Trazostrazas

Trazostrazas tries to capture a work through the interaction of the user, who is in charge of changing the composition. The work continues in motion as long as the user continues in motion. The position of the mouse generates converging lines that gradually fade away, creating a combination between movement and light. To begin the work, establish a canvas. Then, on each frame, a semi-transparent black rectangle the same size as the canvas is drawn. This allows the fading effect, it makes the lines leave their trace of movement. The lines emerge from various lateral points on the canvas and go towards the mouse, generating a convergence towards the same point and a series of moving straight lines.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

This work encompasses the idea of a central point to which everything converges, giving great importance to user interaction. Also accentuating the attraction that the user exerts towards the work through their active participation. The new lines of the work are white and its background is black, generating greater contrast, and their fading gives us that sensation of gray, providing a certain aspect of depth to the composition.

Through a series of instructions for drawing and redrawing lines, the aim is to highlight their tensions towards a point, providing a center of gravity, both to the work and to the user, resignifying its importance. Trazostrazas was conceived under the influence of works by Charles Csuri, who went from being a plastic artist to being a generative art artist, creating transformations in his works through algorithms and leaving large formations for animation. The idea that art can be the result of a set of rules and parameters defined by the programmer was one of Csuri’s foundations. That is why it was considered essential to play with the algorithm, geometry, space, trace and movement. The position of the user directly influences the visual composition, generating a necessary interaction and, consequently, an evolution of the work in real time.

The repeated use of lines from different points on the screen toward the mouse creates a dynamic pattern, a technique Csuri employed to explore the interplay between order and chaos in his compositions. The result is a geometric abstraction, based on simple shapes. Although Csuri used color and shape to create striking and evocative compositions, this work is abstracted in its forms, contrasting white lines with the black background.

As José Luis Brea indicates in his work “The postmedia era”, electronic art allows interactive communication where the user “actively participates in the creation of meaning through his interaction with the work” (Brea, 2002). In Trazostrazas, this principle is reflected in how the user’s interaction with the mouse determines the movement of the lines, making the work evolve in real time.

Likewise, Brea talks about the redefinition of artistic practices in the digital age, where art is not only conceived as a final product, but as a process in constant transformation that depends on the “relationship between bodies, devices and mediations” (Brea, 2008). This idea is present in Trazostrazas, where the movement of the user generates a composition that is never the same, resignifying the role of the viewer as co-creator of the work.

Literature

BREA, José Luis. (2002). “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario –o diccionario de tópicos- sobre el arte electrónico” en La era postmedia. Acción comunicativa, prácticas (post)artísticas y dispositivos neomediales. Salamanca: CASA Editorial, pp. 4-8.

BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s. 21)” en El tercer umbral. Estatuto de las prácticas artísticas en la era del capitalismo cultural. Murcia: CENDEAC, pp. 106-113.