Dejarse Instruír

“Let yourself be instructed” is an interactive work developed in p5.js that explores the relationship between user and machine in a process of mutual instruction. By pressing keys, the user can alter the narrative, but always within the logic of allowing themselves to be instructed by what the work calls for. Inspired by Vinciane Despret’s concept in To the Health of the Dead, the work not only proposes the idea of ​​letting ourselves be instructed by those who preceded us, but also embracing the plurality of versions that can come from surrendering to instruction. The experience is constructed in a fragmentary way, guided by images, words and interactions that generate a non-linear path always oriented by the openness to the multiple.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

“Let yourself be instructed” is an interactive work developed in p5.js that combines programming, images and text to create a situational and dynamic experience between machine-user; The work sets in motion a constant dialogue between the two, in which the narrative is redefined based on the interaction. By pressing the keys assigned to words, the viewer can modify the course of the images, sounds and narrative, which present dissonant versions of the same theme. This non-linear structure allows the viewer to “be instructed” by what the machine suggests, and in turn, the machine is influenced by the viewer’s choice, creating a back-and-forth flow between the user and the system. This process of altering the narrative is the technical core of the work.

From an aesthetic perspective, the work is characterized by a minimalist and abstract design, which favors the transparency of the interaction. The images and fonts are designed not to overload the experience. The color palette remains sober, using neutral tones for visual simplicity, seeking to keep the viewer’s attention on the narrative and the decisions they must make. My main conceptual axis comes from the book To the Health of the Dead by Vinciane Despret, where the notion of letting oneself be instructed is introduced, a concept that has been around me for a long time. Despret chooses not to prioritize the versions he finds, even when they are contradictory, but to embrace them in their plurality. Although she applies it to the field of the dead, I interpret it as a political stance before the world: accepting multiple versions without imposing a single truth.

By crossing it with Redefinition of artistic practices by José Luis Brea, I found a way to transfer that idea from the anthropological field to the artistic field. Brea suggests that contemporary artistic production does not revolve around objects, but rather the generation of experiences and meanings. The important thing is not the work itself, but what happens between it and the viewer: a field of intensities where meaning is constructed. Allowing oneself to be instructed is part of this logic, opening narrative paths that are not imposed but emerge from the interaction. As Brea points out, this is a political stance: resisting closed structures and imagining other possible forms of subjectivation. “a new politics that, in the face of the exorbitant potential of contemporary industries of the imaginary, can organize lines of resistance and alternative modes of production of the processes of socialization and subjectivation.”

Literature

• AIRA, César. (2013). Sobre el arte contemporáneo

• BREA, Jose Luis. (2008). Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas