Mobile Tagging Art. Redes y cadenas Pedro Morales Rafael Cadenas

8/3/2019 Mobile Tagging Art. Redes y cadenas Pedro Morales Rafael Cadenas

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PEDROMORALES

de redes y CADENAS

Mobile Tagging Art


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Reality bey

This o


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Cuntas utopas derrumbadas

3-D Print, ABS plastic, feathers, Microsoft Tag31 x 30 cm

2011


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I enjoy exploring th

ding good and beautif

the fusion between hu

vity since the early

mobile phones was mer

this unknown immensit

get, but convinced I

one can conceive thei

I am able to show wha

that has taken years:

invented to reach the

tension of our senses

ty to connect us also

humanizing that porta

for worse complements

space in art, within


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Vanidad

3-D Prints, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag75 x 47 x 15 cm.

2011


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PEDRO MORALES:

EXPLORING, LEARN

Notes on art and


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Homo Sapiens Novus

3-D Print, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag9.5 x 9.5 cm

2011

From the dematerialization of the picto-rial image to the (re)materialization ofthe digital image

The creating journey of a visual artist such as Pedro

Morales (Maracaibo, Venezuela; 1958) is clearly

marked by the incorporation of new digital technolo-

gies as the essential core of his creative explora-

tions. In 1988, he drastically transformed his picto-

rial orientation, putting aside the traditional means:

pigments, canvas, fabric, and embracing computers as

an instrument to expand his aesthetic horizons.

Thats how Pedro Morales started his journey into

what he called: the dematerialization of the pictorial

image. That is, producing an image using only the

properties of a computer as the instrument to create

it, therefore, reaching sensorial grounds as a result

of the prolific symbiosis between creator, softwareand hardware.


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En Realidad


2011


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Contradiccin


2011

Pedro Morales was quick to sense that the appearance

of computers represented significant challenges forartistic creation, which implies: a) dominating the

technical features of the new means; b) overcoming

the early and superficial astonishment towards the

novelty that could have represented an obstacle to

understand the potential of using digital technolo-

gies in the context of artistic creation; c) creating

a unique language from digital resources; d) explor-

ing the interactive and multimedia possibilities new

technologies offer; e) defeating the apocalyptic in-

terpretations of using digital means, f) as well as

their unquestioned and condescending integration.


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Assuming these dilemmas has shaped up a creative work

body that, through time, has utilized a variety of

options always related to the crossbreeding of artand new technologies, from holograms and stereograms,

digital animation integrating sound and image in mo-

tion, videogames, virtual reality devices, the incor-

poration of the web as a platform for content and a

broadcasting medium, to Morales recent explorations

using technologies applied to mobile telephones (QR

Codes, HCCB codes) and incorporating 3-D printing

techniques where art operates not as a mimetic repre-

sentation of reality but, on the contrary, as a re-

production in reality of something previously modeled

in the computers virtual screen.

The philologist that complains about words

3-D Prints, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag9.5 x 9.5 cm ea.

2011


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Paradoxically, something that started in Pedro

Morales work as an exploration on the dematerializa-

tion of the pictorial image, what some researchers

call virtual reality and others prefer to call multi-

sensorial digital simulation, currently transforms,

thanks to microelectronic technologies, into the

(re)materialization of the visual image. However,

this return comes from the conversion of pictorial

images into digital signs, images that (re)materia-

lize through a language articulated under the struc-

ture of binary codes.

Poetics of digital images

Now, in Morales digital creations we can perceive the

coexistence of a typically technological perspective

and the conscious and strictly formal search for an

aesthetic dimension. The confluence of the new digi-

tal technologies with the essential sensorial dimen-

sions of the creating process is clearly present in

his work, as well as the articulation of new language

codes and the proposition of new forms of experience.

No est de ms tener cuidado

3-D Print, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag14 x 14 cm

2011


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Dialog according to a dictator

3-D Prints, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag14 x 56 cm

2011


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This confluence allows us to understand that the crea-

tion proposals encompassed in this body of artistic

work are not bound by the limits of the technologies

applied. On the contrary, it represents the subjuga-

tion of instrumental boundaries. It involves the po-

ssibility to find, within the framework of the creating

process, new alternatives: using new materials, deve-

loping or modifying applications, experimentation.

