V.[u]nf_1
V.[u]nf_1 and the series that emerge from it, address the issue of violence from the perspective of the citizen.
It is composed of digital audio players shaped as a Caracal pistol 9x19 mm. Each of these devices has a built-in Micro-SD card that contains the sound - in mp3 format - that corresponds to the recording of a shooting.
These audios have their origin in the recordings with cell phones made by citizens who are caught in dangerous situations, and then put into circulation through online platforms such as YouTube.
V.[u]nf_2
V.[u]nf_2 explores the consequences of violence in everyday life, specifically in children orphaned by violence in Mexico. The final installation consists of up to 50 sound sculptures printed in 3D (additive sculptures) made from the creative interaction with the children participating in the project.
The creative interaction takes place in a therapeutic environment under the professional practice of the psychologist Verónica Castillo Arnal, specialized in taking care of infants with post-traumatic stress in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
V.[u]nf_2 are a series of additive or 3D print sound sculptures that emerge from and reintroduce themselves in a therapeutic context.
V.[u]nf_3
AWARDS AND HONOURS 2020 V. [u]nf_3 Prix Ars Electronica. Honorary Mention. Category: Digital Communities. Linz, Austria.
Support received from: Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA)/ Secretaría de Cultura Mexico, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Romain Ré (molosc.com).
With gratitude to Mirna Medina and all Rastreadoras. As well as Carolina Robledo and GIASF.
V.[u]nf_3 is a testimonial and memory project of the search for victims of forced disappearance in Mexico through a collaborative audiovisual cyber-cartography in mobile systems and their visualization of data on the web.
The collaborative audiovisual cyber-cartography or mobile application was conceived as a multimedia testimonial, with geolocalized audio recording, accompanied by a photographic, videographic and textual element that would produce a map of the significant spaces-landscapes for the relatives of the disappeared.
The users of the application V.[u]nf_3, who are mostly women relatives of the disappeared, will build a virtual space in which they will record audio, video, photography and text produced by them and share it with other users of the same collectives -in the case that they wish it- generating a multimedia file of shared experiences. They will use this instrument in two ways: (1) to build memory, oral and audiovisual history, and reinforce self-empowerment and a sense of community; and (2) to scientifically systematize data gathered during their hunts and explorations
V.[u]nf_4
AWARDS AND HONOURS: 2021 V.[u]nf_4 Prix Ars Electronica. Honorary Mention. Category: Digital Musics and Sound Art. Linz, Austria.
Support received from: Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA)/ Secretaría de Cultura Mexico, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Romain Ré (molosc.com).
With gratitude to Mirna Medina and all Rastreadoras. As well as Carolina Robledo and GIASF.
V.[u]nf_4 presents a corpus of sounds taken from the activities of Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, or Trackers of El Fuerte, a group of civilians, mostly women, that search in the desert for clandestine graves, in the outskirts of Los Mochis, in the northern state of Sinaloa, in Mexico.
Noises come from recordings made during one of the journeys of Las Rastreadoras, in February 2019. Their voices through their daily interaction, their steps on the ground, the sounds of their main activity: to dig in the open field to try to find the remains of their loved ones, victims of forced disappearance. The strata of sounds of V.[u]nf_4 allude to different moments of one journey. In them appears the relationship that women engage with each other in the common search for justice and truth. The conversations contrast with other registers that document the metallic sound of the tools: shovels and picks used to dig at the points where human remains may be.
V.[u]nf_4 is a multi-layered, participatory sound work. Each layer is an 8-channel sound piece in itself. The viewers decide which layer of the sound piece should be reproduced and when, through a tablet installed in the centre of the sound setting.
V.[u]nf4 is also comprised of a two single-channel sound sculpture, and by at least five tools shaped in a “T” form, a sculptural component that Rastreadoras de El Fuerte use to drill holes in the ground and detect the smell of human remains, which then indicates where they should dig.
This trip was made under the purpose of starting the test on the field of V.[u]nf_3, a mobile app and a data-visualization project made for groups of civilians like Las Rastreadoras.