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boeing, shuttle, boeing, shuttle
1999, 15×21cm
the 1999 image used in the invitation of “Espaco 1999″ group show

Da janela de sua casa, segurando a câmara de vídeo na mão, Miguel Soares registou situações violentas que vieram
sobressaltar noites passadas frente ao computador: a agressão entre um casal; um carro capotado na avenida
deserta, que surpreende uma pessoa durante o seu jogging matinal; e um homem que tenta desesperadamente,
e em vão, apagar um incêndio.
Com base nestes registos, em tudo semelhantes aos vídeos amadores que as televisões exibem para dar conta de
acontecimentos chocantes, o artista realiza três obras em que a crueza da realidade se abre à ficção e ao delírio poético.
Miguel Wandschneider, SlowMotion, 2001

Y2k 1999 One of the works that came out of the X-city project. Y2k is based on the fear of the millenium bug, and was made for the Festival Atlântico 99, in December 1999, at Galeria ZDB – Novo Figurino, Lisbon This is a preview of the effects caused by Y2k, the computer bug of the millenium everyone was talking about during that year. Despite the daylight, the church bells are chiming the Y2k hour.
A jet plane is trying to escape the millenium bug by moving from city to city (time-zone to time-zone). Each time it passes the heart of the city – the administrative center- it becomes distorted, regaining its original shape as it gets further away from the city center, escaping the bug, and moving onto the next city. This routine goes on for about 3 minutes. In the end you see an office building being desintegrated by the Y2k bug.

December 22, 1999 > January 20, 2000
Museu Nacional de História Natural
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: Gustavo

invitation front

exhibition view

variable dimentions
1999
junk bag, motorized arm, laser pointer
This is version 1 of Gustavo, made for Espaço 1999, Museu Nacional de História Natural, Lisbon

A junk bag is appently carving a drawing on a wall with a red laser beam.
Gustavo is a yellow junk bag out of which cames a motorized arm with a laser pointer that apparently is
carving a near-circular drawing on the wall through a near-circular continuous movement.
Of course, I previously have carved the drawing on the wall, according to the line described by the laser.
Gustavo stands for the name of the hypothetical disposed robot.
“Do androids dream of electric sheep?” * Would robot-artists carve drawings on a wall?”

* (title of the Philip K. Dick book on which the movie Blade Runner was based)

November 18 > December 17, 1999
Museu Arqueológico de Faro
Faro, Portugal

exhibited works: untitled (two)

One night at home, my quiet was disturbed by these four people having a discussion that ended up in a fight. I grabbed my Hi8 camera and started shooting the scene from the balcony of my apartment, trying to pass unnoticed. My heart was beating fast. Months later I was looking at the Hi8 footage with sound turned off, and listening to one of my favourite cds: Tim Buckley’s first album,”Tim Buckley”, 1968, ed. Electa. I noticed how two diferent songs would give two different ways of percepting the same images. untitled (two) shows the footage shot from the balcony two times, with two different songs from the Tim Buckley album: “I can’t see you” and “Song slowly song”.
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“From the window of his apartment, holding the video camera, Miguel Soares recorded violent events that have disturbed his long nights spent working in his computer. This video is the most distressing example of a series of three done in the same amateur video style, that contrast with his 3D animation work for which he is known. By commenting the image of a couple involved in a violent discussion that ends in a fight, with two different songs by Tim Buckley, one in a melancholic tone, the other in a passionate tone, the artist opens reality to a fictional construction and to poetic imagination.”
Miguel Wandschneider, in SlowMotion – Miguel Soares. exhibition depliant. ESTGAD+Art Attack. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal

September 15 > October 05, 1999
Gare Marítima de Alcântara
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: Celulight

variable dimentions
1999
mobile phone boxes, lamps, blasts, cables, etc.

lamps made out of mobile phone boxes.
made for Design Inserts, Experimenta design 99, Gare Marítima de Alcântara, Lisbon

During my design graduation I learned that in Portugal it used to be not worthy to cast steel moulds
in order to produce plastic objects, since there was no market for all the objects you had to sell,
to pay for the mould. Perspectives of exportation were weak as well.
Suddenly in 1998, the 3 portuguese mobile phone companies start competing with each other through
expensive, designer-like, plastic containers for their cell phones:
TMN – Mimo, Telecel – Vitamina and the Optimus – Boomrang.
People were throwing away tens of thousands of these objects every day.
For Design Inserts, at the ExperimentaDesign99 I recycled those colourful plastic containers as lamps,
making two different models for each mobile phone company.

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