Skinphone
Due to the health crisis caused by COVID-19, I embarked on the intriguing initiative of investigating events at that time, such as physical distancing among people, were shaping our interactions, especially regarding the intersection between digital technology and our bodies.
This research delves into the hyper-digitized, consumerist, and pandemic context in which we find ourselves immersed in Western society. It observes how our bodies are becoming consumable objects and how face-to-face relationships are being replaced by remote connections through digital devices. It explores how this affects our sexuality, our romantic experiences, and how the digital medium becomes our only option for connection due to the biopolitics of separation, as well as the rejection of tactile stimuli and its effects on our ability to empathize with others. Additionally, the project highlights the erosion of our identity mediated by digital communication within a capitalist, neoliberal, and patriarchal system.
Through the production of this research, an attempt has been made to provide a tool for reflection to consider how relational dynamics are mutating due to the influence of digital technologies. The main goal was to transform the materiality of mobile devices to reconsider and reconstruct the ways in which we interact with them in today’s society, which is challenging established human norms.
In the new paradigm presented to us as a lifestyle, mobile devices have become essential for humans. Being connected 24/7 leads us to not being able to do without our phones at any moment. We could affirm that our devices have become an extension of our bodies as if we were talking about something prosthetic.
From an artistic perspective, and in relation to this work, it is proposed to address the new connections and relationships explored within this consumption system, questioning what mutations and new uses digital technologies acquire and thus reflecting on possible technocorporeal hybridizations.
A new vision is attempted regarding how interpersonal contact is changing, endowing the phone with a new characteristic. The constant presence of the digital device ends with the siliconization of our own bodies. We incorporate digital devices until they become embodied, where a series of smartphones made of a material resembling our skin is produced. The device becomes a scission that, in turn, becomes part of our body, like an exterior that belongs to us and always accompanies us, pursuing us until it becomes part of ourselves.
Through the creation of these sculptural pieces and the establishment of this virtual space, the idea of a store is recreated where we can see, touch, and buy these devices, inviting the viewer to reflect on finding carnal affection between bodies through digital means.
Skinphone
silicone replicas sculpture,
7,15 x 14,67 x 0,76 cm,
2021
“Store Skinphone”
360º Virtual exhibition
2021
3D models skinphone,
Digital photo
2021