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Artwork presentation

Abismo Sinestésico

Artist: Carla Torrejón Torres
Year 2021
Semester First semester
Fecha July 1, 2021

When we talk about auditory-visual synesthesia we are talking about a sensory-perceptive phenomenon in which the sensations of sound and vision come together. This work reflects a synesthetic reinterpretation of the anxiety caused by a constant hypermedia bombardment of us humans as living beings of this current society digitally immersed in millions of stimuli every second. All our senses have been affected and there is no rest. It seems that everything has become an abyss of sensations. The viewer is invited to observe and interact with the work and see to what extent one is able to withstand certain stimuli that are increasingly random and rapid? Maybe wake up from that numbness to which we have been exposed for a long time.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

The following work and research reveals the synesthetic nature of the constant anxiety experienced in a digital society where visual and sound hyper-consumerism is a normal day-to-day variable. The search for the concept initially seeks to propose to the viewer various visual stimuli that will be transformed into sensations translated into sound, even without this piece having it. It is merely its own reinterpretation of that turbulent and confusing sensation of today’s society. Synesthesia, being a more sensational than objectual process, evoked in me the dematerialization that Nathalie Heinich spoke about in “The Work Beyond the Object” (2014). According to Heinich “Contemporary artistic proposals tend to make us forget the material form of the work and invite the viewer to a visual experience of space. The work, free of any material form, turns out to be only sensation…”

With respect to the code made from various RANDOM variables, it seeks to manifest this same randomness that is proposed to us in contemporary art as Peter Burger spoke about in “The avant-garde work of art” (1974). According to Burger ”…We have production mediated by chance. This is no longer a result of blind spontaneity in the handling of the material. But on the contrary. The result of a very precise calculation…”.

Adhering to all of the above, I took aesthetic references very anchored to the processes of synesthesia in music. Both “Circles” and “Concerto For Two Oscilloscopes by Jerobeam Fenderson and Hansi 3D. As well as “UNIEQAV #02 UNI MIA” by Alva Noto. Those were direct inspirational references in terms of the mobility and kineticism that I wanted to convey in my work. Regarding the conception, in the same way I also had Herbert W. Franke and works like “Pendulea” by Emma Kunz as references.

As a result, in the work you can see random figures with a geometric nature that we all know. Some circles displayed randomly across the entire canvas. The circle has no beginning or end, it is a symbol that could summarize in a certain simplicity the dynamism of reality itself. These refer to sound waves. But what do they transmit? A scream? The constant voices that we receive around us every day? Any song? The viewer is invited to observe and perceive in their own way. By moving the cursor, you can observe the background color pattern changing. We refer again to synesthesia. Does this change in color pattern change anything in your viewer decoding process? And by interacting with clicks on the piece, the audience will once again receive much more visual information, varying the speed of the frames initially proposed, increasing them by 100%, so the objective will be to stun even more. In the second plane of the work, the lines interposed with a certain opacity on top of each other seek to reflect the certain connections that as beings we have been allowed to make in this digital society. Many times very disparate and ephemeral.

Biography