Inasmuch as deviation and discrepancy, an ‘anomaly’ signals what slips through the cracks of the norm, possessing a flaw in form and maybe even in function. It challenges the parameters set in place by dominant algorithms from a social, technotronic and artistic optic and, as argued by Antoinette Rouvroy, the leading researcher and theorist in data behaviourism, it also has an impact on subjectivities.
In the relational search for the concept of anomaly as a place-device—taking ‘place’ to mean an anthropological place (freighted with history), and ‘device’ to be something capable of capturing, directing, guiding or shaping the behaviour of living beings—the term ‘algorithm’ emerges transversally as a switching element and a ‘living’ being that helps construct unusual personalized, artificial, algorithmized, encoded and mechanically fabricated imaginaries that operate as bio-referential fictions and as information-organism models.
The idea behind the exhibition is to generate a debate between two young Spanish artists (Pedro Bella and Miguel Rangil) through their respective multimedia works, as an awareness-raising and conscious decision to revisit and confront those anomalous imaginaries, which reveal the instability of mediated contemplation and the transformation of the anomalous into the ordinary and the predictive.
On view on the ground floor is the series Fractura by Miguel Rangil (Fractura I, Fractura II and Diagrama). Various forces align to make a stone fall, for water to spill or gas to fill a container. They occupy a space in our understanding of the real, built on experience. This body of work is presented as an exercise in computational observation based on a predictive AI model capable of generating the immediate future from pre-existing images. But, does the physical operate within the algorithmic?
On the lower floor, WaterSyntopy, SeedsSyntopy and Exogenous System by Pedro Bella are presented as forms of exploring new ways of imagining and creating from a non-anthropocentric perspective, through a series of pieces that use homemade bioplastics and 3D-printing with alternative materials. As a whole, it aspires to create virtual post-humanist fictional environments using augmented reality to expand and contextualize the imaginaries that undergird the pieces, reinforcing their speculative and fantastical dimension.
Curator: Moisés Mañas
Multimedia artist and lecturer at UPV (Polytechnic University of Valencia)
Miguel Rangil (Toledo, 1998) conceives new algorithmic imaginaries and possible technical fictions within the automated context of visuality through texts, images and video. His projects have been exhibited in various cultural centres and institutions including, among others, Ars Electronica (2023), Medialab-Matadero (2022), KUNSTHALLE (2023) and Etopia: Centro de Arte y Tecnología (2022). Since 2024, he has been developing his research as part of the Laboratorio de Luz group at UPV (Polytechnic University of Valencia). Web: miguelrangil.com
Pedro Bella (Calahorra, 1996) explores our relationship with the natural environment from a critical and speculative perspective, developing post-humanist imaginaries through sculpture, installation and audiovisuals. His work has been presented in a solo show at ESDIR (Logroño), as well as in group shows at Pluto (Valencia), Espacio Séneca (Alicante), Atarazanas (Valencia), ETOPÍA (Zaragoza) and at Festival University (Ars Electronica 2022). Web: www.pedrobella.com
With the collaboration of: Vice-Rectorate for Art, Science, Technology and Society at UPV (Polytechnic University of Valencia).
Laboratorio de Luz.
