Reemplazo

Inspired by the aesthetics of a video game, this work is made up of three “faces”: first is the introduction, the home plate. In this first instance I played with the color, letting it follow the movement of the cursor. Here you can see typography along with pixel art-style glasses and moving ellipses that simulate a loading screen. By touching the ‘ENTER’ key, the user enters the second side of the composition. This part is made up of a moving sphere and stars shooting in all directions, which increase their speed depending on the position of the cursor on the x axis. Below these, the text tells us that by touching the ‘R’ key we can enter the third and final side of the work. It is just a black background and a text that tells us that by touching the ‘V’ key we will see the previous image again.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

“Replacement” is a work that tries to awaken the viewer’s consciousness and make them question their gaze towards what is in front of their eyes. It emphasizes technology and reality, the palpable; and how individuals lose themselves in virtuality.

I was primarily inspired by what Diana Taylor suggests in “The new uses of performance”: “The technological body is the new human body, eroticized, ‘designed to shock,’” says the author. “The ideal of beauty and human strength has been crossed and replaced by the cyborg, the bionic. The technological is in fashion.” The title of my work, “Replacement,” comes from this specific idea. I find this proposal very interesting and accurate. There is nothing more real than the fact that devices and technology are making us believe that they are the new beauty and what we have to follow. Lost in the networks and the internet, we forget that what really matters and is beautiful is what surrounds us: life, people, nature. Being a 19-year-old girl born in the 21st century who understands a lot about virtuality and is quite dependent on it, it would not make much sense to criticize society and my generation in this way. But that’s not why I forbid myself from taking a step back and reflecting on something like this.

This is a thought that flew through my head when doing this work. As I explained in the description at the beginning, this work is made up of three parts. As soon as the user enters to see the work, they are given the option of putting on virtual reality glasses using the ‘ENTER’ key to witness “beauty”. When we touch this key, we put on these glasses and we enter a completely cybernetic and somewhat hypnotizing world. In this way, technology is presented to us as the most innovative and “beautiful.” However, if the user taps the ‘R’ key as instructed at the bottom of the screen, a message appears. A somewhat intimidating, silent message that invites us to look around us (that is, at life, at what we do not register but that is there). We tend to forget what surrounds us because our gaze and our focus is most of the time on the screen. We are so consumed by the virtual that we no longer appreciate what exists outside of that. Through this small text, I want the viewer to also feel some guilt and self-consciousness - things that I also felt when reading Diana Taylor’s text. The user, if they wish, can stay in that technological world for hours, or they can simply leave there and appreciate the true reality, the one that they usually leave aside.

I would also like to talk about the author José Luis Brea, since in “Redefinition of artistic practices” he raises two ideas that caught my attention. First, he suggests that “there are no ‘works of art’. There are work and practices that we can call artistic. They have to do with significant, affective and cultural production, and they play specific roles in relation to the subjects of experience.” Then he adds: “In 21st century societies, art will not be exhibited. It will be produced and distributed, it will be disseminated.” With “replacement,” my intention was not to create a work of art. But precisely to spread this thought and constructive criticism towards what we experience today in relation to technology. I want my proposal to mean something to the person who receives it.

Literature

TAYLOR, Diana. (2012). “Los nuevos usos de performance”.

BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s21)”.