miguel soares

03′25”
audio: “James Whale”, Tuxedomoon, 1980

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.

Espaço 1999
curated by Pedro Cabral Santo, Gilberto Reis & Miguel Soares

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)