality than images; that materials
and real forms are inherently more powerful than images. She states that “many artists have
created surreal illusions in pictures or moving images. But those were imaginary.”7 The
fundamental difference between representation through image and through ferrofluid, or through
any other physical material, is that ferrofluid can take on three dimensional form and true surface
textures; images only provide two dimensional representations of forms and textures. In terms of
2Thomas R.H. Havens, Radicals and realists in the Japanese nonverbal arts: the avant-garde
rejection of modernism (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), 190.
3 Havens, 189.
4 Havens, 190.
5 Janet Koplos, "Extensions of the Ordinary," Art in America 88, 4 (2000): 141.
6 Havens, 194.
7 Sachiko Kodama and Minako Takeno, “Protrude, Flow,” Ars Electronica Festival Catalog,
Nomura 3
German Expressionism
representations of reality are distorted to provoke an emotional response in the viewer. This can
range from very subtle, such as slightly skewing linear perspective, to very blunt, like using
8Jean M. Ippolito, “From the Avant-Garde: Re-Conceptualizing Cultural Origins in the Digital
Media Art of Japan,” Leonardo 40, no. 2 (2007): 145.
Nomura 4
images of demons, aliens, and other nonexistent creatures. It encompassed many arts, including
painting, literature, and film. The film flavor is generally called German Expressionism.
environments. The vampire is often only seen as a shadow, eerily sliding along surfaces; it’s as if
the shadow itself is the vampire. This distortion is legendary in its ability to provoke anxiety and
e.html
Nomura 5
This feeling is enhanced by the ferrofluid’s alien behavior. Kodama’s ferrofluid is like Murnau’s
However, while Kodama states that her objective is to “stimulate and inspire man's most
primitive emotions,”11 she uses expressionism in a slightly different way. She takes the
expressionist idea a step further by presenting a reality that feels like it shouldn’t exist, but does.
It feels like it should be a distorted representation, like a Hollywood special effect. But it’s not a
special effect; it’s real. Viewers are forced to wrestle with the reality of the ferrofluid, and this is
quite provocative.
Digital Art is a broad term that generally encompasses any and all art whose creation is in
some way connected with digital technology. The invention of computers unlocked many doors
for artists; both new media and new ways to use media are now available. In terms of form,
Digital Art may be a computer file, such as a digital image, or it may resemble non-digital art,
such as a print of a digital image or an image drawn in pen using a robotic arm. However, most
Digital Art seems to fall into one of two flavors, visual or interactive.12
Interactive art, simply put, is art that utilizes audience participation. Unlike television and
radio, which are limited to one-way communication, the internet supports interaction between
viewer and media at literally the speed of light.13 It is a relatively new vein of art and contests the
traditional notion that the viewer should be a passive receptacle for ideas transmitted by the
artist.14 “The traditional museum and gallery etiquette of ‘Look, don’t touch’ cannot be applied
11Sachiko Kodama and Minako Takeno, “Video Description of Project ʻProtrude, Flow,ʼ” http://
www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/protrudeflow/movies/wmv/profloD.wmv
12 Frank Popper, Art of the Electronic Age (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993), 120.
13 Bruce Wands, Art of the Digital Age (London: Thames & Hudson, 2006), 8.
14 Eleanor Heartney, Art & Today (London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2008), 392.
Nomura 6
Kodama’s Waves and Sea Urchins and Vesna’s Nano both allow
audience members to interact with the art through body Fig. 5 Sachiko Kodama, Waves
and Sea Urchins, 2003.
movement. In Waves and Sea Urchins, the ferrofluid’s behavior
instance, a closed fist held above the ferrofluid will not provoke
and move the projected ball images using the shadow of their
body. Kodama’s work may be the more user friendly of the two
In the visual sphere of digital art, Yoichiro Kawaguchi appears extremely influential in
Kodama’s work. Most of Yoichiro’s art is based on the organic growth algorithm GROWTH, a
15 Wands, 10.
16 Heartney, 392.
Nomura 7
he and Kodama are both from Japan, and the shapes and
Fig. 8 Sachiko Kodama, Waves and Sea
textures of Kodama’s work closely resemble Yoichiro’s. Urchines, 2003.
I think a fascinating suggestion of Kodama’s art relates to the blurring lines between
mechanical machine and living body, between computer and brain. The traditional idea that the
living world and machine world are separate is crumbling due to modern technology. Drivers
17 Wands, 152.
18 Popper, 134.
19 Sachiko Kodama, “Artistʼs Website,” http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/
20 Kodama and Takeno, “Protrude, Flow,” 422.
Nomura 8
begin to think of their car as an extension of their body.21 Many people, especially those who
grew up with cellphones, feel naked without it on their persons; a piece of them is missing. 22 And
liquid and individual spikes of ferrofluid are unique and volatile in both shape and behavior,
sometimes merging with nearby spikes; it appears organic. It’s both mechanical and organic.
