«We are unavoidable data to the pattern of numerical synthesis with which we coexist.
We are signal and trace, We are binary emanations.
We are trace and coding»
Brief
“Traza” is a work piece from the Chilean artist Daniel Cruz. The piece seeks to approach the understanding of body and city, a place where multiple social discourses are exercised and tested , from a system of complex relationships that confront us to become Cibrido. In this way, the body and its activity in the city are observed from their physical -as well as- virtual interference in order to explore the concept of Geography, BigData, Ubicomp, Track and Archive; with a tangential view to the boundaries of privacy and living of the contemporary being.
The Project Installation
“Traza” is a mixed media project that emerges from a small observation within the context of the terrorist attack in the city of Santiago Chile occurred in September the 8th of 2014. The attack took place in the «Subcentro», a shopping center located next to the Escuela Militar subway station. The attack has been catalogued as the most serious terrorist attack in the Chilean territory in the last 20 years. After the explosion of an artifact installed in one of the garbage dumps, 14 people resulted with injuries of several consideration. After this attack, the company “Metro de Santiago”-which manages the underground transport network- decided to take various security measures, among which removing all garbage dumps.
Therefore, the garbage emerges as a possibility of deconstruction of the human behavior in the city tracks. The attack is a rupture in the program of the city, where the structure and mechanics are corrupted.
For the “Traza“ project the focus is on the pay voucher, a ticket in thermal paper that contains information of the travel card called “Bip”. This voucher contains many numbers, abstractions and unearthly data for the common users of the transport system. These receipts, for the ignorance of those who carry them, contain relevant information on urban traceability and how users live in the city. The possibility of linking the 8 numbers of the travel card in the open access website at http://pocae.tstgo.cl/PortalCAE-WAR-MODULE/ blurred the distance for the privacy with only a small gesture that opens a box of uncertainties, that reflects the trace and coding with which we coexist.
This exercise presents on the screen a matrix that shows the activity of the last ninety days. We see how the user’s routes, their entry points into the transportation system; their payment places, the amounts of the transactions, how they flow in the city. These routines show patterns of habitability on the city, denote pulses and rhythms. This information establishes programmatic follow-ups of the user, generating a leak, an error of the system, a fissure of public access that builds a paradox.
In this context the work piece “Traza” emerges, composed by several and different material qualities of representation in order to activate relations and ways of understanding; a website projection (masivo.cl/bipcity), an electromagnetic table and a led display dialogue and build an experience that coheres into the main concept. The installation makes use of mixed media to show several layers of the complexity zone between the privacy dimension, Data and the distances of the digital transducer of energy in the city.
The main content of the piece work is:
1 website projection (Data Projector or LED TV 55”)
1 electromagnetic table (1m x1m x 40cm)
1 led panel text (68cm x 20cm).
Website projection
The website masivo.cl/bipcity shows several habitability graphics. This website contains the data from the users of the transportation system. Users of the subway system were invited to add their own numbers from their transportation cards through their mobile phones, in order to discover an invisible visualization. This invitation builds a relation between the user and the visualization of the unveiled record: a dialogue that emerges from the invisibility in the habitability of the city into a privacy ideology.
RaspberryPI, energy cable; HDMI, Projector, Internet connection; Website.
Electromagnetic Table
The electromagnetic table is built by a electronic system, programming and the residual material of iron that shows magnetic pulses, a kind of mechanical material motion. This electromagnetic system uses the information obtained from the database of the website (masivo.cl/bipcity). The energy is controlled by a programming system that shows for 3 minutes the electromagnetic pulses of one user in random list. After this activity, the system stops for ten seconds in order to restart the motion of residual iron. The system translates the invisible energy of the transportation users through material contraction, a torsion between data control and poetic visualization.
RaspberryPI, 25 electromagnetic points; energy cable, Internet connection; website, table, light; transparency, 5kg of residual iron.
Led Display | Text
The led display shows the text “We are unavoidable data to the pattern of numerical synthesis with which we coexist. We are signal and trace, We are binary emanations. We are trace and coding.”
Led Display 60x28cm. Energy 220v or 12v, 1 near power source, Cable runs from the box to the installation
2 nail points.
