Panel Statement

Panel:  Latin America and Cybernetics

Portables, consisted of a curatorial project, which the notion of portable devices was discussed and reflected upon. Electronic devices were developed by artists and then presented. The set of activities included in the curatorial project were: a cognitive mapping session, two workshops of locative media, one in a public school and the other one in Centro Cultural Matucana 100, four presentations of guest artists, seven documentaries of the electronic devices developed by artists working in the city, and an exhibition in the gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts of Santiago. All activities that were involved in the curatorial project, worked under a critical line of thinking assuming the notion of portable devices. This concept, derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “wearable,” refers to the use of circuits or computers that have been introduced both internally and externally to a given body, usually a person. Originally, these devices consisted of health monitoring systems and performance analysis models. Since the term “wearable” has no Latin root, it became necessary to find a word to replace it and portable was chosen.

• Ignacio Nieto: Artist, teacher, designer, writer and programmer, Ignacio Nieto has been devoted to research, development, and implementation of strategies related between art and digital culture. Last year he was jury of Matilde Perez Competition, an exhibition made at Fundacion Telefonica Santiago, he has also developed a Wi-Fi intranet in a popular neighborhood in Santiago and made an art piece involving Wi-Fi portal, Arduino circuits and JavaScript programming language which was shown in Galleria Centro in the city of Talca, Chile. Currently he is preparing an interactive robotic installation for the International Sound Art Festival Tsunami. He also belongs to a research team focused on Zerbarini Latin American net.art, directed by Argentinean artist Marina and funded by National University Tres de Febrero (Buenos Aires). It focuses on individual research of new programming platforms for tablets and mobile phones. He teaches the programming language Processing, at the School of Arts and Photography at University of Science and Communication UNIACC and JavaScript and HTML5 in the school of Design and Communication at the Pacific University, both in city of Santiago, Chile.

Full text (PDF) p. 120-122