WHITEOUT
(2019 - 2020) ////////////// created after joining the Armada de Chile on a research trip to Antarctica organised by Nicolas Spencer for Polar it was also inspired by research done for Axis with Mario de Vega and my time at ARTS COLLIDE Barcelona CERN
(2019 - 2020) ////////////// created after joining the Armada de Chile on a research trip to Antarctica organised by Nicolas Spencer for Polar it was also inspired by research done for Axis with Mario de Vega and my time at ARTS COLLIDE Barcelona CERN
WHITEOUT (2020)
After the shocking discovery of racist bias coded into the architecture of calibration systems, the Angel embarks on a quest for true colour reference.
She starts the build of a Rainbow Generator, designed to Refract a Spectrum of Lost and Un/Named Colours. But when it is finally switched on, the Generator fails to reproduce nature’s original glitch: the continuous gradient of the rainbow.
Instead, it renders a banded, artificial, almost cartoon-like spectrum.
After countless hours of research into the cause of this truncation, she identifies the problem: the Generator’s light source is energy-efficient, hyperopic technology.
Though the Rainbow Generator appears to use full-spectrum white light, this is just a simulation. Its light source only emits a narrow band of frequencies: just enough to stimulate the three cones of her eye, creating the illusion of white and coloured light, while bypassing vast regions of the actual spectrum.
Ironically, the failing Rainbow Generator illuminates its own efficiency-driven bias. It shows how even the most advanced technologies, prioritize certain signals over others.
By bypassing a broad spectrum of frequencies in favor of energy efficiency, it exposes how standardization doesn’t just limit what can be resolved; it determines what qualifies as a valid signal in the first place.
Now more than ever, the Angel sees that even the latest technologies (from analog to digital and hardware to software and lens to filter) may be rooted in fundamentally flawed protocols of exclusion.
In desperation, she considers modifying her body to regain access and control over the frequencies around her. Perhaps all she needs is a different kind of eye: one that is larger, slower, or sensitive to other wavelengths of light.
When she mounts an antenna in her eye sockets, she gains access to an expanded visual ecology.
But the modification quickly leads her into a Whiteout: unable to decode the signal, she is oversaturated with noise and devoid of resolution.
She starts the build of a Rainbow Generator, designed to Refract a Spectrum of Lost and Un/Named Colours. But when it is finally switched on, the Generator fails to reproduce nature’s original glitch: the continuous gradient of the rainbow.
Instead, it renders a banded, artificial, almost cartoon-like spectrum.
After countless hours of research into the cause of this truncation, she identifies the problem: the Generator’s light source is energy-efficient, hyperopic technology.
Though the Rainbow Generator appears to use full-spectrum white light, this is just a simulation. Its light source only emits a narrow band of frequencies: just enough to stimulate the three cones of her eye, creating the illusion of white and coloured light, while bypassing vast regions of the actual spectrum.
Ironically, the failing Rainbow Generator illuminates its own efficiency-driven bias. It shows how even the most advanced technologies, prioritize certain signals over others.
By bypassing a broad spectrum of frequencies in favor of energy efficiency, it exposes how standardization doesn’t just limit what can be resolved; it determines what qualifies as a valid signal in the first place.
Now more than ever, the Angel sees that even the latest technologies (from analog to digital and hardware to software and lens to filter) may be rooted in fundamentally flawed protocols of exclusion.
In desperation, she considers modifying her body to regain access and control over the frequencies around her. Perhaps all she needs is a different kind of eye: one that is larger, slower, or sensitive to other wavelengths of light.
When she mounts an antenna in her eye sockets, she gains access to an expanded visual ecology.
But the modification quickly leads her into a Whiteout: unable to decode the signal, she is oversaturated with noise and devoid of resolution.
Spectrum of Lost and Unnamed Colours Sound by Debit (2024)
Rainbow Generator (2024).
W/ Support from Herman Hermsen and So Kanno.
W/ Support from Herman Hermsen and So Kanno.
A Spectrum of Lost and Unnamed Colours(2023 - 2024)
//////////////////////////// was commissioned and produced in the framework of EPFL - CDH Artist in Residence Program 2023, Enter the Hyper-Scientific
Partners: EPFL Center for Imaging, Edward Andò, CLIMACT Center for Climate Impact and Action UNIL & EPFL
Curator & head of program: Giulia Bini
Master support: Lotte Menkman