rodrigo nava ramírez (he/they) is an artist and computer programmer from mexico city,
.in their work, rodrigo seeks to practically and conceptually reframe digital technologies as tools for exploring spaces that are materially and temporarly restricted, creating alternative spaces for representation. rodrigo finds interest in how technology shapes our understanding of movement, borders, time and space. how spaces for non-performance and refusal can be opened within the digital when these concepats get re-contextualised, mystified and shaken. the emancipation of technology as a decolonising act of resitance.
(cv pdf )
education
2018 - 2020, master of fine art, the glasgow school of art (glasgow, uk). 2017, design and technology bootcamp, the new school (new york, us). 2015 - 2016 msc product design engineering, the glasgow school of art (glasgow, uk).exhibitions
2024. unseen guests , part of the british council public programme for the venice biennale (online). 2024. el corazón del cerro, solo show, zabriskie (geneva, ch). 2023. print screen, icebox project space (philadelphia, us) and online as part of the wrong biennale. 2023. cueillir ses cerises , la friche (st-ursanne, ch). 2022. pool party , microscope gallery (new york, us). 2022, happy tide will flood again , 5 florence street (glasgow, uk). 2020, únafest , saltspace (glasgow, uk : cancelled) and online. 2019, unsettling time , pavillion for the wrong biennale , space 204 (nashville, us) and online. 2019, (p)arty, part of the rhs residency, galerie du sauvage (porrentruy, ch). 2019, current flows, tontine building (glasgow, uk). 2019, mfa interim show , the glue factory (glasgow, uk). 2019, puentes, tradestone bridges (glasgow, uk). 2019, haunting never touching, a studio for utterances (glasgow, uk). 2017, bootcamp showcase, d12, parsons the new school (new york, us) 2016, graduate degree show, reid bulding (glasgow, uk)residencies
2022, callie’s (berlin, de). 2021, school for poetic computation, cocoon (online : new york, us). 2021, hospitalfield, graduate residency (arbroath, uk). 2020, digital artist residency (online : oxford, uk). 2019, résidence henriette sanglard , rhs19 (porrentruy, ch).awards and grants
2023, abteilung kultur berlin (de), recherchestipendium. 2022, creative scotland (uk), open fund for individuals. 2020, glasgow sculpture studios (uk) , honorary membership. 2020, pro helvetia (ch), «close distance», in collaboration with jeanne tullen.interviews and publications
2024, digital america, issue no. 24 . 2022, stillpoint magazine, take care . 2020, stillpoint magazine, 005: daze . 2020, jerry gogosian , augmented reality as alter antropological tool.workshops and teaching
2022, 3d modelling and ar youth workshop, lead instructor, scorescotland (edinburgh, uk). 2022, creative coding mentoring, lead instructor, market gallery development programme (glasgow, uk). 2019, “one therabyte of kilobye age” with olia lialina, impakt (utrecht, nl). 2018, codeyourfuture , teacher assistant, kinning park complex (glasgow, uk). 2017, “designed realities lab” with dunne and raby, the new school (new york, us).
(selected portfolio pdf )
- el corazón del cerro
- no se va a la nube a caballo
- cómo reencarnar al templo mayor usando blender
- rolling in the deep
- ocho-presagios
- severed words
- theworkout.ch
- see-also.net
- next to you (in-malibu.mx)
- www.google.co.uk on april 12th 2019 with ip address 194.81.31.5
(2024) an augmented reality installation that invites us to peer through the looking glass and witness parallel realities:
a chimeric creature hidden behind a black mirror. inspired by mesoamerican myths and the
sacred images found in the borgia codex, this encountered creature inhabiting the gallery
space points towards a set of symbols that are Other.
behind the gallery glass, a soil monster opens its faucet to reveal a screen. the soil monster,
inspired by an olmec monument —known as “monumento 9”, recently returned to mexico
after being stolen and trafficked in the united states. it is believed to have served as an
entryway to a cave.
beyond the notion of caves as spaces for refuge, caves represent spaces for contact
with the mystical in mesoamerican cosmologies, spaces where a dialogue with nature can occur,
charged with great meaning as they comprise simultaneously a place of life, of emergence;
and a place of death, an access to the underworld.
