Year: 2012 – 2013

Dimensions: 16’ x 42’.

Multimedia installation with two video projections, 1 LCD screen, surround sound, 1 directional speaker and found wood.

The multimedia installation Palafitos: Homes-on-stilts 2.0 consists of three sculptural objects, videos and soundtracks to create a multisensory experience for the viewer. The sculptures suggest the Amazonian dwellings known as palafitos, in which tall wooden legs – or stilts – provide safeguards from floods. Palafito's sculptural and technological elements integrate recent findings of a research area defined as ubiquitous music design. Ubiquitous music systems give support to open artistic formats in which the visitor's role changes from a passive beholder to an active participant of the aesthetic experience. Sounds, images and architectural elements are tightly integrated with the sculptural use of space fostering opportunities for creative action. The text used for the sound composition is based on the short story by writer Nora César.

Economic pressures and urban sprawl are threatening the fragile human-nature equilibrium in the Amazon. Deforestation is pushing traditional communities into shanty-towns. Oil companies, mineral exploitation and the expansion of soy fields have had disastrous ecological consequences. As current models predict, when the Amazon forest reaches 40% of its original extension, its collapse will be irreversible.  Using sounds and images from the Western Amazon basin as its raw material, the installation Palafito provides an artistic environment to reflect on the impact of the current usage of natural resources.

Places exhibited:

Stellar Miami, curated by Milagros Bello, Curator’s Voice Art Project, Miami, 2014

Biennial of the Americas, curated by Maruja Salazar, Environs, Museo de las Americas, Denver, 2013

Floor4Art, curated by Norma Márquez Orozco, New York, New York, 2012, Solo exhibition

Publications:

Keller, D., Capasso, A. & Tinajero, P., Palafito / Home-on-Stilts / Palafita 1.0: A Case Study in Multimedia Creativity, 2012-2013

Brochure

Reviews:

The Museo de las Americas explores connections between humans and natural environment, Ray Mark Rinaldi, The Denver Post, July 28, 2013

Grants:

Palafitos was made possible thanks to the support of Museo de las Américas, Denver; and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; and the Eppe Fund of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and by Conselho de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil). It was developed in collaboration with the Ubiquitous Music Group (g-ubimus).