Installation

A current art project supported by the FONCA and Jack Straw Productions is the development of a sound installation with four acoustic pianos dissemble and activated with actuators such as solenoids and dc motors. Some of the instruments are loosing their original forms, meanings, and sonic connotations but part some elements remain as traces and reincarnations.

In The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allen Poe describes how the narrator's character kills the old man he lives with, how he hides the dismembered body in the scantlings of the chamber, and how he confesses the murder to the police after still hearing the beating of the old man’s heart coming from the underfloor where the body is hidden. While not programmatic, this work –the installation and the musical composition- is based on Poe’s story and uses an old acoustic upright piano electronically and mechanically augmented for representing the sonic imagery described in the writing.

ix-.-.hel creates a visual and audio link between three communication methods: hands, Morse code, and cell phone messages. The audience is an active participant in the result of the work, by being asked to resend the last text message in their cell phone. The text is used to produce visual and sound events, becoming rhythmic when translated into Morse code. The visual content is generated from human hands images provided by the audience. The installation is dedicated to Ixhcel Solis, the artist's sister, deaf since birth. For both, hand language has been an important communication medium. The cell phone messages have become not only a practical way of communication, but the most common way to send instant emotions at a distance. This work was selected in the TRANSITIO_MX International Video and Electronic Arts Festival from Mexico City. You can see the description at TRANSITIO_MX --> festival 05 --> contest --> selected works.