WALK (1)

Archaeology of Silicon
2022 

Single channel video installation, generated from 3D scan compositions  
Street sounds captured with a smartwatch  
Duration: 2 min. 18 sec.  
2022  

First Prize at the XVIII Young Art Exhibition of La Rioja (Spain)




On an iridescent silicon wafer —the raw material for the microchips found in our digital devices— various figures unfold, shaping a digitized urban environment. From an aerial view, the perspective descends onto a surface that begins to be traversed as though inside a first-person POV video game. Along this journey, scenes emerge that depict new ways of living enabled by platform capitalism: riders (delivery platform workers) sitting on benches waiting for orders, Amazon delivery workers checking their smartphones, fiber-optic installation vans, ride-hailing vehicles marked with their companies' logos, and electric scooters available for rental via an app. The visuals are interwoven with audio produced from recordings made with a smartwatch during walks around Madrid. Sounds accompanying this journey include an iPhone ringtone, reggaeton rhythms, and the hum of a delivery motorbike.  

Like a Baudelairean flâneur in the digital age, strolling through the city is no longer a serene, contemplative experience. Instead, it is an accelerated movement shaped by distracted attention, allowing only fleeting moments for observation. This accelerated pace is driven not by leisure but by the urgency to connect dispersed points in the city as quickly as possible.  

The elements in the scene are arranged with a glitch aesthetic, a result of the 3D LiDAR scanning technique used to create them. This method exposes the limitations of photogrammetric image production technologies. Unable to fully capture objects, the scanner produces voids and fractures, revealing cracks in the very surface of what lies before us.







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© 2025 Juan De Andrés Arias