What’s more, the ferrofluid is presented in a capsule, like a precious flower being preserved from
Conclusion
In summary, Kodama’s art shows many interesting artistic connections, both historical
and modern, Japanese and Western, stylistic and conceptual. Connections with the mid twentieth
century Monoha movement include a rejection of traditional representation and the usage of
21 Peter Lunenfeld, editor, The digital dialectic : new essays on new media, (Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press, 2000), 64.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
everyday settings. From the Western sphere, twentieth century German Expressionist ideas and
methods surface in Kodama’s art in the bizarre and surreal nature of ferrofluid and her stated
objective to provoke primal emotions. Kodama is a Digital artist, and is connected to both
interactive artists like the Victoria Vesna, from America, and digital image artists like Yoichiro
Kawaguchi, from Japan. Her art contests the traditional idea that body and machine are separate
by presenting forms that are both organic and mechanical. It will be exciting to see how
Kodama’s work evolves because she is just getting used to ferrofluid. She has only been working
with it about ten years and has yet to unlock its true artistic potential.
WORKS CITED
Gardner, William O. “Radicals and realists in the Japanese nonverbal arts : the avant-garde
rejection of modernism.” Review of Radicals and realists in the Japanese nonverbal arts:
the avant-garde rejection of modernism, by Thomas R.H. Havens. Monumenta Nipponica
63, 1 (2008): 203-5.
"F.W. Murnau." Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2008. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/
topic/398163/F-W-Murnau (accessed November 18, 2008).
Havens, Thomas R.H. Radicals and realists in the Japanese nonverbal arts: the avant-garde
rejection of modernism. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2006.
Heartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2008.
Ippolito, Jean M. “From the Avant-Garde: Re-Conceptualizing Cultural Origins in the Digital
Media Art of Japan.” Leonardo 40, no. 2 (April 1, 2007): 142-151.
Kawaguchi, Yoichiro. “Artist’s Website.” http://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yoichiro/
———. “The Art of Gemotion in Space.” In Proceedings of the conference on Information
Visualization. IEEE Computer Society (2006): 658-663.
Koplos, Janet. "Extensions of the Ordinary." Art in America 88, no. 4 (2000): 140-3, 167.
———. “Takamasa Kuniyasu at MACA.” Art in America 90, no. 11 (2002): 167.
Kodama, Sachiko. “Characteristics of the Historical Transitions of Computer and Holographic
Images.” FORMA -TOKYO- 15, 2 (2000): 141-7.
———. “Artist’s Website.” http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/
———. “Dynamic ferrofluid sculpture: organic shape-changing art forms.” Communications of
the ACM 51, 6 (2008): 79-81, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1349026.1349042
———. “Seven Questions.” http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/sevenquestions/index-e.html
Kodama, Sachiko, and Minako Takeno. “Protrude, Flow.” Ars Electronica Festival Catalog.
(2003): 422-3. http://www.aec.at/en/archiv_files/20031/FE_2003_kodama_en.pdf
———. “Sound-Responsive Magnetic Fluid Display.” INTERACT2001: Eighth IFIP TC.13
Conference on Human-Computer Interaction Proceedings. (2001): 737-8.
www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/project/shortPaper.pdf
———. “Video Description of Project ‘Protrude, Flow.’” http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/
protrudeflow/movies/wmv/profloD.wmv
Kusahara, Machiko, Kazuhiko Hachiya, Masahiko Inami, Sachiko Kodama, Ryota Kuwakubo,
Taro Maeda, Nobumichi Tosa, Hiroaki Yano, and Hiroo Iwata. “Device art, a new
approach in media art: (poster_0186).” ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Research Posters (2006):
143, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1179622.1179788
Lunenfeld, Peter, editor. The digital dialectic : new essays on new media. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT Press, 2000.
10
Nomura 11
Merewether, Charles, editor. Art, anti-art, non-art : experimentations in the public sphere in
postwar Japan, 1950-1970. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2007.
Popper, Frank. Art of the Electronic Age. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993.
Poupyrev, Ivan, Tatsushi Nashida, Shigeaki Maruyama, Jun Rekimoto, and Yasufumi Yamaji.
“Lumen: interactive visual and shape display for calm computing.” ACM SIGGRAPH
2004 Emerging Technologies (2004): 17, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1186155.1186173
Vesna, Victoria. “Artist’s Website” http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/
Wands, Bruce. Art of the digital age. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006.