Thus, the confluence of these two dimensions, aesthe-

tic and technological, makes way for a new set of

rules for the image and, therefore, for the sensitive

and cognitive experience it produces. The visual image

becomes: polysemous, interactive, multimedia, open,

dynamic, self-referential and virtual. It is evident

that through the use of new technologies, the possi-

bilities of the visual image get multiplied, sugges-

ting the emergence of a new wave of poetics that needs

to look into the new tensions the digital image puts

into play.

Mistery


2011


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Brilliant Career


2011


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Exploring, learning, finding

In Pedro Morales work, the incorporation of new

technologies represents an exploration of grounds of

inhospitable, unknown geographies. In the artists

words, Its not about adapting to new technologies,

on the contrary, its about owning them and using

them to cater to my aesthetic needs and interests. I

assume technology to humanize it; technological ins-

truments reproduce that which represents the purpose

of my creative experimentation, what they reproduce

is marked by my identity and sensibility as creating

subject.

Now, this creative experimentation, this willingness

to create allows him to explore beyond the boundaries

of whats known, it represents a journey to the lim-

its of the imagination that leads both the creator

and the audience into a permanent learning process.

In simple words, Pedro Morales summarizes it as: ex-

ploring the unknown, exploring and finding; learning,

learning and learning. Exploring, learning and find-

ing. There lies the dignity of his aesthetic search:

an experimental effort to find, in the context of the

uncertainty involved in innovation, other ways of con-

ceiving and experimenting visual sensibility, a way

of humanizing the applications of new technologies.

Residencia fija


2011


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If the sensitive experience of art is the possibility

of the other, of the difference, then the unknown in

the field of new technologies foster and enrich the

creative work of Pedro Morales and, based on his

aesthetic inquiry at the confluence between art and

new digital technologies, it enables it to restore

the sublime, that is, the beauty in all forms and

signs that permanently accompany the creating exerci-

se of Morales throughout the intricate paths of the

human horizon.

Shelter


2011


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RAFAEL CADENAS,

THE REAL, THE IN

Jacqueline Goldberg

If the poem isnt bor

in


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A few years ago, when Rafael Cadenas poems started

circulating the Internet, neither the poet nor us,

his readers, could conceive a more technological way

of reading him. E-books were still far from the pic-

ture. And as it usually happens, the future disman-

tles any notion of novelty, and illusions end up

feeding our most deeply rooted imaginary. It is from

a tangle of possible impossibilities that the artist

Pedro Morales reveals a different Rafael Cadenas,

showing us that the commotion produced by poetry

allows new meanings simply by modifying our percep-

tion processes and the way we approach the word.

Infantil


2011


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Morales conceals the words of the well-known and

awarded Venezuelan poet in a set of small, weaved

acrylic or thread squares. At first sight, these

squares constitute a work of visual art that, though

quite suggesting, doesnt fall out of the conven-

tional: rich abstract weaves for everyone to adapt

to their own references. Thats the visible piece,the one that occupies the exhibition room, an object

that can be acquired and moved to any space. Morales

artistic proposal consists of making us pass through

that warp using mobile telephones or portable multi-

media devices with built-in cameras by pointing at

the squares using the software Microsoft Tag, which

instantly recognizes them as 2D barcodes. These codes

are links to Rafael Cadenas poems.

Poetry, just like the art piece, becomes an interac-

tive experience. It travels from a coded yet poetic

element into the digital world and then to a reading

that, at the same time, unveils poetrys very own

cogs. Its a kaleidoscopic game of tectonics: those

of Pedro Morales pieces and those of Rafael Cadenas

poetry, a set of metaphoric layers that transform

the apparent into invisible and the concealed into

reality.

Pluralismo


2011


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Una distraccin


2011


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CADENAS: Loudspeaker


2011


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Exhibition visitors spectators, readers, explorers,

experimenters? are required to carry out specific

actions to reach wherever their own yearnings allow

them. They can stop at the delicate beauty of the

weaves and not admit they are Microsoft Tags. They

can admire the material representation of those

codes, so common in the world of advertising, andstill feel immersed in their particular aesthetics

resembling medieval codices, Mayan symbols and even

the Braille writing system, without ruling out a dia-

logue with kinetic art. And finally, using technolo-

gy, they can get redirected to Rafael Cadenas poems

to start a new ride, the journey of linguistic poly-

semy and the dejection of the soul.

