Presentation

    The twenty-first century, on the other hand, has placed these technologies with reach of the general public —including artists— in an immediate and accessible way (and not just the tool itself, but also the deliberation through which the instrument or tool is achieved). This democratisation of technology has also led to the emergence of individuals with a broad technical baggage and artistic interests.

    Few things today escape to the tentacles of (physical or logical) machines. Digital tools have served to create, copy and manipulate other media. Now, the very languages and mechanisms of the digital world are emerging onto the stage, either to reference themselves or as a language to relate (with) other media and disciplines. But this route has its hazards and its risks. The stimulus-response phenomenon arising out of the interaction can blind us with its pure, empty technological experience. We need to avoid the siren songs of new technologies; it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees. The tool must be clearly subordinate to the message, the intention and the criterion.

    The Arteleku Laboratory of Art and Technology was set up to provide an open space for working and experimenting in areas in which encounters take place between disciplines that a wider public might see as being in conflict: left hemisphere / right hemisphere, rationalism / irrationalism, logic / illogic – these are just some of the pairs of antonyms so commonly referenced in folk culture. Yet they are most definitely not antagonistic. The artist has been one of the first members of society to approach and embrace new technologies.

    Art is distilled life; in it we can find the characteristics of each era. We live in a transverse and fragmented society, where nothing can afford to remain isolated. We therefore think it is both possible and necessary to create working processes that bring together a host of disciplines, such as design, programming, interactivity, architecture and urban planning, audio-visuals, electronics, drama, and many others.
   
    Some of the laboratory's areas of interest include:

• Interactivity.- Interactivity is the touchstone provided by new media as opposed to old media. In this context, it is a process whereby humans and animals can influence and alter the medium they are experiencing, whether it be a film, a physical installation or a website.
• Data visualization – Data visualization is the discipline that is responsible for representing information visually to help explain relations, patterns and/or dependencies in the data within the giant abstract whole of which they form part.
• Networks – Networks are present in all facets of human life (biological, social, working, etc.), but not until now, after an exercise of comparison with the computer network that keeps the planet in communication, have they been given special attention. The same holds true in the art world.
• Video games – Video games have come of age and with them a critical, aesthetic and narrative process of deliberation. They are currently one of the least understood and most widespread of the mass media.