What is “real” anyway?

When discussing about videogames, avatars and the internet the discussion often declares these spaces as “fake”. By talking about the “real” effects of virtual spaces or trying to establish links between personalities and actions online, some people try to create a division on its value. This rhetoric undermines the worth of virtual spaces, pushing them…

Thinking about sex

The title should be more thinking about gender, but society has misused these terms so much that it is what we learn. Even worse, we just learn about the binary male-female or man/woman, when in reality spectrums exist across sex, gender, orientation, identity and more! It is really creepy how so many developers try to…

Education and building foundations for building a castle

I don’t think of #CSforAll as an economical construct, I think of it as a diversity experiment. I think of it as expanding the use of technology to uses no one would have ever thought, because they would not be profitable, because they would not make clear sense, but only because they are art or…

Are we humans or are we coders? (humans, we’re humans)

Following my blog post from last week, I have been thinking a lot of Open Source, community building and how to maintain a nurturing environment. I realized I am not alone in my lack of participation and that many other developers, artists and overall coders feel like they would love to contribute,… but they don’t….

full-body virtual selfie

Our physical bodies have clear limitations on how they can inhabit virtual spaces. That’s why for most games, social scenes or general applications we create and use avatars of ourselves. According to the platform they can be an accurate representation of our physical selves or a transformation that represents a more psychological aspect. Or it…

The cat-flap of open source

I have been coding for a long time. My interest began as a child, I’ve been using computers since I was 3 years old and my mom is a software engineer. Later, I got into civil engineering and coded my way to graduation and now I’m doing artistic stuff that uses code in one way…

everyday_windows

Final project for Physical Computing & ICM – ITP Fall 2017. Ilana Bonder & Nicolás Peña-Escarpentier Github repository | Link (will work on making a full web-only version soon) Sexism, harassment, abuse… They all have been historically regarded as personal issues, relegating them from the public discussion, and diverting attention of their status as sociopolitical…

Fragile sculpture for a fragile masculinity

Amongst the most fragile things in the universe we have glasses, grandma’s centenary china and specially, masculinity. Like, really, it is SO incredibly fragile. This fragility and how masculinity is constructed is what derives on the “Triad of Violence” and can be seen in the “Seven P’s of Men’s Violence” (both articles by Michael Kaufman)….

The worst Chilean supervillain: posting my fake plan online

(de)Motivation and Ideas Chile is about to have a new president. The elections will be held on November and Sebastián Piñera, Alejandro Guillier and Beatriz Sánchez are the main protagonists (at least for now). The corruption, misogyny and unethical practices of the former president of Chile does not seem to have any effect at all,…