Expanded cinema installation
MEMORIA is an immersive four-channel expanded cinema installation with custom software and hardware components. It combines ethnographic research, science fiction, and recombinatory forms of cinema that appropriate found or pirated footage. The work intertwines two narrative planes: the dystopian imagination of William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic (1981), one of the earliest cyberpunk short stories, and the real-world Cuban “offline internet”, the physical data distribution network Paquete Semanal. As a collaboration between a media artist, an anthropologist, and a Sci-Fi writer, MEMORIA is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork on Cuban alternative data distribution networks.
MEMORIA’s narrative is presented on 4 synchronized screens that merge live- action footage with found footage from videos that have circulated in Cuba through the Paquete. These materials are taken from ARCA [archive], an artwork consisting of a 64 TB server that contains the entire content of Paquete Semanal for an entire year, the only large-scale archive of this ephemeral phenomenon.
To represent the memory loss of its protagonist, the work will slowly “die” over the course of the exhibition. For this we have developed Lost.CU, a batch script that runs several programs that continuously manipulate the image quality of the videos. Over time the video devours itself through the constant process of faulty replication.
All hardware is housed in a custom case, a sculptural object in itself that was molded by using FOSS and 3D printed from recycled plastic filaments in collaboration with COPINCHA, a hackerspace in Havana that works with local materials and technologies.
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Togetherness, TIVA, Hong-gah Museum. Taipei, Taiwan
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CREDITS
In collaboration with Steffen Köhn
Screenplay_ Erick J. Mota
Director of Photography_ Nicole Medvecka
Staring_ Johnny: Dayron Villalón Pereda / Molly: Cris Gómez Gónzalez / Rafa: Felix Roman / Dog: Fana / Sicario: Benito Guerra / Pirate 1: Albany López Suárez / Pirate 2: Rudelys Rodríguez Pérez.
Production_ Nestor Siré
Costumes_ Raki Fernandez
CGI & VFX_ Alexander Bley
3D artists_ Helman Bejerano Delgado
Editing_ Miguel Coyula, Ginés Olivares
Live Sound_ Claudia Martínez Díaz
Lights_ Studio Los Negrones
Software developer and programming_ Eduardo Pujol
Hardware design_ M0 – COPINCHA
Hardware assembly_ Xsolucion
Dialog Edit_ Malte Audick
Sound Design_ Lorenz Fischer / Malte Audick.
Re-Recording Mix_ Lorenz Fischer
Studio sound_ Raul Perez Rojas
1st AD_ Francesco Innocenti
Music_ Johannes Klingebiel
Prosthesis_ Eric Maza — COPINCHA
Hairstyles and color design_ Salón Donde Dorian: Javier Acosta / Ariel Ángel Rodríguez Santos / Darwins Valenzuela / Camila Pavón Hidalgo / Mileydis Ocaña Fernández / Dorian Carbonell Fernández.
Nail design_ Studio Leydis
Locations_ Restaurante Min Chih Tang / Terminal de Ómnibus Villanueva / Taller SUTEC / Ludi Teatro / Continua Gallery in Havana.
Transportation_ Javier Bisset Avila / Leonardo Orue Martínez
Castin_ Libia Batista Mora
Extras_ Karina Novoa / Nanet Ameneiro Martínez / Leyssy O´Farrill Nicholas / Sergio Ochoa / Marlien Ginarte Álvarez / Geell López / Lau Amaro / Devon Ruiz Avilés / Nelson Enrique Cordoves Leyva / Mel Datway / Osiel Izquierdo Morales / Liuven Dance Datway / Amed de La Paz.
Acknowledgments_ LaTiza Films / Daniel Arévalo / Angel Lam Lee / María Lam Lee / Rafael Vega / Continua Gallery in Havana / Claudia González / Luisa Ausenda / Niurma Pérez / Omar Estrada / Jesús Dulfo Peñalver / Hernán Cordovez González / Roberto Hernández Huete / Yainet Rodríguez / Julia Weist.
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– Co-produced by Aksioma, Institute for Contemporary Art [2023] –
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