Buddhism and computer games collide in Kenta Cobayashi’s digitally manipulated photography

It is through this exploration of language and its meanings that Kenta creates warped versions of reality via photography. He heavily edits images until they are almost unrecognisable and builds immersive VR films in a similar vein. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning.

Growing up in the industrial city of Kawasaki, Kenta’s first introduction to the creative arts was through the old computer in his family home. He spent his childhood flicking through the pixelated pages of digital books or playing computer games on its old, fuzzy screen. It’s an experience that’ll resonate with any 90s kid who spent their time playing computer games like Riven or Pickle’s Book, written onto CD-ROMs, or onto the even rarer species: the floppy disk.

Looking back on his childhood, Kenta tells It’s Nice That: “I realise these programmes educated me with their innovative visuals and sound experience.” As Kenta matured through his teenage years, his artistry also progressed with the acquisition of a “Garakei”-style flip-phone. At the cusp of the smartphone revolution, the flip-phone brought “its unique culture” to Kenta’s attention. He started to access the internet and take photos, and this early form of technology is still a highly traceable influence in Kenta’s work.

“When I recall that time, I realise I learnt so much from that online scape,” says the artist. “Not only from the games companies but individuals too. Through the internet, we were able to exchange, collaborate and distribute ideas.”

As Kenta’s interaction with digital technology increased, the medium also proliferated throughout wider Japanese society. Kenta references the image-editing app Prikura, for example. The application features an in-built algorithm to make your eyes abnormally large and images can be decorated with a bank of sparkles and other abundantly cute additions. It is partly because of apps like these that Japan has become synonymous with image distortion and a tech-focused aesthetic. Not only is it a commonplace experience to use such apps (take stumbling upon one of Tokyo’s roadside photo booths for example), but it also marks the culture that has impacted Kenta’s practice.

“U-tsu-su”, in turn, conjures altogether different imagery for Kenta. He pictures “a mirror image reflected on the surface of the water”. And so Kenta plays with the dual meanings of “sha-shin” in his work through image manipulation. Through repeatedly clicking “undo” and “redo” in Photoshop, Kenta’s work embodies the convoluted meanings of “sha-shin”. Distorted images resemble neon drawings of light while water-like imagery acts as an investigative metaphor into the ideas of what truth even means.

And if Kenta’s constant probing into etymology wasn’t thought-provoking enough, his practice is also rooted in Buddhist cognitive studies. For Kenta and many other Buddhists, “truth” embodies the idea of “flow”, a kind of invisible energy that runs through everything as a kind of life force. Flow informs the laws of nature and the composition of the universe; it’s a mindful mental state that energises focus and wellbeing, most attainable when practising yoga or tai chi, for example.

“As human beings, we understand ‘a structure of flow’ by words and language,” explains Kenta. “But once a word is created and hence has a meaning, there is a distinctive break in the separation of language and flow.” Once a noun is known to mean something, the flow is corrupted by the limitation of the word, as it has a fixed meaning that cannot change. For Buddhists, this is nonsensical, as beings and energy are always changing with the passing of time, so it makes no sense to align something as fleeting as flow with the static rigidity of language. In other words, the essence of something is so much more than the finite word we use to describe it and Kenta’s work attempts to explore this disjunct between language and object.

“We misuse the function of words, and suffer as a result. This is what Sha-ka (Gautama Buddha) says,” Kenta continues. “In short, human beings misunderstand the laws of being, in favour of un-ageing definitions that only exist in the form of words.” With all this in mind, Kenta’s interests lie in “the overlap between the truth of language, the meaning of ‘sha-shin’, and the media.” Fragmented imagery distorts the accurate realism of photography. While some photos are barely recognisable in their original form, others mutate only slightly from their original by extending smudges of light or blurring at the edges.