Labandera by Esteban Agosin
During 2019, Chile experienced the most important social revolt after the return of democracy in 1990. After 30 years, where Chile has developed one of the most aggressive and unjust economic models, people stood up and said No more! There were months of daily protests, and with that new symbols appeared, the traditional Three color flag became a black flag, a symbol of the mourning of the old chile that was dying. And the traditional star was transformed into a Mapuche star, symbol of a country where its native peoples are the center.
My e-textile is a black Chilean Flag, with the Mapuchue star, in which it works as a speaker fabric. The sound that plays the flag are fake texts created trough GPT2, an open-source artificial intelligence, based on a data set from texts of different Chilean thinkers, 1. Gaston Soublette, philosopher and esthete of the Mapuche culture, 2. Pedro Lemebel, writer and artist, who especially addressed the marginality of Chile specially during the Pinochet dictatorship, and 3. Humberto Maturana, a highlight biologist, philosopher and writer .The audios were recorded by Carolina Marin.
The fake texts were inspired, in order to create input prompts, under the the question: “es usted feliz?” (Are you happy?).That question was part of the ‘Happiness study” that the Chilean artist, Alfredo Jaar made at the end of 70s. During the Pinochet dictatorship, Alfredo Jaar decided to ask the people of Santiago if they were happy, installing a giant poster in the streets of Santiago with the question: Es usted feliz? (Are you happy?). The question, as pertinent as it is uncomfortable, would be the beginning of an exceptional work. (https://www.artpractical.com/column/visiting-artist-profiles-alfredo-jaar/)
I wanted to return to that question, in the middle of this social process, asking to an imaginary (fake) person, who in some way is based on a wide spectrum of ideas, if we are happy, and how we can imagine and project our happiness.
I have used resistive fabric, which was cut in a CNC in spiral, using the Mapuche star like a main shape, transforming it into a simple coil. In which using a neodymium magnet the energy is induced generating small vibrations. Then, through an audio amplifier the magnitude of the energy is amplified in to an audible sound. The sound is played and amplified by LilyPad board.
