Calma Eufórica

Inspired by the work Womb of Water by Grace Hertlein, this piece explores the dialogue between nature and technology. Through an elementary programming language, a scene is built that evokes a calm and at the same time dynamic forest, suspended in a space that undulates, taking on a life of its own. This generative image does not seek to imitate nature, but rather to recreate its essence through a contained, sensitive and minimalist electronic aesthetic. The work is born from a balance: the digital precision of the code, the poetic perception of the natural and a visual dynamism in movement. A euphoric calm within technological immanence.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

The trees, composed of white lines that open to the sides and towards the center, lean with a slight movement. The horizontal lines in the background simulate layers of water or air, or taking the imagination further, fire. In the upper corner, a sun or moon drawn solely with lines suggests a center of gravity among the undulating maelstrom. Reinforcing the dynamic atmosphere.

At first, they would simply be vertical waves with a gentle movement, but as I continue to explore, compared to my previous projects, my nature is dynamic, chaotic and mellifluous at the same time. So, I finally decided to change the directions and speed of the background lines. They provide a rhythmic and more personal dimension.

Conceptually, the work takes as a reference the thought of José Luis Brea, who points out that “the true tool of 20th century art is not the brush or the computer, but rather immanent self-criticism.” From this idea, it is understood that it is not enough to use digital media to make art: it is necessary to rethink its limits and possibilities, adapt to them. This was my journey in this work, I began to analyze its limitations and possibilities through what I wanted to express without leaving my established foundations. Also based on the concept of “clinamen” as an exemplary form by giving a free deviation to the waves and trees on the canvas.

Grace Hertlein’s influence is key. She knew how to use electronic media not as a gesture of rupture with the past, but as a way of extending the aesthetic tradition of nature to the new language of the machine. This piece seeks to follow that line: create with bits an image that evokes leaves, wind, water and silence.

In conclusion, the technical development was guided by a perceptive search: to provoke a sensation in the observer, a subtle and wild beauty at the same time, the ancient and the modern, between the logical and the poetic. In a key definition “a free and limited euphoric calm.”

Literature

José Luis Brea. (2002). “Breve y desordenado antiglosario” _ pág. 6.

José Luis Brea. (2002).”Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas” _ pág. 107, punto 5.