Realidades que rompen ojos

‘’Realities that break eyes’’ is a way of expressing the idea that, since our perception is so susceptible to the environment of which we are part, if it suffers some disruption that alters its behavior, our eyes can come to go out of place.
As we grow up and develop in areas that are imposed on us (apparently) as normal, our view of the world adapts to a system of moral and ordinary norms, which ends up determining our behavior. This process of which we are not usually aware, or do not want to be, involves the omission of a lot of aspects that are still part of our reality.
It is enough to pay enough attention, or simply be inopportune, to come to your senses and notice the breaks that our environment contains; apparently filled with illusions, approved by the politics of the day, in order to forget the true form of our reality.
These breaks, in turn, explain why we often feel uncomfortable with everyday life; They make us glimpse the things that are outside our order of life and, consequently, make us question ourselves and our environment; thus entering a liminal state.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

This artistic practice seeks to explore the effects of “liminality”, as mentioned in the introduction.

We are going to understand the liminal as something that is between two states: a substance that is emancipating itself from a body governed by a certain order, but which, in turn, is in a process of forming a new one. We could even relate it to the dream state that Brea proposes¹. “One that mediates with the ordinary, translating an unbalanced state of energies, within the regular field of intensities of a given system; destabilizing the equilibrium equation that governs it.”

This is how, from a visual perspective, this production by “new media art” ² projects figures that can be considered in one place or another, depending on the viewer.
For this reason, in the ‘canvas’ shown by p5.js – the JavaScript library that allows the existence of this production – a black background was established, with a layer of points above it, which acts as a second background. Pertinent consideration to capture the two orders on which a liminality operates.

In this case, we have, on the one hand, the black background order; evoking with this value uncertainty, due to its darkness, its low visibility, a certain sensation of timelessness and drama. It is a state in which the figure of women could be emancipated, if we consider her as an entity. Meanwhile, much of her, her face, still remains within the layer of points, the system from which she is emerging. This is characterized by being an iteration that generates dot patterns with different shades of gray, giving an impression of wind, which moves the other elements it contains: the kites. These, when you move the cursor over them, will begin to bend as if they were rotating around their file, without remaining in one place or another. Its elements are then reinstated if the cursor leaves the kite area. The object of this operation is to show a system that is altered, and that also disorients the gaze of those who are part of it.
In this way, liminality becomes increasingly present. First, with the position of the woman, then with the unstable shape of the kites and the dispersion of the eyes, and finally with a new formation of the figures.

This production also works based on the aesthetics and ideology of the works of Antonio Berni. Among them, the version of “[Ramona montiel](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvybrEM0Wpw8zvrTHSutpDowh0TkclqbKo5E_JRmP4wuzV3zcGMfzqqVMe0 gRcm7LxRm9AJR2_5jiC4HhMFLAjvAjxljDKcPkIOshS3_HCEV-MtCIDLCfIs1ERWjgw3yijeUrJw/s1600/Berni_Arte_y_cibern%C3%A9tica_1969_Cayc.JPG)” , which he exhibited at the convention “Arte y Cibernética”, in 1969.
Thus, among all the figures present, which try to give an impression of collage (a technique widely exploited by Berni), that of this iconic character is reused: Ramona. One that was born from the incarnation of a prostitute, subjugated in a cruel Rosario in 1930. A city that he describes as one in which both the mafia and marginality were commonplace; “a reality that broke eyes”.

Literature

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

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

ASCHIERI, Patricia. Arte y Liminalidad. Explorar la performatividad del intervalo.

Wikipedia. Bíografía de Antonio Berni.