Grupo Proyecto Biopus

The Grupo Proyecto Biopus, La Plata City, Argentina, has been working sotto voce for several years, researching and creating interactive technological systems that react to the public’s movements and contact through sensors which, in turn, start virtual ecosystems. Emiliano Causa, Tarcisio Pirotta and Matías Romero Costas, who make up the group, create work that needs the public’s energy to set it in motion. This requisite leads them to exhaustive technical and visual studies, on the one hand, and to psychoanalytical analysis of the public’s behavior when faced with their work, on the other hand, to achieve effective interactions. Some viewers are frightened when the work reacts to their stimuli, upsetting them and driving them away. Others -most of them- are seduced by this system that attracts them and responds to them. The works of art and multimedia installations created by the Grupo Proyecto Biopus mask sophisticated mathematical and technical processes leading to new ways and forms to sharpen the public’s psychological and physical perception of their work. Though the authors ́ chief aim is to involve the public, they also want to understand how far that same public can modify their proposals. Their projects are ongoing processes beyond what they have already achieved in the fields of science, technique and art. This is why they call themselves the Biopus Project Group. Espejo Espectral (Spectral looking glass), 2004, is a multimedia interactive installation that captures the movement of the persons it reflects and of the sounds they emit in real time. The body of the viewer/actor is the interface.

Taking as a starting point Pitch Paint, part of a musical performance by Golan Levin and Zach Liberman, Emiliano Causa, Tarcisio Pirotta and Matías Romero Costas created Pitch Fractal, 2004. We refer to Pitch Fractal as variations on Pitch Point by the Flong group, as this work is the result of the thoughts generated by that work, the authors write in their site. In the original interpretation, the voices of two professional singers draw shapes on the wall. The sound waves their voices project turn into lines and contours. Taking this contingency voice/drawing to generate fractals, in opposition to what is usual in cybernetics – software/equations –, their project was for human voices to generate shapes that turn into fractals. That is, a human gesture –instead of equations – produces a visual aesthetic answer. The authors achieved their objective through algorithms of the Koch curves, adding a module that generates lines reacting to the song. In Tango Virus, 2005, the movements of each dancing couple are captured by a camera that projects them on a screen in colour shaded areas. These spots design virulent patterns that attack the music. As in human immunological systems, the music may resist the virus, or it may succumb to alterations of its rhythm according to the level of infection. In extreme cases, in which the virulent patterns upgrade each other, they may cause the music to disappear. The idea behind this installation (Tango Virus) is to explore the public’s participation in creating a work of art from a destructive process (as is the virus progression). It is said that tango music is in our blood, this means we are “infected by tango”. In Criaturas Efímeras (Ephemeral Creatures), 2006, the authors depart from a musical improvisation according to a structural diagram in real time, played by Pablo Ledesma (sax) and Pablo Rivas (vibraharp). During the performance two operators process the sounds in real time with software created by the group for this purpose. The result is a third (virtual) instrument that plays with the other two. The music of these instruments of mixed origin projects virtual creatures on the screen. To achieve this result, the authors have designed a second software to be controlled by another operator.

In Sensible (Sensitive) 2007, which we have seen on two occasions this year at the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, the technical processes are more complex. The lives of the virtual creatures that inhabit the biosystem of this interactive multimedia piece depend totally on the actions of the public that approaches the touch screen. The first hand contact with the screen generates circles that will extend further if the hand pressure becomes stronger. If the hand presses on, the circles – vegetal virtual entities – are replaced by herbivorous triangles which, in turn, will be devoured by squares, carnivorous creatures, who also respond to hand pressure. The music composed by Matías Romero Costa reacts to the touch of the public as well during this generative and degenerative process. Jungle 2004, On sonorities 2003, Circle and Square Performance, 2003, are the names of installations previous to the ones mentioned above.

Their video works include: Stalking, persecution and death, 2001, Organisms, 2002 and Circle and Square, 2003, a homage to Victor Vasarely. Their Net art includes: Enjambre (Swarm) 2002 El jardín de los sonidos (The garden of sounds) 2003, Fractal, 2004, Fractal gesture, 2005 and Fractal Circle, 2006. The public may manipulate the authors ́ initial proposals with a view to designing new shapes and sounds. Emiliano Causa (1970, La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) is a multimedia artist and a Systems Engineer; Tarcisio Lucas Pirota (1977, 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) has graduate degrees in Visual Communication Design and in Multimedia Production; Matías Romero Costas (1976, Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) graduated in Composition and is a Harmony, Counterpoint and Music Morphology professor, as a well as a professor in Multimedia Production. Though each one of them is responsible for a specific area, the three of them have in-depth knowledge of all the disciplines involved and of their interrelation. This allows them to exchange ideas and suggest changes during each step of the production of the work in progress.

Each new project adds new complexity to their already complex strategies. They are forever attentive to what may lead to new developments in their own work, as in the work that is being developed at home and abroad by other artists and/or technicians. Every new input is analyzed, experimented with in, at times subtle, at times disruptive, technical and visual enquiries to prove its worth and accountability in the context of their on-going projects. In the midst of their own mind-blowing capacities, they have been surprised, on and off, by till then, unpredictable results.

Profile :

The Grupo Proyecto Biopus from La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, is comprised of Emiliano Causa (Multimedia artist and Systems Engineer); Tarcisio Pirotta, a graduate in Visual Communication Design and in Multimedia Production); and Matías Romero Costas, a graduate in Composition, and a Harmony, Counterpoint and Music Morphology professor, as a well as a professor in Multimedia Production. They have shown at the MALBA, Recoleta Cultural Center, Borges Cultural Center (Buenos Aires) San Martín Cultural Center, MACLA (La Plata), J.B.Castagnino Museum (Rosario), and other venues. Their work Sombras Vivas (2004) was the winner of a Jury Honorable Mention; their project Gen, Palabra, Bit (2005) obtained the Creation Incentive Award in the category of Experimental Multidisciplinary Project LIMb0 in the Art and New Technologies – Telefónica Foundation - MAMBA (Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires) Award, and their work Círculo y Cuadrado was awarded Jury Honorable Mention in the Experimental Category at the International Short Film Festival Sueños Cortos 5. Since the beginning of their career, the group has attempted to explore the relationship between artwork and public, generating new modes of participation and interpretation, always in pursuit of the dream of some day creating a true “live artwork”.