Santiago Echeverry: Anathema / Anatema

Artist(s):

• Santiago Echeverry

Title:

Anathema / Anatema

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH Asia 2019: Deep Dreaming
• More artworks from SIGGRAPH Asia 2019:
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Category:

• Animation & Video

Artist Statement:

I grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, a city where the mafia was blowing up buildings, and murdering people with drugs and bombs; AIDS was killing my friends, and death squads were threatening my life for being openly gay. Instead of seeking cover, I became a very visible New Media artist promoting change in my surroundings through video art, documentaries, performances and artivism.

I moved to New York in 1995 to get my Master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications just as the Internet was beginning to expand, and I immediately used the Web as a creative tool where all my art practice would come together, with a global perspective. The Internet has become the perfect tool to explore my passion for non-linear filmmaking, digital poetry, cyber-activism, creative code, photography, animation and interactive narration. I am using HTML5 / PHP / CSS3, Processing and video tools to produce my works, continuously exploring new open source software and hardware.

With some roots still left in Colombia and now living permanently in the United States, my work has evolved into a study of how we perceive and recreate ourselves in a digital context, inseparable from a political context. Aesthetically, I am particularly interested in the dialog between low- and high-resolution imaging, studying and exploding the pixel grid to push the possibilities of computer code producing static and moving images, using basic webcams and the Kinect volumetric sensor to explore three-dimensional portraits, animations and interactive installations.

In my work with the Kinect volumetric sensor, I intend to capture and preserve the lives and stories of LGBTQ+ communities all over the world, as a visual and cultural study for the future.