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current research project on which i look at the instrumentalisation of horses from two perspectives: as the mythical
creatures the aztec encountered during the conquest of mexico, and as the creatures currently employed by the police to
control crowds during public demonstrations. using emerging technology (augmented reality, artificial intelligence, physical computing, 3d modeling and sculpture) as
tools capable of generating a sense of both awe and fear, the research aims at recreating the sensation of the first
encounter between the aztecs and spanish, whilst underlying the unbalance and coercion of it by juxtaposing it with
current policing methods through the stage of an interactive installation.
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(wip) a step-by-step by step video tutorial where the user/viewer is guided through the process of reshaping a 3d model of the
mexico city cathedral to mimic the shape of templo mayor, the mayor aztec center in tenochtitlan. destroyed following the spanish conquest
of tenochtitlan as a political statement by the spanish. following a major earthquake in the city in 2017, drone photography was taken of the cathedral, in prevention of a catastrophic future.
through this tutorial, these captured imagery are used not as prevention, but as an opportunity
for digital rebirth. through this work, i look at the potential of “how-to” tutorials as tools for alter-anthropology and refusal. the
possible use of this format to generate acts of resistance against digital preservation, archiving and mapping.
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(2023) is an expansion on theworkout.ch , a project developed in collaboration with jeanne tullen.
the video installation "rolling in the deep" highlights the parasitic relationship embodied by theworkout.ch and offers
practical methods to escape this relationship and ultimately detach from it. the installation consists of a set of
speculative scenarios, presented on two screens, incorporating and repurposing objects related to physical exercise.
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(2022) an omen is a force looking forward, a desire to look into the future by observing the present. the eight badly omens are
a series of bad happenings the mexica witnessed, foretelling the arrival of the conquistadores as the return of
quetzalcoatl—the creation deity. marking the end of the fifth cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation.
ocho-presagios.mx is an ephemeral website hosting these accounts. after every visit to the site, a word from the text is
downloaded to the visitor’s computer/mobile as a 3d object for them to keep, thus vanishing completely from the site.
the work uses cyberspace to mimic the act of looting and categorization that the mexica where subject to. introductory text by chloë reid .
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(2022) the installation part of ocho-presagios, follows a museum-like display showcasing my personal collection of words taken from
the website (ocho-presagios.mx ) as if part of a museum’s ethnographic collection. here the future the omens are predicting is suddenly stopped by an outside force,
a force attempting to push backwards, keeping them static in a vitrine.
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(2020) together with jeanne tullen we imagine the workout of the future. humans and computers have developed a relationship based on symbiotic mutualism
through the hardware that connects them, and the 'human' line that once divided them is now blurred. theworkout.ch
explores the potential of online tutorials as triggers for physical interactivity and performability while
simultaneously looking at their potential for machine learning. presented as a website offering an interactive workout
tutorial, theworkout.ch is in fact an experiment, looking at the
hybridisation of the human-machine body and developing innovative ways of physically engaging with digital mediums. with support from pro helvetia and the swiss cultural fund uk.
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(2020) is an exercise into accessing the paranodal space of the internet. the space in between the nodes where you can't be reached. see-also.net is a closed up network connected through random hyperlinks.
every word clicked is added to a parallel narrative , a cut-up that leaks in between the nodes. a hyperstitional experiment that leaks out the future by cutting up the present. a whole history of the internet is waiting to be
told, not based on globalisation, but on political blockage; on when the internet ceases to exist.
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for many years, california has represented a cultural and geographical centre: the birthplace of “cool”, a place of endless sun, beaches, and possibilities. a mythical image of the promised land, the ideal lifestyle.
it is also the place form which i got deported and banned from the usa in 2017.
“next to you (in-malibu.mx)” is a longing for a place that i can’t physically access. by transferring real world data
—my facial expressions through face recognition and a livestream of malibu beach—and making them cohabit in a use hosted, pacific time zone tied website, i can bypass these geographical
limitations imposed on me.
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(2019) is a book that, if input correctly back into a computer, will allow you to see the google search engine as myself, from my computer in that exact date, the 100th anniversary of bauhaus. available at goodpress
.