[ISEA2018] Artists Statement: Clarissa Ribeiro, Herbert Rocha & Daniel Valente — Entrancer: Be Sicklecell Be a Hero

Artists Statement

Entrancer: Be Sicklecell Be a Hero proposes a reflection concerning issues of race in science research, mainly related to sickle cell anemia. As an action in public spaces, the work invites the experience of a possible dance with a virtual moving model of a sickle-cell in Augmented Reality – mutated from the 3D model of a normal blood cell using morphogenetic algorithmic strategies. The experience is conducted by the musical rhythm of a Brazilian samba, distorted and combined with sonified fragments of a sickle-cell’s textures under the microscope. The samba metamorphoses the cell into its distorted version, resembling the mutant sickle-cell that changes shape due to a chemical alteration – a strategy against malaria – and not a genetic condition of black men and women. The installation is a tribute to emblematic works of Hélio Oiticica, bringing together in a conceptual combination or convergence the ‘Parangolé’ and the stencil “Be an Outlaw Be a Hero” from the series Marginalia, proposing a piece that is a ‘cross-over’ of both referred works, that has adaptive qualities concerning the most diverse exhibition conditions and spaces, and that is itself a mutant work in relation to the body and the environment.

  • Clarissa Ribeiro (Brazil), PhD in Arts, Former Fulbright Scholar, MArch, B.Arch, is chair of the first LASER talks to be organized monthly in Brazil. As an independent artist she has been producing and exhibiting experimental interactive installations exploring affectiveness and consciousness through metaphorical translations of micro, molecular and subatomic scale phenomena, working in collaboration with other artists, research groups and art collectives in her home country and abroad. clarissaribeiro.com
  • Herbert Rocha (Brazil), Industrial Designer, MSc, works at LAPIN UNIFOR developing innovative products and strategies. He has been collaborating with Clarissa Ribeiro for over a year in projects involving Augmented Reality and 3D modeling and animation.
  • Daniel Valente (Brazil), PhD, works at LAPIN UNIFOR developing innovative products and strategies. He was awarded the Sony Ericsson Content Awards in 2009, and best article in the 11th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment. He has been collaborating with Clarissa Ribeiro for over a year in projects involving Augmented Reality and online application design.