Paul Rosero Contreras: The Andean Pavilion

Next: Paul Sermon, Steve Dixon, Mathias Fuchs, Andrea Zapp:... »

« Previous: Paul Magee: Chorus

Artist(s):

Paul Rosero Contreras

Title:

The Andean Pavilion

Exhibition:

SIGGRAPH 2017: Unsettled Artifacts: Technological Speculations from Latin America

Creation Year:

2017

Artist Statement:

The Andean Pavilion (2015/2017) is a video installation composed of a series of fictional videos and 3D-printed sculptures, which are the material outcome of the seismic activity in four active volcanoes in the highlands of Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. This project is part of an experimental inquiry speculating on the possibility of emergent relations between the environment, humans, and technology in settings that are heavily defined by natural phenomena.

By means of vibration sensors, volcanic activity was recorded with sound devices and converted into computational 3D models using custom software. The result is a series of hybrid objects created at the intersection of different worlds: geologically inspired artifacts that not only complicate the relations between life and matter, but also expand the notion of in-situ intervention and translation of natural forces into physical matter.

In the Andean highlands of Ecuador, three active volcanoes have been registered: the Cotopaxi, during its first eruption after 138 years of inactivity; the Tungurahua, which has been continually ejecting ash for 17 years; and the Cayambe, recently active after 230 dormant years. In the Galápagos Islands, the Sierra Negra volcano on Isabela Island was recorded at the site of a fumarolic sulfur mine. The Andean Pavilion is, therefore, the reenactment of a momentary encounter between a volcano, a human, and a machine—an encounter that seeks to open up possibilities of interaction and understanding of our surroundings by exposing situations where the human-environmental dynamics are constantly redefined.