mariano sardón

Arithmetica are interactive installations developed during my research time at Hypermedia Studio at the Theater, Film and TV department of UCLA. The researches were focused on studying performative experiences interacting with virtual texts and films.
Characters, words, signs, from various texts are projected according to the movement made by interactors in space and time. Screened words result from the programming of algorithms which react to different physical parameters of the people's trajectories and the geometrization of the space of the work experience.
The installations in this sense have a performative nature, the presence and movement of someone has direct action on the evolution of the works at each moment.
These interactive experiments find their expression in the tension produced by the movement - sometimes erratic, sometimes playful, sometimes in search of meaning - of those who immerse themselves in the interactive environment and the reaction of a set of algorithmic rules. Geometries, programming languages, numbers that model the space and time of the work experience. Users “write” a possible text among many, hidden by the way, and due to its randomness… full of search for meaning.

Arithmetica #1 is an interactive installation between the movement of people in space, texts, images of ruptures and sound. A text in a random sequence is displayed depending on the position of those who enter the space of the work. The same movement of the user interacts with the movie screening.

Arithmetica #2 is an interactive installation between the movement of people in space, texts in memory
Sequences of characters and words develop as people move and saved in memory, so the map displayed in projected words, shows previous sequences made by other interactors.

Arithmetica #3 is an interactive installation where characters and texts maps the movement of people in space. The projected words follow the walk, paths and movements of people revealing the content of texts.

Space and time are shaped by the tools of the language of programming. It is a kind of narrative through algorithms.
The space configurations are as diverse as shapes to the interactive environment one wants to give it.
We become an active part of that geometry, when we enter the active space of the work activating certain implicit rules of the game drawn in that place.
The movement of the body in the space of the work, such as walking, running, turning, stopping and even leaving space itself; are acts to which the installation "responds" in somehow. These works make sense as a kind of instruments of execution, of interpretation by those who engage in them.
The software imposes text selection criteria in relation to the movement but the particular word, character or sign chosen by the machine is random.
The text is spread out on a kind of map resulting from the superposition of trajectories of people in space.

detailed .pdf version in spanish