Explorando memórias afetivas

"Explorando memórias afetivas" (2023) (in English: "Exploring affective memories") is the installation for my undergraduate thesis in Visual Arts in the Federal University of Santa Maria, which was exhibited at the exposition Devires TecnoPoéticos, held at the Santa Maria Art Museum (Museu de Arte de Santa Maria - MASM), in the Jeanine Viero room from November 28 to December 7, 2023.

The work consists of an interactive installation, where the physical and virtual spaces can be explored by the interactors in an environment that evokes the nostalgia of the technologies of the 2000s. The interactive physical space consists of a desk, two chairs, an old computer with a CRT monitor, a digital camera, a Tamagotchi toy, headphones, a box of floppy disks and CDs. The CDs can be inserted into a reader on the computer, containing works that can be viewed, and the interactors can freely explore the files in the virtual environment, as well as the files in the physical environment. The files on the computer and CDs consist of some works of glitch art, digital collages, scans of physical images, video art, music and texts.

The physical space also consisted of a laptop connected to a CRT television and a computer with two monitors and speakers on the floor around the desk, playing glitch video art on a loop. There were also glitch art prints taped on the nearby pillars. Above the CRT screens — the computer monitor and the television on the floor — were small statues representing Buddha, in reference to the 1974 work “TV Buddha” by Nam June Paik, one of the pioneers of video art.

The interactive virtual space refers to the environment of the computer and of the digital camera. The computer's operating system is Windows XP 32-bit, and the camera is a Fujifilm FinePix A900, from 2007.

My proposal for the final work was to evoke a feeling of nostalgia, to bring back memories of the interactors with their pasts in similar environments, typical of the 1990s and 2000s. I placed a text file entitled “curiosidade” ("curiosity", in English) hidden in the computer's trash folder, where I asked “what are you looking for here?”. A few days later, I checked the file, which had been placed on the desktop by the interactors, and noticed that I had received some answers.

It reads: “what are you looking for here?"

• to be honest, I don't know (analogies)

• he tried to write something and gave up on the way

• fire and water [Flash game] with my brother at weekends

• my mother used to put me on a computer like this one so I could rest after my internship at the hospital, I'm looking for a memory of that maybe

• I have trouble connecting with things from my childhood

• I used to fight with my sister to see who was going to play stardoll on a computer just like this one.

To read more about my research that that led to the creation of this work, click on this text to download my undergraduate thesis (in Portuguese).

Pictures of the installation.

(open the images in a new tab to see them better!)