Cuadrando

Brief description: Cuadrando is a generative image built on a grid of grayscale squares. Each shape reacts to the movement of the cursor: it rotates, changes size, and lights up or goes out slightly, as if something internal is activated by the proximity of the other. The background breathes cyclically, accompanying this sensitive system that does not represent anything specific, but is transformed into the presence of whoever observes it.

The proposal is born from interest in order and its breakdowns. What seems stable begins to vibrate, to rotate, to go a little off axis. The work does not seek to narrate, but rather to allow a minimal visual tension to appear: how a closed logic can become poetic. As if the code, instead of executing a function, expressed an emotion. It is in that area of ​​subtleties where what interests me appears.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

This work arises from a simple structure: a regular grid of squares. But that regularity becomes tense, slightly distorted when the viewer gets closer. Each figure rotates steadily, but the rotation speeds up when the cursor is close. It also changes its size and tone of gray, as if the logic of that system were affected by the foreign body. The background, which also varies gently, provides a sensation of continuous breathing.

I worked exclusively in grayscale, seeking to avoid any stimulus that distracted from what was essential: form, movement, vibration. Instead of thinking about a static or decorative image, I thought about a system that could act, that had its own dynamics. The interaction does not open content or allow you to decide on the image, it simply activates something that is already there, waiting.

I was especially inspired by Vera Molnár, an artist who pioneered the use of the computer as a creative tool. His works work with simple logic (grids, lines, geometric shapes) to which he introduces minimal variations. I’m interested in that idea of ​​order that twists a little, that vibrates. I also return to some ideas from Frieder Nake, who understood code not only as a technique, but as an autonomous visual language.

In the text Brief and disordered antiglossary, José Luis Brea speaks of immanent self-criticism as the true tool of contemporary art. He says that art is not defined by its supports or by the use of technologies, but by the ability of languages ​​to think about themselves, to explore their own limits. This idea helped me distance myself from the most obvious visual effects and think about how to work from the minimum: a shape, a rule, a small variation.

I also relate this work with some ideas of José Luis Brea in Redefinition of artistic practices (s.21), where he proposes that contemporary art can no longer be thought of as a stable object, but as a process in constant transformation. It speaks of the move towards practices that develop over time, that are activated in the relationship with the public and that understand the work as a system rather than as a thing. Cuadrando falls completely within that logic: there is no image

Literature

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