"Somos" uses the technology of Instagram filters "to write on the reader's skin, fitting the first word of the poem 'we are' onto the face and hiding the word 'masks' inside the reader's mouth, which only appears when it is opened.
The colors of the reader's skin change to the different shades of human skin to symbolize that the colors of the skin, languages, cultures, religions do not matter, in the end, we are all masks.
This process of concealment not only occurs with the face but also with the word, that is why when opening the mouth the second part of the poem appears, completing the general meaning of the text.
It reproduces the sexual experience—reduced to a minimum mechanical expression—in a virtual space." -- José Aburto
Experiencing the Work
Visitors will access the poem through an Instagram filter. This work relies on the facial recognition technology of Instagram's filters in order to display parts of the poem on the visitor's face. The majority of the poem is displayed when the filter recognizes the visitor has opened their mouth, and it flows out at high speed. The filter applies rapidly-shifting shades of color to the visitor's skin, which are not high in contrast but do change at a pace of more than three shifts per second. The text of the poem is displayed as real-time video, unavailable to screen-reading software.
1 COPY IN THE NEXT
An unpublished copy.
José Aburto gave the files for this copy to Dene Grigar in January of 2021.
COPY MEDIA FORMAT
Web