Fragilidad de la Calma y la Locura
It is an interactive work that is built on the tension between serenity and anxiety, where the viewer becomes an agent of an inevitable emotional cycle. In its initial state, the white cube with black edges slowly rotates in a dark blue space illuminated by warm light, evoking calm and stability. However, in front of him there is a red button: a minimal gesture that, when pressed, triggers a transformation process. The cube accelerates its rotation, the camera begins to shake progressively, the light intensifies and the warm colors red, orange, and yellow follow one another frantically, representing anger, anxiety and lack of control. The spectator cannot stop the chaos immediately: he must pass a minimum of time before the button reappears to return him to calm. The work turns the experience into a performative cycle where the button is the switch that reveals our relationship with control, and where calm and madness are not represented, but executed in real time.
Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development
The work is conceived from the perspective of Inke Arns, who understands the code as a performative speech act. In this sense, “Between Calm and Madness” does not represent emotions: it produces them. The red button is the minimal gesture that activates the event, the digital speech act that transforms the space and forces the viewer to go through an emotional cycle. The initial calm of the white cube, slow, stable, softly illuminated, is a state of order that seems safe, but is always one click away from overflowing. When you press the button, the code executes the madness: the camera shakes like an earthquake, the light intensifies until it saturates, and the warm colors of the cube follow one another in sync with the acceleration of its rotation. Anxiety is materialized in the progression itself: the viewer cannot stop it immediately, they must endure the chaos before regaining calm.
Aesthetically, the work is based on the geometric simplicity of the cube and the expressive force of color and light. Conceptually, it fits into Arns’ vision: digital art is not a mirror of emotions, but a device that executes them in real time. The button is our existential switch: the one that turns on and off, but also the one that reveals the fragility of control. We believe we dominate the machine, but in reality it forces us to experience lack of control before restoring our calm. The work thus becomes a metaphor for the contemporary condition: we live between moments of serenity and saturation, and each minimal gesture can unleash an entire world of chaos.
In summary, “Fragility, calm and madness” is a work that connects directly with Arns’ theory, showing how code can be a language to produce emotions in action. Calm and madness are not represented states, but executed processes, where the viewer actively participates and discovers that control is always fragile, always provisional.
Literature ARNS, Inke. (2005). “El código como acto de habla performativo”. En Revista Artnodes, Julio de 2005.