Entropía

“To be or not to be, that is the question”. William Shakespeare wrote for the beginning of a soliloquy in his play Hamlet. In today’s society so full of options – news, books, movies, series, music, entertainment, knowledge, studies, art, etc. – people are required to constantly make decisions, with deliberation to a greater or lesser extent. With the development of the internet, and especially social networks in recent years, many people are content to be mere spectators, consuming the endless content that is generated every day. But at the same time, it is also thanks to this development that today anyone could easily become a creator. Thus, the work “Entropy” invites the person in front of it to make a decision about how they will relate to it. Will you decide to refrain from interacting to see how the work evolves? Or will you prefer to press the keyboards or mouse to leave your own trace on it? Thus, we return to the question, to be or not to be? …and what?

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

This work is inspired by the works of Vera Molnár, considered one of the pioneers of computer art, or rather, computer art, as José Luis Brea recommends saying in “Brief (and messy) antiglossary - or dictionary of topics on electronic art.” Particularly, it is based on the work of unknown title that is behind her in her profile photo (1961), one of the works in the series “(Des) Ordres” (1974) and the so-called “Hommage à Barbaud” (1974).

The work allows the user to interact with it in different ways, either by making the figures rotate in one direction or another (with right, left clicks and the A key), vary their size randomly (with the S and D keys) and change the values ​​between black and white or stopping that fluctuation (both with the W key). Each one will decide where to stop the angle of rotation, what size to leave the figures and if they want to maintain the variation of colors or if they have a favorite combination. Brea writes in section 1 of “Redefinition of artistic practices”: “There are no longer ‘artists’ as such. There are only producers, people who produce.” On the other hand, Molnár said in an interview that “(as an artist) one must always make decisions.” Thus, the person in front of the work will decide whether to remain a spectator without interacting at all, or become a producer, implementing the mechanism of “identity production and differentiation”, which Brea mentions in section 34 of the text cited above, to leave its mark on the work.

On the other hand, if you do not interact at all with the work for more than 15 seconds, randomly moving polygons appear. The idea of ​​adding these arose from the consideration of “what would happen if the work were displayed, for example, in a museum, with a projector.” There would not be people interacting with the work constantly, and naturally there would be a lot of time where no one interacted (in fact, it would probably be most of the time). If the last user who interacted stopped the fluctuation of values, the work would appear completely static. These polygons were added to avoid that, and were specifically based on the thick figures of “Hommage à Barbaud.”

The person in front of the work can interact with it or not. But in both ways, the work tends to get disordered, either due to the modifications made by the user or due to the appearance of polygons. Hence its title, “Entropy,” a thermodynamic principle that indicates that the Universe tends toward disorder.

The 1% disorder is a theme that Molnár continued to explore until the end of her life, and Aline Guillermet analyzes in her article “Vera Molnar’s Computer Paintings” that she precisely used randomness (randomness) in her works to give it the autographic effect. In the same way, each user can use the random movements produced by the interactions to decide and choose their own artistic touch that they will add to 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.

GUILLERMET, Aline. (2020). Vera Molnar’s Computer Paintings [Pinturas por computadora de Vera Molnar]. Representations. 149. 1-30. 10.1525/rep.2020.149.1.1. Recuperado de https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338896073_Vera_Molnar’s_Computer_Paintings

Thaddaeus Ropac. (2024). Vera Molnár. Thaddaeus Ropac. https://ropac.net/artists/231-vera-molnar/

VALYI-NAGY, Zsofi. (26 de agosto del 2022). An Interview with Vera Molnar [Una entrevista con Vera Molnar]. Right Click Save. https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/an-interview-with-vera-molnar