las mentiras que meto para chuparme una verdad.
I like América like
me I like América
like me I like
América like me I
like América like me
I like América like
me I like América
like me I like
América like me
div. bucket
15 gallon bucket with an inlaid mirror, filled at about 3/4th with water. A gyroscope fidget spinner with a double sided mirror in the center sits at the water’s edge, held up + down by stainless steel chains.
The spinner is animated by 2 aquarium motors that are at diametrically opposing positions within the bucket, these are hacked to independently run fungible data sets which regulate the spin power / velocity of each motor. There are 50 data arrays to choose from : each motor individually sources a single one at
random -> executes the command -> chooses another random data.
Each motor plays a data set independently of the other.
Between each data selection there is a 5 second intermission in which the motor plays a reggaetón beat.
computer, div. bucket, perforated square steel tubes, motion sensor, stereo speakers, projector, custom software, xxl. 2023
Exhibition composed of an architectural armature adapted to the gallery space.
The structure hosts 'div, bucket' and 'xxl'. The last one is is running through a custom interactive media player (m.xxl.p).
Example of the Data arrays :
- [x] President John F. Kennedy’s “The people of Latin America want to be free; and we want them to be free.” in morse code.
- [x] Number of guano islands claimed by the USA through the Guano Islands Act each year throughout its duration.
- [x] Number of active Cuban soldiers (per year) that fought the South African aggressors out of Angola and Namibia; each year divided by the number of polygons that Woody from Toy Story is composed of.
- [x] Play-through of the trumpet section of Ismael Rivera’s “Las Tumbas”
- [x] Total budget of all Marvel movies in relation to the Gross Domestic Product of Caribbean countries every year since the first Iron Man movie was released.
...etc...etc...etc
m.xxl.p in collaboration w. Yuno Choi : computer vision detects the # of users in the room .Once a number is defined, the software chooses a behavior at random from a specified list of operations designed for that #of users.
Examples of some of the behaviors :
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A.1 (1-6 users)- Video scales up or down based on the proximity of the user closest to the content (video projection).
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B.1 (2 users) - Distance between the viewers determines the scale, the farthest apart is equal to the top scale of video.
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C.2 (3 users) - Video gets divided into 3 columns and spins like a slot machine, each have reacting to the allocated user’s movements.
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E.1 (5 users)-- Video stays at the small scale, replicates itself at random invertentions (range : 10-120 seconds), appearing at random locations, and staying for a random duration (range : 1-60), max #200.
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E.2 (5 users) - Video scales up, random videos from social media platform (Tik Tok or Instagram)pop-up over xxl, at a random scale between 10/100 - 25/100. A new video gets picked up from the platforms at a random duration (in the range of 5-10 seconds).
xxl, digital video composed Instagram ads1080 x 1080, duration +00:00:30:00. 00:00:03:00 excerpt.
digital collage cutouts on pvc, size varies
exhibition essay excerpt :
... then they added the front-facing lens, who thought that was a good idea? Should be up there with the mea culpas of the like and their pavlov alikes, knowing our susceptibility to mirrored illusions + gullibility to anything proclaimed as smart; add some default filters ( a little whiter here w. a slight at a tuck in), you know, bias as product add-on, : AirBrush a Facetune before sharing an InstaSnap, all for the sake of global hegemony…
…still haven’t mentioned dysmorphia, that would presumably be a shift in the lens, cognitive dissonance between what we see and what’s “there”, but I won’t state the obvious cause it isn’t..
There aren’t any facts outside the device, just +Lenses ©, the organic and their nots, all carrying their confirmation bias as production values.
The skeuomorphs catch up to us as the imgs & their archives become omniscient, their registries existing as subterranean streams criss-crossing privately owned terroirs. 35 mbs lighter every time they reemerge...
In the post-industrial media scape, what becomes of the img, not as phenomenon (yet), but as nomenclative? Has the same one not been in circulation long enough for it to be considered word by now? Doesn’t its digital citizenship bestow a new ontological state?
Minor shift : memetics. But wasn’t Richard Dawkins canceled? Ok.
Let’s reframe that (redundantly) : the image conundrum not being representation vs the real (reality is already virtual in any case) but a new paradigm for collective consensus w. image as its foundation.
media player as installation for displaying the 00:0_body of work; ‘21-’22. Installation @ ISCP, Brooklyn, NY ------>
Once a user enters the space, the software gets triggered which then picks a video at random from the library (the whole of the body of works composing 00:0_) and loops it until the space is empty again.
200+ videos produced on mobile device from online content
(ads, viral content, social media posts...)
duration doesn't surpass 00: 00:03 secs each,
720 x 720, seamless loop; '20-
00:0_
Post-Industrial Digital Dysmorphia
cursatorial project w. Joiri Minaya and Nando Alvarez-Perez, Lydian Stater, 2023.
galvinized steel, plastic funnels, Blueberry Fanta (Blue 1), Dragon Fruit Fanta (“Vegetable Extract [For Color]”), Strawberry Fanta (Red 40), Orange Fanta (Yellow 6, Red 40), Grape Fanta (Red 40, Blue 1), Fanta Pineapple (Yellow 5, Yellow 6), Fanta Soda Bottles,
42 x 72 x 112 inches.
a clepsydra cycling at 1:00 hr loops (approx), composed of two episodes, each pertaining to the transfer of water between tanks.
s.01, ep.02-03
plexiglass tanks, pvc, water, plantain tree, steel, cyclic timers, rocks, cement, wood, digital prints on watterproof adhessive paper, nylon string, flood bags, grow light; installed @ Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art
Composed of sourced content circumscribed to 3 media axes : Pepe the frog, meme coopted by the North American alt-right, Sol, name of a cryptocurrency fueled utopia to be founded in Puerto Rico by a group of expats exploiting a tax loophole within the island's legal system, and the Coquí frog, a frog endemic to the Caribbean region and which is considered an invasive species in the Western United States & Hawaii. The work renders the media landscape of a susceptibly unspecific geolocation coming at odds with its sense of habitat within the digital ecosystem.