La ventana del autodescubrimiento

The idea is to experience a work in which pulsating lights and variations in movement generate a dissolution of thought, with the intention that the window becomes a place where a sense of calm can be found, and where the depth of the being observing it can be revealed. The work can be experienced in manual mode by pressing “m” or “M”, or in automatic mode by pressing “a” or “A”.

Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual development

This work is a challenge, a search for inspiration, and a confrontation with preconceived ideas that imposed a certain way of being an artist upon me. I was trying to “create” from nothing: to have an idea emerge in my mind and then bring it into the physical world.

It was through Brea’s words that I found relief and a new way of working through my frustrations. When he suggests that “artists no longer exist” but rather producers, and that even “the work itself […] is actually what produces us” (Brea, 2008, p. 106), it gave me the impulse to change the formula: to look within what I already knew and explore what I did not.

I was inspired by the 1972 short film by Lillian Schwartz, created together with Ken Knowlton. When I watched it, its lights dazzled my eyes, its music filled my ears, and together they transported me to intimate places within my memories, where these sensations were multiplied a thousandfold.

I took all of that, dismantled it, rearranged it, and found what I wanted to add: my own imprint. Brea explains that artistic practices are connected to the public production of certain circulating effects—of meaning, symbolism, and intensity (Brea, 2008, p. 111). Through this idea, I seek to explain that my aim was not simply to create a visual product, but to experience the chaos within the work, to hypnotize and fascinate myself, and to find calm within the experience; but above all, to transmit this experience to another person, allowing it to invade their body and their mind.

The work is based on the generation of a pattern of concentric squares whose number varies according to organic noise. These are superimposed onto a grid of dots that vibrate following a sinusoidal movement. If desired, the viewer can intervene through “manual” mode, in which the spacing between the squares is modified according to the position of the mouse. In this way, the work seeks to introduce an intervention into the real-time experience.

The center of the work is the culminating point where the eye inevitably comes to rest. It represents the window of self-discovery, with whatever is found within the window becoming something unique to each person who observes it.

My work is not a creation that simply fell from the sky; it is a production that draws from the wisdom I found in Brea and the magic I found in Lillian.

Bibliography

BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinition of Artistic Practices (21st Century)” in The Third Threshold: The Status of Artistic Practices in the Era of Cultural Capitalism. Murcia: CENDEAC, pp. 106–113.

Brief resume

Catalina Sánchez was born in Buenos Aires. She is a medical doctor who graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in 2024. After graduating, she discovered her passion and love for art and decided to change the direction of her life by beginning a degree in Multimedia Arts at UNA in 2026.