Transmissions of Transcendental Aspirations - video, sound, steel, animated projection mapping, copper, audio components
Dimensions are variable to scale for video projection - Sculptures measure 96 inches x 12 inches x 36 inches and 60 inches x 10 inches x 15 inches
This work uses video I filmed in March 2020 in Puerto Rico to create an installation. The installation consists of an animated video projected onto the wall and 3 sound sculptures made from steel and copper with audio components that turn the hammered copper dishes into speakers. Each of the three copper dishes has animated videos projection-mapped onto them. The animated videos projected onto the copper dishes consist of Taíno petroglyphs that Romero redrew from textbooks and photo documentation. Romero then added color and animated the drawings for this installation. The large video projection consists of scenes of significance to the artist’s experience visiting Puerto Rico as a child and family lands. The scenes are then animated with a computer-generated fractal form that morphs in color and shapes moving throughout the scenes in the film. This animation takes various shapes throughout the course of the film mimicking what the artist thinks a memory or form of consciousness could be and how it might look over time as it travels and presents as a "collective unconscious".
The sounds in the installation are projected through the copper dishes and consist of the recorded sound of two black holes colliding sourced from LIGO Labs and the album Originalistos by Frankey Reyes. Each respective sound source moves from left to right creating a sense of audible movement crossing paths along the speaker wires connecting the copper dish turned speakers. The sound of the copper resonates as the recorded sounds are projected through the copper creating an intentional distortion. This distortion is a physical manifestation of the sound produced by the material.
Throughout the scenes, in the film, there are images of significance that relate to the complicated history of Puerto Rico, the people who inhabit these spaces, and the technology both old and new that were used to connect us to our environment both on this planet and beyond.
