Medialab Prado

Abstract:

Demiurgos de la luz (Demiurges of the Light) is an ongoing research and creation project created around 2005. It was first conceived as a study of my work, media artist and VJ, and also as an artistic research around the definition of multimedia. I have always thought that, in order to create, it is important to be able to know what has been created before: to read the history to quote it without repeating it, to generate memory and reflection. It was also born with the goal of visualizing the images that have been built as ephemeral, so we can trap and collect them.

This research, even though it is still in process, is always being feeded by more images and references that I store in my machine and share everytime I'm asked about what I do.

Regarding its themes, it covers several periods of History (still images and moving images), from Wayang Kulit or Shadow play to traditional theater (Greek to Baroque), opera, vaudeville, shows and optical toys from 19th Century (phantasmagories, magic lanterns, etc.), origins of cinema, as well as experiments with visual music, kinetic art, and then music and image fusion durign the 60's and 70's with artists such as Warhol, Jeffrey Shaw, Pink Floyd and Laurie Anderson, and collectives of liquids shows, like the Joshua Light Show.

At the end it tackles contemporary socio-cultural expressions where design, architecture, arts and entertainment involve the concept of real time, here and now.

This research has been presented as a lecture at the University of los Andes and Javeriana in Bogotá, and recently got an invitation from the International Cinema Festival of Cartagena and from the International Festival of Image in Manizales, where it was presented during the international seminar along with lectures by Eduardo Kac, Rejane Catoni, Antoni Muntadas, and Jorge LaFerla.