GROWING OUT OF UNNATURAL

Program director: Moisés Mañas (ES)

We have the same mental image for the word “World” and the word “Earth.” The world is a cultural construct and the Earth is the physical support where this world is located. Culturally, we have focused our interests on situations, violent or beautiful, that we perform on this mute stage/scenery, leading these spectacles without perceiving something very basic: there is no figure without a background. We are in front of the cracked bottom of a scenario that challenges us, breaking its muteness.

Using art (techné), as a creative vehicle between nature, world and society, the projects brought together by this exhibition act as funambulistic machines that walk on the threshold of these states, breaking through spaces full of perpetual instability in the order of thinking and also in the order of doing.

Growing out the Unnatural includes seven projects from AVM Master students that critically question these relations between technological culture and the natural environment, going from a microscopic cellular vision to techno-plants, techno-humans or techno-sounds critical symbiosis states, protected by systems of anonymity in the face of digital surveillance.

The Master’s Degree in Visual Arts and Multimedia (AVM) from the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) has been the development framework of these projects carried out by students. The Master’s teachers assume the responsibility of perceiving changes in the social, technological and natural environment to train students in the critical use of technical and conceptual tools. For two years, students have to assimilate and put into practice the complex connections between very different subjects – anchored in philosophy, science, visual arts, music, electronics, computing, and their own way of understanding the world, society and nature. In this way we hope that these connections will trigger the growth of something that, perhaps without knowing it, was silently already within them.

CONTRA

Miguel A. Sislian (ES)

CONTRA project presents itself as an interface with a critical character in relation to different systems. The main concepts which are analyzed are power and control of individuals in both physical and digital spaces.

H.C.S (Hybrid Cellular Scaffolding)

Carlos del Valle (ES)

This ongoing research is an interdisciplinary and speculative process that explores – through the lens of BioArt – the fusion between printed scaffolds and non-organic forms of artificial design and decellularized E.C.M (extracellular matrices). In this hybridization of materials, cells of different cell lines will be cultivated.

Insect a new media

Fernando Asensio (ES), José Luis Cuenca (EC), Alejandra Florez (CO), Silvia García (ES), Noelia Medina (ES), Jordi Sos (ES)

This interactive installation proposes a symbiosis between obsolete technology and natural environment, as an approach to a dystopian future world. A group of sculptural objects composed of plants and technological waste, a multi-screen projection device, a technological codex and a descriptive catalogue make up this undead multimedia project.

NFT (New Flesh Toys)

Guillem Sarriá Verdú (ES)

NFT consists in the design of prototypes for research into possible haptic interfaces that explore anthropomorphic questions and new forms of ergonomics. The use of these speculative artifacts as instruments generates atmospheres through specific references to sci-fi, cyberpunk mythology and sound experimentation.

NISS: Network Interaction Sound Sniffer

Sergio Lecuona Fornes (ES)

NISS is a sound installation that reacts to the exchange of data carried out through a WiFi network. The soundscape produced by eight reception bells and synthesized sounds makes the hidden digital dialogues between devices perceptible.

Reset the Forest

Clara Molinicos (ES)

Reset the Forest: Interactive Reforestation Device is a project developed from an ecomedia perspective. Its main objective is to promote awareness of forest fires through a device equipped with an interactive graphic interface. The installation shows the aerial view of a burned space, which is displayed on a horizontal screen covered with a transparent fertile substrate.

Sonicaedro

Poli Mujica (CL)

Sonicaedro is an installation of an Interactive Interface (HCI) within a dark and closed space. Through the tactile interaction with a dodecahedron of iridescent methacrylate, the user is able to generate a series of visual as well as sound responses in the environment. The videos projected in the room revolve around themes of sacred geometry in nature.

Project Credits:

• http://www.artesvisualesymultimedia.com

Biography:

Moisés Mañas (ES): The selection of works has been made by the academic commission of the master AVM. The program director is the artist and researcher Moisés Mañas (ES, 1973). Senior lecturer of MediaArt in the Sculpture department of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV). He has been working with the relation between art and technology since the mid 90’s. He has participated in collective exhibitions and round tables in ZKM, Future everything, ISEA, Transmediale and Ars Electronica (Campus & Gallery Spaces).