In a parallel dimension, a giant dam bursts and the outpouring of water destroys everything in its path, exposing roots and bare foundations. This could be a tragedy, but also the opportunity for a new start.
Over the past three or four years I’ve had a lot of work commissioned on the subject of tradition, a theme I had never previously been interested in. During the research and knowledge exchange process, a question arose: what happens when your roots are pulled up, and you suddenly find yourself facing a tabula rasa?
Carlos Martorell is a sound and visual artist living in Torelló (Barcelona). His work explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. He uses his knowledge of programming and other technologies to explore image, movement and sound, as well as the interactions between them. He develops his own instruments, primarily based on movement sensors, which he usually plays in his performances, as well as his own language of sounds. The visual part of his projects uses tools and engines from videogames, 3D scanning, and, more recently, machine learning and AI techniques.
As Shoeg – his main project – he has released several albums and EPs: External Skin/IX (Crystalmine, 2022), Faith Exotica (Nyapster, 2018), Container (Orange Milk, 2018), The Swarm (901 Editions, 2018), Vaseline (Memory No. 36 Recordings, 2017) among others. He is also one half of Ensemble Topogràfic, a joint venture with dancer Anna Hierro, and the creator of the Acte de fe project that combines religious music and AI in real time. Over the past few years he has also worked and collaborated as composer and performer for various dance companies.
HABITUAL VIDEO TEAM is a non-profit association formed by Lis Costa and Josep M. Jordana, that has as its main objective the promotion of activities related to the visual arts, specifically, video art: www.habitualvideoteam.org.
A fundamental area of their work is the organisation of festivals, cycles and video shows, such as the FLUX Video Auteur Festival: www.fluxfestival.org, and the INFLUX Audiovisual Performing Arts Festival: www.influxfestival.org.
Another area of Habitual Video Team’s activity is video documentation of cultural events mainly related to experimental music and poetry performances. In 2012 they launched the SUMMA project in order to convert this audiovisual heritage (more than 1000 recordings) into a non-profit online video archive: www.summa-hvt.org.
