 |
| "Capitoline Brutus". Bronze, Roman artwork of the Republican Era, 4th-3rd centuries BC |
The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like (Wikepedia).
But the way we used to “create” portraits 16 centuries ago is quite different from the way we “make” portraits in our technology-oriented century. We have mobile cameras (e.g. iphone) that take pictures using filter-based software (e.g. instagram), which is sent to social networks (e.g. facebook) in order to broadcast a residual image of ourselves.
Datatraits takes a step further. It uses recorded and real-time queries (data feeds) redirected from Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google (G. Images, G. Books, Blogspot, G. News), among others, in order to “build” an algorithmic portrait of 12 poets, twelve poets that have influenced my artistic practice and life.
These poets are Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE), Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), Novalis (May 2, 1772 – March 25, 1801), Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892), Konstantinos Cavafy (April 29, 1863 – April 29, 1933), Fernando Pessoa (June 13, 1888 – November 30, 1935), Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896 – March 4, 1948), Octavio Paz (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998), Juan Liscano (July 7, 1914 - February 17, 2001), Alejandra Pizarnik (April 29, 1936 – September 25, 1972), Roberto Juarroz (October 5, 1925 - March 31, 1995), and Yolanda Pantin (October 10, 1954).
The way I am going to depict each character differs from the way we display a photograph or a realistic representation. Instead, I will program a structure that will output a symbolical expression of each author. The next example is a video capture of a datatrait of Quetzalcoatl. This datatrait was recently commissioned by LACMA and belongs to a group of works named Quetzalcoatl 2.0.1.2
These poets are Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE), Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), Novalis (May 2, 1772 – March 25, 1801), Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892), Konstantinos Cavafy (April 29, 1863 – April 29, 1933), Fernando Pessoa (June 13, 1888 – November 30, 1935), Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896 – March 4, 1948), Octavio Paz (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998), Juan Liscano (July 7, 1914 - February 17, 2001), Alejandra Pizarnik (April 29, 1936 – September 25, 1972), Roberto Juarroz (October 5, 1925 - March 31, 1995), and Yolanda Pantin (October 10, 1954).
The way I am going to depict each character differs from the way we display a photograph or a realistic representation. Instead, I will program a structure that will output a symbolical expression of each author. The next example is a video capture of a datatrait of Quetzalcoatl. This datatrait was recently commissioned by LACMA and belongs to a group of works named Quetzalcoatl 2.0.1.2
Additionally, I will document my creative and programming process, so people can understand the complexity that lies beneath each project. The resulting datatraits will be compatible with most web browsers and tablets, including iPads, iPhones, and other mobile devices.
Datatraits extends my interest in representing and visualizing data, as well as poetry. Works such as
Maximum Security (1998-2004)
No comments:
Post a Comment