![Noise On Off: inside [outside] the anechoic chamber](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/201a60_2c8ba79b1b4d4974a31c540a1515e692~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_120,h_120,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/puntoglitch.png)
Process
What is the form of silence and noise in the digital age?
This page reveals the retrospective of an artistic investigation spanning more than two decades: a path that begins in the search for its own language, progresses through the study of noise in its pure, political nature, and culminates in the approach and reflection on the interferences of digital time.
The process begins with the active fusion of analog (engraving, drawing, collage) with digital (audio, code, glitch). This work explores the evolution and aspects of the hybrid methodology applied to the image, the approach to code (using Sonic Pi and Python), the work with sound frequencies, and the proposal of the "Subversive Love Collective" project. The aim is to demonstrate how interference—the hallmark of our time—becomes the raw material of this piece of integrated digital art.
The Process: Artistic Research and the Evolution of Noise .
The work that makes up this retrospective is part of the record of a path that began with noise as an object of study and evolved towards the reflection of the visual and sound interferences of our digital time.
The creative process, spanning more than two decades, has been forged in the constant convergence of methods between analog and digital.
I. The Conceptual Evolution: From Broken Silence to Digital Paradox.
The conceptual foundation of this retrospective lies in the negation of silence. If John Cage demonstrated the impossibility of biological silence in the anechoic chamber, my work seeks to update this paradox to the information age: noise is the constant interference that defines digital existence.
The starting point was the use of noise in its most plastic form from a personal perspective. Observing the environment and the political noise (Caracas Noise, Venezuela Politics, Bird Insect) led me to understand it as the manifestation of a natural, social, and psychological interference. The concept expanded: noise today is understood as the events that unfold in digital time, manifesting as information overload and constant fragmentation. Thus, the work is a continuous dialogue between the slow (the permanence of the analog) and the fast (the flow of data).
II. Genealogy of Practice: Hybridization and Material Rupture
My artistic exploration began in the workshop, where technical experimentation and the play of contrasts established a counterpoint between the manual-academic and the freedom of intervention.
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Plastic Foundations and Glitch: The work in graphic techniques focused on collage (Circular Collages) as a constant practice of visual fragmentation. The process took advantage of and adapted technical errors, conceiving the error (glitch) as an essential part of the composition.
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Material and Sonic Rupture: This period focused on material hybridization (Shadows, Squares, Circles - CDs) by incorporating unconventional elements and discarded technology (CDs) as matrices and references to sound. This act marked the formal beginning of my explorations with music production software.
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Subversion of the Support: The appropriation of fashion catalogs (Subverted Catalogs - Paper Landscapes) was a key action, intervening in them to divert their message and highlight their chromatic qualities, or reusing their figures (Faces and Gazes of a Landscape).
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The Digital Turn: Faced with limited tools and access to the printmaking workshop, the work migrated to digital (Fragmented Paintings: Graphic Variations); focusing on figurative abstraction and exploring the possibilities of image editing, as a new form of study to implement with analog and digital graphic printing techniques.
III. Convergence Methodology: Noise as Data and Sign
Current practice operates from the Convergence Methodology, where noise is analyzed and transformed into data that is articulated in the image and sound.
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Active Capture and Listening: Noise is collected through urban wanderings, observation of natural phenomena, and the distance/proximity between objects (found objects that once made a sound). This is recorded using photographs, field recordings, and online graphic resources, and then processed using open-source and commercial audio production software.
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The Heart as Political Noise: the genesis of the heart symbol was an act of critique and satire. Based on its use in electoral manipulation campaigns, the work dismantles it to narrate moments of violence, transforming the manipulated sign into a piece of art-critique (Venezuela Politics - Postcards).
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Language as Noise - Algorithmic Intervention: The work starts from the premise that language, in its essence, is a form of noise. This idea is put into practice in the "Text Blocks" series, where texts and words are encoded using Python and Sonic Pi.
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The Code: This is used to translate syntax into compositions where tonal/atonal noise is mixed, exploring the repetition and rhythm of language transformed into sound. Graphic noise also comes into play, generating visual compositions, glitches, and patterns that reveal the hidden structure of the text. The goal is to unveil the friction between communication and digital interference.
