Operativity and Intermittence: Light and Shadow in the Work of José Carlos Neves. Approaches to Interface, Process, Presence

Resumen

This article seeks to analyse the presence of the interface and its negative use in the so-called Media Arts, focusing on the artistic work of José Carlos Neves as a paradigmatic case. Although we are looking at his entire artistic production, the article will focus mainly on the works 4 tempos para: (…) and Shadow Machine. Thus, our aim will be to show how to frame his trajectory and previous works as a process of isolating the interface from the computer, given that the originality of his work, in the context of Media Arts, is always centred on the disarticulation or deconstruction (Derrida, 1967; 1972; Nuyen, 1989) of the media on which it is based, as we will try to show. Secondly, we will try to survey the use of light and shadow in the aforementioned pieces, with reference to the role they have played in the history of art and Western thought as strong metaphors for determining the relationship between existence and non-existence and their grey areas.

If, from an aesthetic point of view, interactive art does not yet have a universal consensus on its definition, it is because, from the point of view of its creation and authorship, it already presents itself, as will be pointed out, as a pre-programmed experience (Rafaeli, 1988). We will show how the work of José Carlos Neves is mobilised as an instrument that enables a way of showing the operativity and intermittence of the artistic process and aesthetic experience.