Respiración Suave

Gentle Breathing

Gentle Breathing is a generative visual work based on Lissajous curves, a type of mathematical form that Ben F. Laposky popularized using oscilloscopes in the 1950s. This piece takes up that search from the code, using sine and cosine functions to create a figure that transforms continuously, as if it had its own rhythm, without external intervention.

The drawing is generated in gray scale, seeking a hypnotic effect from a mathematical point of view: a balance between the precise logic of the formulas and the fluid, almost organic movement of time. It does not simulate traditional techniques; It is assumed digital from the first stroke, in line with what José Luis Brea proposes in his Antiglossary: ​​the value lies in what the digital medium can do for itself, not in imitating what already exists.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

The code starts from a very simple structure: a repetition structure that draws points based on sine and cosine functions. With this, Lissajous curves are generated, shapes that arise from combining sine and cosine waves in motion, which change slowly thanks to a variable called time. This variable advances in each frame, and its visual effect is that of a breath: constant, soft and enveloping. The background is repainted with an almost transparent black color, which generates a trail that leaves traces of the previous movement. This reinforces the idea of ​​a body that does not stay still, that vibrates, that breathes. The figure is centered on the canvas, and all movement is given by mathematical calculations, without direct human intervention. It is a system that behaves.

Ben F. Laposky, who worked with analog oscillators, generated very similar images, although using different technology. This work recovers that gesture, but updates it: instead of specialized hardware, free software is used; instead of electrical signals, mathematical functions in a digital environment. Gentle Breathing is based on two central ideas that appear in the texts of José Luis Brea: In Antiglossario, Brea criticizes the use of the computer as if it were a paintbrush (what he calls “nostalgic pixel art”) and proposes that digital art be genuinely digital. That’s exactly what happens here: there is no simulation of another medium. Art is born from code, formulas and animation. In Redefining 21st Century Art Practices, Brea talks about how art no longer needs to have a physical object, and how it can circulate freely online. This work does not have an “original”. It can be shared, copied or modified, and it remains itself. The aesthetic experience is in the behavior of the system, not in an object.

Finally, the viewer is not facing a fixed image. You are facing a process. Although he cannot intervene directly, his gaze comes into play: the work changes all the time, and each moment is unique. There is no pause or end. Just a continuous and soft present. Mathematics, instead of being rigid, becomes poetic. It transforms into visual form, into rhythm, into movement.

Literature

Brea, José Luis (2002), “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario -o diccionario de tópicos- sobre el arte electrónico.” “Net.art.”

BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s. 21)” “Séptimo umbral”