As a matter of fact, as this catalog offers us the

opportunity to take home a good part of the Microsoft

Tags weve seen in the exhibit hall, it makes us ree-

valuate Walter Benjamins precepts on reproducibility

and the long voyages of hermeneutics, epistemology,

hypertextuality and digital hyper-reproducibility.

Behind the lithographic images, the poem remains in-

visible, but turns into words when using the same

tools demanded by the real piece in the gallery.

Peace

3-D Prints, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag27 x 14 x 14 cm

2011


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In peoples electronic devices, the poems come out as

light, abstract shapes the eye transforms into words

and speech: light tamed by reading, an artificiality

that achieves the unveiling of the poem.

In more than half the art pieces in the exhibit

De redes y CADENAS (Of Networks and CADENAS), RafaelCadenas poetry is reviewed and revisited with an

unprecedented perspective that doesnt modify its

certainty as it gets transferred into a digital con-

tainer. It is not by chance that this catalog begins

with a quote by Cadenas about tumbled utopias.

Both creators have known how to get rid of paradigms,

keep their eyes wide open and, especially, be grateful.

Real words grow in pages, writes Rafael Cadenas.

But Pedro Morales makes these words abandon any hint

of reality at least the most immediate and obvious

one to appear in a fragile screen from where, just

like in a book or a website or peoples memories,

they continue their journey into eternity.

CADENAS to fly

Textile ensemble, Microsoft Tag140 x 100 cm

2010


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Writing

Assembly, feathers, inkjet, Microsoft Tag28 x 22 cm

2009

Readings


2009

Words


2009


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Doing Well by Doing Good.Multimedia Installation

A LOOK AT THE LAKE is an intervention in

Maracaibos urban landscape, a collecti-

ve communicational experience that usesthe aesthetic features of fractal

shapes, communications technology, and

the laws of chaos to create a sustaina-

ble, self-organized social channel ori-

ginated from mass-consumption-product

distribution systems (e.g. pop soda), or

from the public transportation system of

a given area of the city.

Using 2D mobile phone codes as a connec-

tion tool, I propose pedestrians to in-

teract with the movable installation

using their phones a device known by

everyone, everywhere. Once they realize

they can interact with the art piece, if

they choose to scan it, theyll find

messages, quotes focused on sustainable,

green principles, taken from the best

practices of the corporate world, which

enhance the value of appreciating a ba-

ttered natural treasure.

I reinv

soft ta

I push force it

error in

pose to

of aest

The ins

of coll

users w

phone a

the pie

nourish

result

this in

Within t

screen,

network

raise e

concept

and sci

vides a


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Doing well by doing good

Digital embroidery on raffia mesh,Microsoft Tag

300 x 400 cm2010


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The game of life

3-D Prints, ABS plastic, Microsoft Tag12 x 12 x 12 cm

5 x 5 x 5 cm2011


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To Colombia

Metal thread embroider y, Microsoft Tag80 x 110 cm

2010

Passion for the unknown

To me, finding an intimate and personal relation

with digital media represents a form of passion.

Through my work, I make these means adapt to my needs,

my identity is always present in my work. Exploring

motivates me, I am drawn to the unknown, to exploringthe unknown. I prefer to be constantly exploring and

finding. Its not about searching a preset result, on

the contrary, the essence of my work is based on ex-

ploring and finding () Making digital means do what

I intend it to do, forcing it to do things it wasnt

originally designed to do. This effort involves ac-

quiring knowledge beyond whats known, aiming beyond

the apparent. This passion for the unknown has made

3D printing a possibility for art and has set a new

horizon for the applications of this new technology.

So, its about humanizing, turning technologies into

a sign of human expression. If they are designed

to do a, we can make them do b, c and z.Exploring the unknown means going beyond, breaking

barriers.

