Desprogamación

The choice of virtual dominoes in the work as a metaphor arises from “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick. Specifically the sequence where Dave Bowman progressively deprograms the artificial intelligence HAL 9000, revealing its essence beyond its code. Each seemingly solid piece embodies cultural microtrends: they emerge, fluctuate, and ultimately collapse or fade, affecting what surrounds us. Which makes us consider a re-definition of existence.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

My work is immersed in a reflection on the contemporary derivations of Brea’s (in)cultural societies of capitalism. He warns that, although they are called “knowledge societies” or “cultural capitalism”, their true constitution lies in the “exalted consecration (….) of ignorance”, pointing out a superficial and empty culture. Starting from this premise, we can observe a current predominant symptom: “supreme excellence” - a far-fetched aesthetic that only pursues hegemonic standards imposed by social media in pursuit of material benefit -, the current pressure for artistic production and validation emanates from the banal. This drives the rise of microtrends, ephemeral flows that, by generating superficial needs, become quick routes to economic profit. In this context, the Brean notion of “artist as producer and work as production” acquires particular resonance. Art is conceived as a tradable product, the generation of which responds to the pressure for a “banal perfection” (a technical neatness adhered to pre-established aesthetic canons) that empties the work of its deepest content. Technique ceases to be an end in itself to serve the logic of mass production. This search for validation to “enter the market or even be a commodity” with access to an “elitist niche” constitutes a perverse engine in the contemporary art system, imprinting on the collective unconscious a cycle where authenticity is eclipsed. Both the “supreme excellence” and the “banal perfection and self-commodification configure the disease of the “unconscious societies of capitalism”, reinterpreting the Brean (in)culturality. If the art that is produced en masse or under the logic of the market lacks authenticity or depth, what type of collective imaginary is being built? Are we colonizing our unconscious with information and superficial and standardized “art”? In this context we run the risk of stripping ourselves of what makes us connect with the real. That is, we lose the ability to transition from the unconscious to the conscious. We are being “programmed” to consume and produce without questioning the underlying logic, perpetuating a cycle of superficiality and blindness to our own instrumentalization. That said, one could then argue that society as a whole has developed a type of “collective ego.” When I talk about “collective ego” I am not referring to the individual ego of each one as an artist, but to a kind of social identity built based on these values and a self-image programmed by consumption. Faced with this panorama, the dissolution of a collective ego becomes imperative.   Here, chaos emerges as a fundamental tool. Understood as a clinamen, an unforeseen break that alters the imposed inertia, chaos is not a destructive force, but a liberating act, a “deprogramming.”

Literature BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s. 21) BREA, José Luis. (2002). “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario –o diccionario de tópicos- sobre el arte electrónico” en La era postmedia.