2024-01-25
Gabriela Ruiz - Digital Works
animations for installations
Over 2023 and 2024, I collaborated with Gabriela Ruiz on video installation projects "Digital Engrams" and "Now and Forever," both of which included multi-channel animations.
Now and Forever, 2024
Powder-coated aluminum, TV monitors, micca players, wiring,
nuts and bolts on acrylic sheet
96 x 48 x 24 inches
ππ’π π’πππ₯ ππ§π π«ππ¦π¬, 2023
Video editing by @derekholguin
Sound by @0ll668
The install was created during my residency @umichhumanities at the Humanities Gallery. Curated by the fabulous @mandyk63 The show is open through December 8th, 2023.
I also had the privilege to speak at @pennystampsseries , thank you to Chrisstina Hamilton for the opportunity to share my story.
I would also like to thank Caitlin Driver, and Chris Humphrey at the FabLab for all the support and knowledge I received during this entire process. Thank you to the staff at @umichhumanities
The notion that our brains actually create memories first stored and then revisited has been contemplated since the time of Plato and Aristotle. These units of memory or engrams, are poetic portals through which we time travel, gaining hindsight and foresight, more meaning and greater wisdom, and hopes for a future less encumbered. Beyond reminiscences of technicolor sunsets, perhaps memories are simply the brain's records of endless repetitions and familiar neural pathways.
In an era of iPhones, Macbooks, Instagram, and Facebook, everything that's happened to us in recent memory is at our immediate disposal and made to look noticeably better than the original .. every day of every year, every meal of every trip, every posteard destination.
With constant 24/7 access to the newsreel of our own lives, are we losing our innate ability to remember what matters in the process?
In the site specific Digital Engrams, L.A. artist Gabriela Ruiz sources video from her cellphone and the internet, in combination with visceral color, sound, and sculptural elements to create an immersive environment that challenges our sensibilities. The installation considers how images function on and off the screen, and how memories real and curated are at the crux of personal and cultural identity. Who do we think we are in this life or the eternal life on the internet hereafter?
