BOSTON CYBERARTS   1999

Mirror Fragments is part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival and has its physical home at the Attleboro Museum in Attleboro, Massachusetts through Saturday June 5,  1999.

http://attleboromuseum.org/

The installation looks at the role of the Internet as a mirror of humanity, reflecting a constant bombardment of information and increasingly fragmented images of both "real" and "virtual" realities. Like Narcissus looking into a clear pool of water, we turn to the Internet and find our own reflections.

                Alberto Roblest Bio 

               Alberto Roblest Bio (spanish)

Technical Sponsor: Texas Instruments Inc.

Special Thanks to Christine MacDonald, Nancy Aleo, Remo Campopiano, Don Rolph at Texas Instruments and the rest of the Texas Instruments Staff: Peter Tortelano, Allison F Shirtleff, Bob Ryan, Barbara Gagne and Matt Oliver. Thanks to the Sony Factory Outlet in Wrentham and North Attleboro Electric Company. Dore Van Dyke and the Attleboro Museum staff.

Mirror Fragments

     The videoinstallation Mirror Fragments is a reflection on our relationship with our environment. First, there was the metaphor of Narcissus, who looked into a mirror-clear lake and encountered himself.  Later Plato discussed one’s shadow as the virtual image of the person. A great deal of philosophy deals with the metaphor of the mirror to recognize the self. According to the dream analysis of C.S. Jung, for instance, water represents the unconscious and when passing through the mirror-like surface of water, one establishes contact with the unconscious self. Lewis Carol in his novel Alice in Wonderland takes the reader into the world of the unconscious self when Alice passes through the looking glass. In the 1950s, television was introduced and quickly became the mirror of humanity. Today, the Internet is our new mirror, an encompassing reflector of modern man/woman.

     When Narcissus touched the water, he sent distorting ripples across the surface of his likeness and learned the virtual and real are not interchangeable. Today, we unwittingly follow Narcissus’s example with a constant ripple of moving pictures and information that distort and fragment our image of modern man/woman and our world. When Narcissus looked at himself in the water, he was looking at himself via the Latin concept natura. Yet, as the legend goes, Narcissus did not know he was looking at himself. Like him, we are seldom aware we reflect our world, as our world reflects us. Thus, man damages the natural world, ignoring the environmental impact it has on people. Mirror Fragments uses mirrors and technology to close the gap between the spectator and the natural world.

     Simultaneously, Mirror Fragments examines the role of the Internet as a mirror of humanity, reflecting a constant bombardment of information and increasingly fragmented images of both “real” and “virtual” realities. The interactive work uses two video projectors, a tiny camera and an Internet computer. Museum visitors are invited inside the installation, while Internet surfers may access it via the world wide web.                      

Alberto Roblest    (México)

Autor de los libros de poesía: De la Ciudad y otras pequeñeces (editorial Fuego Nuevo 1989), Chicaneando (editorial Claves Latinoamericanas 1992), Del Silencio en las Ciudades (AsaltoalCielo 1998), Ortografía para piromaniacos (AsaltoalCielo 2002) y de las Plaquetes: El Futuro y los Anillos (editorial La Hoja Murmurante/ La Tinta de Alcatraz 1990) y Las Andanzas del Huy Huy Huy y el Chichicaxtle con su Ñero ( Ediciones Mixcoátl 2000) Así mismo, de más de 30 videos de arte que han sido expuestos en diferentes museos, galerías y festivales de México, Europa y los Estados  Unidos, entre los que se encuentran: el Festival der Nationen en Austria, el Cin(E)-Poetry Film and Video Festival en San Francisco, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival,The Bronx Film and Video Festival, the Boston Underground Film Festival,  la IV Bienal de Video México, el Festival Mundial Do Minuto Brasil, la Deuxieme Manifestation Internationale du Video en Montreal,  el Not Still Art Festival en New York y el San Antonio CineFestival en Texas.  

Además de una novela inédita, da los últimos toques a un segundo volúmen de cuentos titulado: “Cuando las bombas dejaron caer a los aviones”.

Copyright © Alberto Roblest

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                                                              Artistas: pola weiss - alberto roblest