No se que ponerle todavía pero creo que no importa
“I don’t know what to put on it yet but I think it doesn’t matter” is a work that, through simple geometric shapes, an incessant cycle of appearance, movement and fading, and the random speed of its elements, visually explores digital obsolescence. It seeks to create an unpredictable environment that evokes the constant transformation of technologies and digital in a world in perpetual change. I want to invite you to reflect on the transience of media and languages in electronic art, echoing Brea’s ideas about the death of some technologies and the need for constant self-criticism in a medium in constant evolution and change, both technical and personal.
Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development
Conceptualized as a response to the notion of obsolescence in electronic art, the work “I don’t know what to put on it yet but I think it doesn’t matter” takes José Luis Brea’s reflections as its starting point. In his “Brief (and messy) anti-glossary on electronic art” (2002), he posits that several “dead” categories have been abandoned or should no longer be used. This statement by Brea resonates with the forcefulness of Nietzsche’s words “God is dead” (Could we speak of multi-Nietscheal arts?), which pointed out the obsolescence of an absolute metaphysical and moral foundation. In a similar way, Brea declares the death of certain artistic foundations and supports that are no longer capable of providing real findings to the immanent self-criticism of 20th century art.
This obsolescence and the inherent transience of the medium were already anticipated by Paul Valéry in “The Conquest of Ubiquity” (1928). Valéry envisioned a future where we “feed on visual or auditory images that are born and disappear at the slightest gesture.” Although Brea writes almost a century later with the experience of the rise and fall of digital technologies, Valéry already senses the dematerialization of art and the ubiquity of the aesthetic experience, which would make the traditional model of the single, static work obsolete.
The reflection extends with “Redefinition of artistic practices” (2008), where Brea delves into the idea that “there are no ‘works of art’” as particular objects, but rather “work and practices that we can call artistic” that drive “circulatory effects: meaning effects, symbolic effects, intensive, affective effects…”. “I don’t know what to put in it yet but I think it doesn’t matter” fits into this vision by being a real-time generative practice, whose “work” is the continuous and ephemeral process on screen, not a fixed object. The gradual dissolution of forms underlines the obsolescence of the material and the primacy of experience in the circulation of “ideas and affects.”
The work emulates his focus on exploring the aesthetic possibilities of code, where forms seek to express a process of change and transformation inherent to becoming and obsolescence, taking as reference pioneers of “computer art” such as George Nees and Vera Molár. Nees, with his “computergrafik”, explored how programming could generate variations and patterns, often with a spare, abstract aesthetic. Molnár managed to create compositions with geometric lines and figures, investigating the relationship between order and chaos. The work stands as a visual meditation on progress. By evoking digital obsolescence, I not only seek to pay homage to the ideas of Brea and Valéry, but also to the tradition of early generative art, exploring the relationship between code, chance and aesthetics.
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. VALÉRY, Paul.(1928).”La conquista de la ubicuidad”