ENERITZ TEJADA

ENERITZ TEJADA

Category: projects

KOSMOS

Proyecto de arte digital en Barcelona de Eneritz Tejada

KOSMOS

KOSMOS

The project was developed during a residency at Centre cívic Guinardó in 2020.
In 2021, it participated in the Stripart Festival and in the ER…VA:: 64 event, organized by the Telenoika Cultural Association.

KOSMOS is a choreographic piece that visually represents the emotional bonds formed between people as they interact. Through music produced in real time, lighting effects are created on the performers’ costumes, reflecting the bodily dynamics during human interactions.

Each performer wears a Bluetooth device embedded in their costume, which interprets MIDI signals sent in real time by the musician. These signals are transformed into light and color animations on the LED panels, corresponding to the notes and rhythms.

Throughout our lives, we establish relationships with others that require a form of communication to understand the information within these connections. Can you imagine perceiving this connection with another human being?

Empathy has become a popular concept since scientists discovered mirror neurons while scanning the brains of monkeys. For example, when an acrobat slips on a trapeze, the audience experiences a tightening in their stomach, a lump in their throat, and an increased heart rate, as if they themselves were on the brink of the abyss.

Human beings incessantly crave emotions. Romantic love, as a cultural construct rooted in Western Enlightenment thought, feeds on our insatiable pursuit of emotions. This cultural construct can influence an excess of empathy, which in turn may blur the line between self and others in romantic relationships.

How does the cultural construction of romantic love influence and fuel our dependency, quest for security, and need for the other? This work challenges the essentialist idea of love, leading us to understand that it is not a universal, timeless, and immutable feeling, but rather the result of a specific sociocultural context that shapes it.

The piece invites us to reflect on our own perspectives and beliefs about love.

The software, hardware, and music have been developed exclusively for this piece.

Dirección y desarrollo técnico Eneritz Tejada  Composición Musical Pau Cabruja aka Pauk Bailarinas Laia Mora, Olga Llado Asistente de Coreografía  Roberto Guglielmi   Diseño de Vestuario Laura Buscà, Carmen Cabellos,  M. Jose Martínez   Agradecimientos especiales Jorge Rojo, Roger Calaf

Collective Harmonies

Collective Harmonies Proyecto de arte, ciencia, tecnología y sociedad. Beca ACTS

Collective Harmonies

Collective Harmonies

This project has received an ACTS grant (Art, Science, Technology, and Society), has been exhibited during the Immaterial Festival 2024 and has been developed with production assistance from Tabakalera.

Collective Harmonies focuses on generating a collective sound experience through touch. It uses interactive technology as a means of communication between humans and machines and recognizes its ability to generate experiences. Based on this philosophical premise, this project questions the relationship between human and non-human entities, as well as the boundaries of bodies and space in participatory performances. Can we open new relationships between the artwork and the viewer in an environment linked to experience through technology?

Where does the body begin and end? Can we imagine alternative performance environments where we interact with non-human entities? The installation focuses on evolving performative scenarios, capturing human movement data in real-time. It explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, generating a complex dialogue. Ultimately, it presents a vision of a new dimension or the possibility of rethinking the world in a different way.

Audio sample

Bodies of Tomorrow

Bodies of Tomorrow

Exhibition at FAB Casa del Mig in 2023

During the exhibition, I showcased my latest research on wearables specifically designed for performance, exploring the unlimited potential of combining the body and technology. Additionally, sculptures created in collaboration with designer Blanca de Albert were also displayed

Gypsy pilgrimage

Saintes Marie de la Mer – Gypsy pilgrimage

Saintes Marie de la Mer

Gypsy pilgrimage
This documentary video was filmed in May 2021 while photographer Jorge Perez Ortiz was documenting Europe’s largest Gypsy pilgrimage in Saintes-Maries de la Mer, France.
Every year, thousands of gypsies congregate at Saintes Maries de la Mer, paying homage to Saint Sara or Sara Kali. Although the tradition of the pilgrimage has roots in the Middle Ages, the participation of gypsies was authorized in the 20th century. In the days before the pilgrimage, devotees carry candles to illuminate the crypt that houses the statue of Saint Sara, located to the right of the altar. The central altar holds a reliquary, and on the wall is the cross of the Procession, where the faithful leave offerings such as jewelry and messages of devotion. The statue of Saint Sara is covered by numerous coats, and it is customary to show respect by kissing a foot or the hem of her dress.  
During the procession, the statue of Santa Sara is carried by gypsies in the company of white horses. Later, they immerse her three times in the sea as a symbol of hope and purification. This event also promotes meetings and baptism ceremonies for children. Sara’s enigmatic story includes stories suggesting that she helped the Marys disembark as they fled persecution in the Holy Land (Palestine), and other medieval legends indicate that they were cast adrift until they reached the coast of what is now France. After their death, the saints were buried, which led to the creation of a place of worship from the 6th century onwards and, finally, the construction of a chapel.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Human Learning

Proyecto de investigación beca osic. Eneritz Tejada

Human Learning

Human Learning

Project supported by the Research and Innovation Grant in the field of Performing Arts from the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2022.
As a result of the research, I have conducted workshops aimed at teaching the process of developing technological devices at various centers in Barcelona, such as Canòdrom, FAB Casa del Mig and Telenoika.
Additionally, the project has been showcased in its performance format at various festivals and events, including the Festival Eufònic , Festival Tech&Play, XIII Mostra Sonora i Visual del Convent de Sant Agustí , and events such as ER…VA#73 organized by the Telenoika Cultural Association, WAD, and the RAI Association.

