FishTron

This work is based on a closed structure: a showcase, within it two suspended figures (the ‘participants’), an audience and an LED panel. When the “4” key ($ symbol key) is pressed, bills appear and the internal figures float, as if an invisible string is activated. The work combines influences from Luis Benedit’s experimental habitats and the interactive format of the reality show Fishtank. The entire sketch is built with 2D primitives, conditional structures and repetitions for the creation and activation of a symbolic system. The aim is to demonstrate a dynamic: someone observes, someone “pays”, and then the body moves. The rest of the time, wait.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

In the search and research of artists, Luis Fernando Benedit was the one who attracted me the most to carry out the work in p5.js. In the 70’s he exhibited a series of works where he mixed architecture, art and living beings; He built labyrinths, habitats, circuits that were traveled by living beings. From bees as in Biotron (1970) where he set up an enclosure with bees and artificial flowers that secreted nectar, to humans as in Invisible Labyrinth (1971), an interactive installation with mirrors, sensors and lights. This series of works reflects his research and search on the relationship between life and environment, how organisms behave under artificial, created and imposed conditions. It could be said that Benedit was a pioneer of the art-system; interdisciplinary designed living and controlled environments, which depended on external variables. And it was these concepts that triggered the beginning of the work.

The other trigger in the inspiration for my work came from a less academic place; an American reality show, Fishtank. It takes place in a house where participants live together, they all fight for a common well and it is streamed all day on a website where there are users who can interact with them, only if they pay a sum of money. An interesting feature of the show is that viewers can send messages to the participants, these messages are played by speakers in the house and also displayed on an LED panel. Here is the name of my work and part of the visual inspiration for it.

From these triggers my work was created: a closed showcase, an audience that observes and two suspended figures - the “participants” -, dark bodies that do nothing on their own, but that do react to an external stimulus. The upper LED panel functions as a symbolic interface, a minimal form of interaction that condenses the logic of spectacle and surveillance. When someone presses a key, the bills appear and the strings holding the participants begin to move. They move because something outside—the money, the viewer/user—gave them a signal.

What happens inside the showcase works like a small symbolic machinery. The sketch activates a spectacle; It condenses its logic, its stimuli and its dependencies. The viewer not only observes, he participates. And by participating, you reveal your own role as part of the system. In that sense, my display case is not intended to function as a traditional work of art, but as an active environment that generates an experience. As Brea points out, “There are no ‘works of art.’ There are work and practices that […] play specific roles in relation to the subjects of experience.” (Brea, The Third Threshold, p. 107)

This logic was also what guided the technical and aesthetic decisions. In the process of transferring all the ideas to the canvas, I decided to go in a more minimalist and abstract direction. The ‘showcase’ where the participants live together is a cube with perspective, inside there is a window where we see a circle that transitions from black to white, revealing a moon. I wanted to create simple but strong shapes and elements in their expression. That particular search became entertaining when creating the “human” figures. Using vertex and playing with the data, I created prototypes of figures and faces, finally resulting in those pointed and pregnant figures. The LED screen above is the engine of the work, it materializes the interaction of the public with the participants, the interaction that ultimately crystallizes the main concept of the work. With repetition structures, conditionals and a lot of time playing with vertex, I managed to create bills that appear on the panel when the user presses the “4” key - the key that contains the $ symbol -. Simultaneously, by holding down the key, the participants and the lines that connect them to the ceiling of the showcase move vertically, floating. I wanted those figures to look like puppets being controlled by strings.

These choices made me perceive programming as a language with expressive potential. As Brea states in his Antiglossario, “Only those languages, or domains of significant production, in which a critical exploration of their own limits is carried out contribute productions that we must legitimately consider “art.” (Brea, Brief (and messy) antiglossary, Pixel art section). The code then not only constructs but also exposes. It exposes a conditional bond, a dependency, and a structure that only comes to life if someone decides to activate it.

Literature

• Brea, José Luis. (2002). “La era postmedia: Acción comunicativa, prácticas (post)artísticas y dispositivos neomediales.” Centro de Arte de Salamanca. • Brea, José Luis. “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario —o diccionario de tópicos— sobre el arte electrónico.” En e-barcelona.org, 2004.
• Obra de Benedit, Luis Fernando. https://coleccion.malba.org.ar/fitotron/