Pozo binario

Binary Well proposes an immersive visual experience that simulates the infinite fall through a tunnel of binary code. The work invites the visitor to immerse themselves in a digital well composed of digits 0s and 1s that float in three-dimensional space, evoking the characteristic aesthetic of the Matrix.

The viewer begins in front of the entrance, observing a constant movement of rotation and approach that generates the illusion of free exploration. That autonomy is just a mirage: once inside, it is propelled with increasing speed towards the depths of the well.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

Binary Well starts from a concern that has been with me for some time: the feeling that we believe we control the systems we inhabit, when in reality it is the systems that guide us. The digit tunnel is not just a virtual space, it is the mirror of that false autonomy. The camera zooms in, rotates, orbits; but once the visitor enters — “voluntarily” or involuntarily —, the experience imposes a single meaning. His movement, even when it seems to be chosen, is nothing more than a false sense of control, it always ends up being returned to the central axis of the tunnel. The gravity of the algorithm is stronger than any human gesture.

I think about this piece from a question that arose when reading César Aira, in his text On Contemporary Art:

What intervention will this work be making in the table of values of this historical moment?

The work does not seek to be aesthetically “beautiful” or technically “good” according to inherited parameters — quoting Aira, “freedom is also, or is in the first place, the freedom of not liking”. Its purpose is to produce a small twist in taste, in perception, in the viewer’s daily relationship with the digital. Let anyone who goes through this binary well recognize something familiar: the intuition that they were already inside before entering, that they were already part of the gear that simulates driving.

Literature

• AIRA, César. (2013) — Sobre el arte contemporáneo, pp. 11-56.