PM


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Shanghai Lover

Textile ensemble, wiggle eyes, Microsoft Tag100 x 80 cm

2010


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Found in the internet

Textile ensemble, digital embroidery, Microsoft Tag210 x 140 cm

2009


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The weight of a feather

Textile ensemble, embroidery, feathers,Microsoft Tag

210 x 140 cm2009

Colombia cross stitch

Textile ensemble, tile separators,QR Code

210 x 140 cm2009
http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/http://mobiletaggingart.pedromorales.com/


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Black little angels

Digital embroidery, Microsoft Tag80 x 100 cm

2009

Learning by doing

Over the last few years, Ive done nothing but learn,

learn and learn. I have dared though, to look a littlebeyond what Ive learned, to break the pre-set barri-

ers of both the artistic and technological worlds,

therefore facing a field of infinite learning oppor-

tunities. We learn through the constant, dynamic and

daily interaction between the materials we use and

the conceptual horizons we establish with our work.

It takes courage, strength, confidence and determina-

tion to achieve satisfactory results and agree to

show them. I resisted at first the idea of having a

solo-show. I never think Im ready, my work is always

experimental. It is a game I play with the constant

manipulation of the materials to generate my pieces.My current interests revolve around tri-dimensiona-

lity, I am constantly enriching my knowledge about

this new horizon, I intervene it by changing algo-

rithms, altering routines, by learning on the go.

PM


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Why dont you shut up?

QR Code, plastic beads,coin, nylon

34 x 30 cm2008


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Talking door

Thumbtags on wood, QR Code210 x 80 x 4 cm

2008

Nowadays, art and knowledge are connected. In a

world full of symbols and information, it is impossi-

ble to escape knowledge. Managing information is key

in any field. Technological and scientific advances

are present in all spheres of life. So, in order to

go further, we need to learn. Theres so much infor-

mation that sometimes it eludes us. So, we need to

enquire on our own, as there will always be countless

more possibilities than we can ever find. I emphasize

learning. I would not be able to show my work without

what I have learned. The only way to find the unknown

is by discovering it, and the only way to discover

the unknown is by learning. To me, discovering and

learning represent the greatest excitement.

PM


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To Rafael CaBrief


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Pedro Morales (Maracaibo, VE. 1958) is a pioneer o

La Mirada, (The Gaze), ca. 1989, made entirely i

is one of the first works of digital art documente

pressing the warmth of the heart and the inner lan

of the challenge of pushing the aesthetic limits o

known as virtual reality.

Morales was honored with Salon Arturo Michelenas

work has been in individual exhibits at the Sofia

of Caracas, and his piece Generacion Fractal (Fr

the FAMA Award, granted by the fund for arts spons

Grand Prize in the 20th Art Show of Aragua (1995).

of Maracay and Maracaibo both exhibited his Natura

(1997). He has participated in Prix Ars Electronic

Morales represented Venezuela in the 50th Venice B

ship of the Viewer (2003) with his iconic work C

artistic creations made on and for the internet. Ccountry, it was still viewed (navigated) by thousa

is a high point in his career and a landmark for V

For two decades, Morales research in visual arts

using everyday household events as background for

fractal geometry to exhibit his mosaics, the home

beauty arduously taken by the artist from technolo


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Pedro Morales has explored his vision of the picture within the picture using

stereography, his virtual volumes, freed from wires and screens and yet loyal to

their digital nature. His exhibit Bordados Porno (Porn Embroideries, 2007) was the

result of a long creative seclusion that led him to approach tri-dimensionality on

the plane. 3D vision, a recent fashion, has been widely researched and documented

by Morales since the late nineties.

Bi-dimensional codes (QR and HCCB), now popular in mobile telephones and printed

ads, have been dismembered and reassembled with paper and leather flowers and

pieces of plastic on raffia by Morales since 2007. In his most recent works, Pedro

Morales experiments with new materials and techniques, using elements produced by

3D printers, abstractly-created volumes turned into objects without going through

industrial processes, displays with messages that can be deciphered with a mobile

phone. His recent 3D pieces come from open-source handmade printers assembled by the

artist himself. His work also talks with his own voice. Part of the advanced inter-

activity of his recent work, mediating mobile connectivity, is the fact that each

code can bear a personal message which can be changed as life goes on, uploading

phrases, URLs and feelings onto the art piece, just like any other social network.

