Carlos Gómez Caballero. Tactile Territory

For several years now, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín has been promoting experimental initiatives that bring together art and a wide range of practices related to digital culture and media arts. These collaborative works are carried out either through independent projects or with the participation of various institutions in the city and throughout Latin America.

Within these parameters, the MAMM presents the project Territorio táctil (Tactile Territory) in the Experimentation Room or Lab3, which focuses on the production and promotion of practices that incorporate and highlight sound through conferences, recitals, installations, listening sessions, laboratories, and special projects.

This first project, led by artist Carlos Gómez Caballero, was conceived as the starting point for a long-term program that combines teaching, research, and creation on the soundscape with cartography, contemporary art, and critical reflections derived from the use of technology.

This installation is based on a reflection on the idea of interface, as well as on an analysis of the areas of representation that cartography offers human beings, a fundamental tool with which they have worked throughout almost their entire history, as it gives proportion or measure to their presence, their movements over a territory, and locates them in the world.

Cartography in this project not only proposes a direct approach to the territory in which human beings live, providing them with an obvious experience of the landscape, but also allows them to understand the extent to which certain technologies are currently necessary to access it.

At a time when technological trends emphasizing standardized visual and tactile interfaces are proliferating, it is interesting to consider the development of specific tools for specific contexts, contrary to the trend of technological globalization, which aims to have all the people on the planet share and use the same technology.

Why call a basically sound-based project “tactile”?

Territorio táctil proposes a space for enjoyment and attentive listening. It is a tactile interface that responds to the touch of the hands; it is a canvas converted into a touch-sensitive membrane that, with a map drawn on it, feeds and sculpts the sounds of the represented territory in space.

This installation is the result of a creative laboratory that worked on recording soundscapes within a perimeter centered on the museum itself. These were intense days of experimentation, urban tours, studying topics related to sound, and collectively building knowledge. The project champions various forms of non-visual perception while giving sound a plastic and malleable character.

The project documentation can be consulted at: territoriotactil.hotglue.me

The following activities were held as part of this exhibition:

Laboratory and sound installation

Guest artist: Carlos Gómez Caballero (Barcelona)

The first project carried out in the space consisted of a laboratory for recording soundscapes of Medellín with a group of 20 people, led by artist Carlos Gómez, in which the public could interact with a touch interface that, when caressed, activated a system of eight different channels corresponding to soundscapes of places in Medellín. Similarly, various public activities were held, such as guided tours, workshops for children, conferences, and listening sessions related to the installation.

Conference and listening session: Landscape and sound art in the post-digital era.

Guests: Leandro Pisano (Italy), Miguel Isaza (Medellín)

We were honored to welcome Italian curator and researcher Leandro Pisano, who gave a lecture followed by a listening session led by sound artist Miguel Isaza. In his lecture, Pisano explored some of the themes of his doctoral research on the exploration of rural areas through sound and art.

Workshop with the Academy of Electronic Arts and Crafts

Guest: Constanza Piña (Chile)

The Academy of Electronic Arts and Crafts was a temporary school focused on learning electronic arts, with special emphasis on the construction of sound instruments. Twenty people participated, working intensively for a week on the construction of DIY synthesizers, ending with a sound exhibition of the workshop’s results. Artist Ben Russell (USA) also made a special appearance at this sound improvisation event.