Yoshi Sodeoka
Japanese artist and musician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yoshi Sodeoka is a Japanese-born multimedia artist and musician based in New York City. His work spans digital video, animation, print, and music, and often incorporates techniques such as video feedback, generative processes, and experimental sound.[1] His projects have been presented by museums, galleries, and media platforms internationally, and his work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[2]
Yoshi Sodeoka | |
|---|---|
Sodeoka in 2024 | |
| Born | |
| Other names | Yoshihide Sodeoka |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Known for | Digital video art |
| Website | sodeoka.com |
Biography
Yoshi Sodeoka was born in Hiroshima, Japan, and later relocated to New York City in the 1990s, where he studied at Pratt Institute. In 1996, he became Creative Director of Word Magazine, an early multimedia online publication active from 1995 to 2000.[3] He has lived and worked in New York since that time.
His work includes digital video, animation, print, and music, and incorporates techniques such as video feedback, generative systems, and experimental sound. His work has been described as "difficult to categorize" and associated with psychedelic and abstract visual aesthetics.[4]
Sodeoka has created animated editorial work for publications including The New York Times and Wired, where his visual work has accompanied articles on technology, culture, and politics.[5][6][7]
His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[8]
Notable projects
2001
Prototype #31: C404.40.40.31 is a 31-minute audiovisual work combining animated graphics, found television footage, and an original experimental electronic noise score composed by Sodeoka. The project premiered at Digital Dumbo in September 2001 and was later archived by transmediale.[9]
2004
ASCII BUSH is an ASCII-based video work presenting U.S. political speeches as digital abstraction, first showcased through Turbulence.org and later archived by the Rhizome ArtBase.[10]
2005–2012
Between 2005 and 2012, Sodeoka released a series of experimental audiovisual works exploring video feedback, generative abstraction, and noise-based sound design. These included the DVD release Noise Driven Ambient Audio and Visuals[11] and Video Metal, a limited-edition audiovisual publication reviewed by Neural magazine.[12] During this period, he also developed telecommunications-themed digital works through Turbulence.org, including 35.23N 139.30E [FAC 3097] E5150xx – Digital/Analog Intermix.[13]
2013
Sodeoka founded the experimental video art collective Undervolt & Co., focused on abstract audiovisual publishing and online exhibition formats.[14]
2021
Prism Break – Ambient Swim is an immersive audiovisual series that premiered on HBO Max as part of the Adult Swim Festival programming.[15]
2023
Wind Flags #4 is a large-scale mural commissioned for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, composed from algorithmically generated video stills.[16]
2024
The Flood is a generative digital art series exploring predator–prey simulations, released through Verse Works and discussed in independent digital art publications.[17]
2025
Sodeoka’s work was presented across Times Square’s digital billboards as part of the Midnight Moment public art program.[18]
In 2025, large-scale projection works by Sodeoka were also featured at the Kinomural new-media festival in Wrocław, Poland.[19]
That same year, he participated in the immersive digital art exhibition Akari in Mexico City.[20]
Music video projects
Sodeoka has directed music videos for a range of international recording artists, frequently incorporating generative and abstract visual systems.
- The Presets – "Youth in Trouble" (2012)[21]
- Tame Impala – "Elephant" (2012)[22]
- Yeasayer – "PSCYVOTV" (2012)[23]
- MYMK – "Drag" (2015)[24]
- Digitalism – "Utopia" (2016)[25]
- Mark Stoermer – "39 Steps (Shannoncut Remix)" (2017)[26]
- Oliver Coates – "Norrin Radd Dreaming" (2018)[27]
- Oneohtrix Point Never – "Magic OPN" (2020)[28]
- Max Cooper – "Spike" (2020)[29]
- Genghis Tron – "Pyrocene" (2021)[30]
- Metallica – "You Must Burn!" (2023)[31]
- Max Cooper – "Fibonacci Sequence" (2024)[32]
- Oneohtrix Point Never – "Measuring Ruins" (2025)[33]
Illustrations and animations for publications
Sodeoka has contributed animated and digital visual works to major international publications, integrating motion-based graphics into editorial storytelling.
- The New York Times – Addicted to Distraction (2015)
- The New York Times Sunday Review – Do You Believe in God, or Is That a Software Glitch (2016)
- Wired – How One Woman's Digital Life Was Weaponized Against Her (2017)
- MIT Technology Review – Paying with Your Face (2017)
- Wired – The Dawn of Twitter and the Age of Awareness (2018)
- The Atlantic – How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire (2021)
- ProPublica – Why It’s Hard to Sanction Ransomware Groups (2022)
- The New Yorker – Cory Doctorow Wants You to Know What Computers Can and Can’t Do (2022)
- The New York Times – Starfield’s 1,000 Planets May Be One Giant Leap for Game Design (2023)