In 2010 he participated in the Shanghai Art Expo in China, after having receivedinvitations from Madrid, Bogota and Miami. He participated in the exhibit Vital

Lake at the Lia Bermudez Center for the Arts in Maracaibo. In 2011, his individual

exhibit de redes y CADENAS (of networks and CADENAS) at Galeria DMuseo is an

artistic statement of the particular 21st-century phenomena known as pan-communi-

cation: Everything and everyone bearing contents and meanings in all combinations

possible. Without sacrifice of the aesthetic engagement.


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MisteryVivir en el misterio, frase redundante.

Brilliant CareerDesconoca su idioma; por eso hizo

una brillante carrera poltica.

Residencia fijaLa poesa no tiene residencia fija,por eso es tan difcil dar con ella.

ShelterHablo desde la crcel que tu tambin conoces, pero

qu pasa si la aceptamos?no se vuelve albergue?

no se une a nosotros para formar un ser real?

InfantilLa enfermedad infantil del comunismo

es el comunismo.

PluralismoEl pluralismo vive amenazado por

los fanticos de toda calaa.

Una distraccinEl Emperador ordena:

debemos amarnos como hermanos.Para cumplir con tan piadoso propsito

he decidido aumentar al mximoel nmero de soldados de mi ejrcito.

De crnicas chinas.

5.

9.

13.

15.

17.

Cuntas utopas derrumbadasCantas utopas derrumbadas.

Esto te abri los ojos. Agradcelo.

VanidadEl insignificante emperador de Liliput

se consideraba a si mismo,sin mostrar ninguna prueba,

terror y delicia del Universo,aunque haba conocido

a un destacado agentedel entonces mayor Imperio,que deca llamarse Gulliver.

Homo sapiens novusSegn las ltimas investigacionesde los

paleoantroplogos, el hombre nuevo de larevolucin tiene 150,000 aos.

En realidadLos que matan en realidad no han vivido.

ContradiccinCristbal Coln

tantea buscandoen la oscuridad

su estatua.Los que la derribaronan hablan espaol.

The philologist that complains about wordsEl fillogo que se queja de las palabras

las espa, les averigua su vida,lugar de nacimiento

fechalinaje

eclipsesregresos,

qu desean,cmo vinieron a dar aqu,

dnde se esconden para no ver,a qu hora sufren,o si an cantan.

Hace tanto se amig con ellas.les reprocha, s, que se vuelvan cortesanas,

que se alquilen,que se deshonren,

pero sobre todo que cuando los dictadoreslas usan, ellas no les queman los labios.

No est de ms tener cuidadoLawrence M. Kraus dice que el Homo

sapiens fue la primera criatura en 4,000millones de aos de este planeta que

desarroll una explcita espiritualidad.Tan explcita fue que l acab con sus

predecesores que tuvieron la mala suertede toprselo. Homo neanthertalensis

fue, al parecer, su ltima vctima. En otraspalabras: somos peligrosos.

Dialog according to a dictatorVersin originaria: Cuando yo dialogo

no quiero que me interrumpan.Versin segunda: Yo dialogo,

pero advierto que no cedo en mi posicin.Versin tercera: En dilogo, los que me contradigan

deben reconocer de antemano su error.Versin cuarta: Despus de cavilar, dictaminohumildemente que el dilogo es innecesario.

19.

21.

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25.

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31.

35.

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39.

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47.

63.


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octubre - noviembre 2011

EdicinDMuseo

TextosGerardo Zavarce

Jacqueline Goldberg

Pedro Morales

Nicomedes Febres

FotografaCarlos Germn Rojas

Diseo GrficoLuisa Ponte C.

Direccin editorialMarco Antonio Surez

ImpresinGrficas Lauki

DMuseoCentro de Arte Los Galpones, Galpn G2,Av. vila con 8a transversal, Los Chorros.Caracas, Venezuela.Telf: (58 212) 2840943 / [email protected]

PEDRO

MORALES

de redes y CADENAS

Mobile Tagging Art

Documents

Mobile Tagging Art. Redes y cadenas Pedro Morales Rafael Cadenas