Mexico

Mexica: 20 Years–20 Stories [20 años–20 historias] contains 20 short narratives developed by the computer program MEXICA. Plots describe fictional situations related to the Mexicas (also known as Aztecs), ancient inhabitants of what today is Mexico City. This is the first book of short-stories produced completely by a creative agent capable of evaluating and making judgments about its own work, as well as incorporating into its knowledge-base the pieces it produces. By contrast with other, statistical models, MEXICA is inspired by how humans actually develop fictional stories. The book, in both Spanish and English, also includes source references related to the program. Preface by Fox Harrell.

(Source: Publisher's catalog page)

This digital artwork by Amira Hanafi was commissioned by the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, as part of the Navigating Risk, Managing Security, and Receiving Support research project.

It was made in response to research conducted in five countries (Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mexico), where researchers spoke with human rights defenders around issues of security, wellbeing, and perceptions of ‘human rights defenders’ in their countries.

Reading through these transcribed and anonymized interviews, I was struck by the range and depth of emotions expressed. The speakers’ experiences resonated with me in their resemblance to the emotions I feel as a practicing artist in Egypt. This website translates my reading of these interviews into visual patterns, through a system of classifying sentences by emotions expressed and evoked.

The title of this work (we are fragmented) is taken from the words of one of the human rights defenders who participated in the research.

After reading through the interviews that were shared with me, I created a classification system to coincide with the range of emotions I read in the text. I based my classification system on a few popular classification systems. It contains a set of 6 parent emotions, each with 6 subcategories, for a total of 36 classifications.

Reading the interviews again, I recorded my emotional experience by classifying sentences to which I had an emotional reaction, or in which the speaker explicitly expressed an emotion. It was a highly subjective exercise. Ultimately, this website offers personal maps of my reading of the research material, processed through language and emotion.

Alongside my visual interpretation of the research, you can directly access the source material for each classification on this site. Click on any colored circle, and you will see the direct quote from the individual defender on which that classification is based. I hope for this work to give an alternate way of reading through the research shared with me by Juliana Mensah and Alice Nah.

(Source: http://wearefragmented.amiraha.com/about/)

Anacrón, Hipótesis de un producto todo is the vertiginous text that calls to the dead and the imagination. Both the subjects are attached to Mexican culture since ancient times and more than ever in our actual global society. Anacrón is an eclectic aesthetic e-poem that aims to respect the linear textual reading of the poem while it explores the boundaries of collaboration, multimedia and video game. Gabriel, the poet, and Augusto, the bandit. The entire project has developed without meeting each other. All communication has been done by e-mail. The journey starts when Augusto found an abandoned book called Caja over a couch in a Cafe at Puebla city. Of course, he stole both: the coffee and the book.

(Source: ELO 2014 Conference)

Hypermedia with recombinatory text, colourful images and noisy sounds about people who die. It is a vertiginous text imitating old fashioned videogames effects. The topic of death is displayed in a sarcastic like in This is how you will die (2005) by Jason Nelson. The cultural context reflected is the representation of death in Mexican folklore like in Carmen Gil’s El alebrije (2004). Acrobat and Flash Player have been used to shock the reader with visual and sound effects like in a game. The entire project was developed by e-mail correspondence between both authors which shows how an online work can be made without need of personal contact.

(Source: Maya Zalbidea)