An artistic research project that explores the limitations of human cognitive capacities through a critical and experimental perspective. This project is framed within the ideas of Transhumanism, a cultural and intellectual movement that seeks to improve inherent biological limitations through the development and use of technology.

To carry out the research, I have developed different body-based electronic devices or wearables based on the concept of Technobody, to explore how technology reconfigures not only the physical body but also our perception of bodily identity and our relationship with the environment.

The device consists of sensors placed on the extremities of the body, which detect the position and speed of the movements. The data is processed by software developed to generate real-time music. I have also designed a screen placed on the chest that interprets sound and converts it into dynamic images. For the development of the screen, I collaborated with the ACAPPS  Association, which is part of the Federation of Catalan Associations of Parents and People with Hearing Impairment.

 

The device has been made available to both individuals who use the body as a means of artistic expression and to people with hearing impairments, allowing them to experience various audiovisual compositions and choreographic patterns. The data collected is instantly transformed into sound and light, turning the device into a physical audiovisual tool for emotional expression.

By reappropriating technological devices as an artistic medium, this project raises questions about our interaction with the digital environment, emotionally confronting the experience of inhabiting a human body and exploring how technology redefines our physical and emotional limitations.

The goal of this study is to reflect on the past, present, and future trajectories of the impact technology has on human nature, as well as our physical and emotional limitations. This critical and experimental approach provides a platform for dialogue about the future of humanity in an increasingly technologically integrated world.

#mashaamini

Escultura led de masha amini para Visual Brasil Barcelona. Eneritz tejada

#Mahsaamini

Comissioned by Visual Brasil Barcelona 2022 and funded by Telenoika cultural association.

It is a sculpture designed to be understood as a photocall and to be photographed by visitors at the entrance of the Visual Brasil festival. It was developed as a response to the assassination of Mahsa Amini in Iran in September 2022.

Mahsa Amini also known as Jina Amini, 22, was arrested and tortured for not wearing her hijab correctly by the Iranian Government’s Moral Police. On September 14, she was arrested for an alleged “Islamic orientation” by the Iranian Government police. After two hours of beatings to the head, he suffered a stroke and heart attack, and slipped into a coma. Two days later he died. Since his burial, numerous cities in Iran have been the scene of mass demonstrations, in response to which the government used violent force to disperse the protesters. Several women have been assassinated during the demonstrations and hundreds have already been arrested and injured. Although every day there are more difficulties to report, due to the obstacles that the Iranian government has established and the reprisals against journalists, the images and videos of women confronting the Police, burning their veils, cutting their hair, dancing and singing “Woman, life, freedom” flood social networks. Following the publication of an image of Amini’s tombstone in Saqqez, its inscription became a protest slogan: “Mahsa, you will not die. Your name will become a symbol.”

Japan 40″

Eneritz_tejada_japan_40

Japan 40″

After the Second World War, in Japan it became popular to practice ‘inemuri’ in the belief that dedication to work would make them a great power again. This Japanese practice means “sleeping while present” and is practiced both at work and in public spaces. In a country where sleeping is considered a waste of time, it is not surprising that the average is 6 hours, and that they focus their day on productivity. If you are able to fall asleep under some circumstances it is because you have worked hard. The obsession with work, coupled with the traditional Japanese personality, has become a public health problem for the country.

In Europe it is estimated that 1 in 3 people suffer from disorders related to anxiety and stress due to the feeling of lack of time. Despite living surrounded by conveniences and digital devices designed to make our lives easier, we have less and less time. Today we look for quick, immediate pleasures. The throwaway culture in which there is no time for more. Reading e-mails while riding the subway, making compulsive purchases while walking down the street or listening to audio recordings at higher speeds have become common practices in our day-to-day lives.  

The way we consume images through the screen of our smartphone is proportional to the frustration we feel at not being able to reach everything. Overly ambitious expectations distort our human nature by relegating critical thinking, reflection, observation, contemplation or meditation to the background.

Are social networks shaping our way of perceiving the world by doing it, for the most part, through a screen?

Japan 40” seeks to highlight the superficiality of sensory experiences through a screen and reflects not only on the continuous distraction that prevents deep reflection, but also on the problem of visibly representing our diminishing attention span.
Ultimately, Japan 40” exposes the links between the culture of haste, the obsession with productivity and the consequent frustration with the lack of time in our contemporary society.

The project, presented as a 25 minutes video, is a compilation of video fragments of 40 seconds each, recorded during my one-month stay in Japan in 2018.

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