Las miradas

Brief description: “The Looks” is an interactive work that invites the viewer to participate dynamically and, at the same time, to experience an emotional connection. By simply moving the mouse, the viewer can form eyes around the work, and by clicking, tears fall from some eyes. Another interaction is by pressing the “space bar”, the music plays, with the “P” key it pauses and with the “S” key it stops and returns to the beginning. The intention is for the viewer to find themselves and form a bond of identification with the work.

Technical Development: In “The Looks”, the presence of multiple eyes represents the comparisons and diverse perspectives that arise from people’s gazes, alluding to the role of the viewer. Each eye responds differently: one cries with happiness, another with sadness, and another remains unchanged, exploring the diversity of emotions.

Aesthetic Development: The eyes, as camera lenses, also refer to the representation of reality through a lens, questioning the idea of an “objective” reproduction and highlighting that the gaze is always subjective.

The work explores the perception and subjectivity of the gaze, evoking the text of César Aira:

“The photograph gives only a partial idea of the installation, and even something less than partial, since it places it on the same plane as the illustrations in an interior decoration magazine. In their mechanism of entry, route and exit, the installations outwit reproduction in an insidious way, they are a trap not only for the unwary. In his commentary on a Beuys installation, David Sylvester indicated exactly where the viewer should stand to get the most out of the aesthetic and emotional appreciation of the work. A critic as perceptive as Sylvester but trained in the study and enjoyment of painting, completely misunderstood the “installation” format, rescuing the possibility of its reproduction, marking the place where the camera lens should be placed.”

This quote highlights how our experience is conditioned, just like in an installation, where the viewer’s perspective defines the work, revealing its always partial and personal nature.

Literature A- AIRA, César. ([2013], 2016). “Sobre el arte contemporáneo” en Sobre el arte contemporáneo. Buenos Aires: Literatura Random House, pp. 11-56. (DAA: 1:02m)