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Data as Raw Material: elements inherent to the manipulation software (the histogram or waveforms) are decontextualized and used as graphic resources (Virtual Landscape - Histograms), seeking the structural interrelation between image and sound.
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Audiovisual Exploration: the compositions (Noises - Video) are based on the mixture of soundscapes and music with noise, achieving the animated fusion of visual and sound material to explore the relationships of full-empty, saturation-superposition, etc.
IV. Virtual Installations: Activation of Noise
The virtual installations are not merely an exhibition component, but active pieces designed to playfully confront the viewer with the contradictions of digital interference. Their conceptual focus is the exploration of what resides within [and outside] the living space (the body), physical space, and virtual space, from the perspective of each viewer's reality.
Digital Time: Noise and Permanent Friction
Digital Time is how the world of the internet and cell phones has changed our lives. Instead of being a peaceful place, it is filled with constant noise. This manifests as five major conflicts or "frictions":
- Paradox of Memory (The Impossible Forgetting):
We want everything to be immediate, but at the same time, the internet never forgets anything. What we did or said years ago is always there, like a heavy backpack we can't get rid of.
Information Paradox (Data Overload):
We have access to more information than ever before, but there's so much of it that we get lost and don't know what's important or true. Our attention breaks into pieces (Fragmented Attention).
Paradox of Connection (Accompanied Loneliness):
We are connected to thousands of people, but that connection is often superficial. We feel alone even with our phones in our hands. Furthermore, we act as if in a play (Performative Identity) to get others to interact with us.
Paradox of Speed (The Hamster Wheel):
Things change quickly, but our real lives feel stagnant. We're always navigating the same content (The Perpetual Loop), and doing many things at once (Multitasking) makes us feel busy, but less productive.
Paradox of Vision (The Echo Chamber):
The internet promised we would hear everyone's voice, but programs and algorithms only show us what we want to hear. We live in an echo chamber where our ideas are repeated, and the rules that control what we see are secret (algorithmic opacity).
In summary: Digital time is a continuous struggle between what technology promises us and how it actually affects us as human beings.
The Foundation of the Subversive Love Collective
The Subversive Love Collective was born from artistic research forged in the constant convergence of analog and digital methods. Our trajectory establishes the conceptual framework that formalizes our vision today.
It emerges as a multidisciplinary entity with the mission of unifying diverse personal visions around the noise of "Love" (both visual and auditory), using the reach of the internet as a vehicle to actively intervene in the alternative and cultural scene from multiple spaces and borders.
Our central focus lies in "Art as a Vital Flow of Survival" and "Utilitarian Art," which merge playful and formal practices. We seek to stimulate individual and collective critical thinking by translating conceptual work into multidisciplinary experiences and everyday objects, promoting art as an active agent of transformation.
The Store as the Outcome
The inclusion of the online store is not merely a commercial component, but the final act and culmination of this retrospective. It conceptualizes the fate of art in the age of information overload and digital time.
By becoming mass-produced Print On Demand objects, the exhibited artwork deliberately loses its "aura" (Walter Benjamin), not only because of its reproducibility, but also because it contributes to the overload of objects and data that define our consumption. This process does not destroy the essence, but rather completes it critically and playfully, taking the concept of noise to the final stage of commodification.
Conclusion:
The Displacement of the Sign and the Integral Work
The set of series and themes that make up this retrospective are held together by the conceptual thread of noise, which has evolved from the graphic representation of lived time to the exploration of digital reality.
This website, as a whole, is conceived as a personal anechoic chamber and aims to be a comprehensive digital artwork. The objective is not only to exhibit, but to construct an environment in which the act of browsing, confronting intimacy, and purchasing within a noisy space becomes part of the process. The work exists in its integral form and is activated and completed in the encounter with the viewer, with the promise of continuation and expansion, the "For the Birds" project being the series currently under development.
Acknowledgments
I am deeply grateful to everyone who has been a part, directly or indirectly, of this life and research project. Thank you all so much for your support and inspiration.