I’m here [for now]. Jag är här [nu iallafall]. [De momento] estoy aquí [2018]

Residency Grant Fundación Bilbao Arte Fundazioa 2018, Bilbao, ES
bilbaoarte.org

An expanded typing project (KYBDslöjd) whose significance can be defined roughly as <manual skill with a keyboard> that materialises the text characters and the typing on a keyboard beyond the screen and questions our parasitic relationship with the technology. It is not a mere arbitrary intervention. It is based on and refers to the typewriter, Concrete Poetry, Demoscene and Brutalism. The typewriter contributes to the execution, while poetry contributes to a system, a brutal language that should be learnt. The characters in Commodore 64 (PETSCII) are used without ornament like concrete in brutalist architecture, capturing the spirit and the contradictions of its time. I belong to a generation which, above all, has been electrocuted by technologies. Irony and Cynicism seem to have taken us to a precarious state: acceptance and resignation. The tyranny of easy to use and immediate satisfaction are just deterrence methods that are bringing us to the dump and to boredom. We live in a digital era and no one is free from paradoxes. The future is typed. I’m here [for now], and that is what I have to say.

Publication:

Mecanografía expandida [KYBDslöjd],Artistic Research // Project PDF (Spanish)
A5, Saddle Stitch, Color, 36 pages.

Performances:

28th June 2018 // Escenas y escenarios: Jornada de puertas abiertas del primer semestre @ BilbaoArte, Bilbao, ES
Myopia For the Future / Live Performance
Electronics by Niklas Ström (SE) + KYBDslöjd C64 by Raquel Meyers (ES)

⚡trueno⚡ [2018]
Mecanografía expandidad (KYBDslöjd) Performance

LANDSCII (PETSCII Mosaic in the Land) [2018]

The mosaic is made with small pieces called tiles. During the artistic residency in Le Shadok (Strasbourg, FR), which I was awarded in Strasbourg in 2016, I laser cut several characters PETSCII in methacrylate (PMMA) of the set used by the Commodore 64. What before was typed on the screen, now it became mosaic outside of it. The piece was shown at the solo exhibition Keys of Fury. Type In Beyond the Scrolling Horizon (Les Clefs de la Fureur) in Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival, curated by Esté-elle Dalleu and Arnaud Reeb. The mosaic became, along with the cross-point, one of the materializations of KYBDslöjd.

During the residency at BilbaoArte , the concept evolved into what I have called LANDSCII. A play on words between PETSCII and Land art, from which he inherits the desire to «leave no trace» as Tufnell points out (2006). The mosaic pieces are arranged in a almost ritualistic and ephemeral manner in the context of a landscape following the proposed idea by Smithson (1996) to “go into the places where remote places where remote futures meet remote pasts”. LANDSCII creates ephemeral mosaic pieces that are recorded by photography.

Works:

Woodscii Totem [2018]

The materialization of expanded typing is not only through mosaic and embroidery. During the residency at BilbaoaArte Fundazioa I made a piece in wood using a CNC Milling Machine. In this case the instructions of the characters are expanded and returned to exit the screen. Woodscii, is a word game between the character set PETSCII and the English word for «wood», like LANDSCII. The piece made is a totem that ironizes with our faith in technology, since we make it responsible for all the good and bad that happens without taking any responsibility about it.

Exhibitions:

1st april- 27th august 2022 // Extinción Remota Detectada @ LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, ES
laboralcentrodearte.org

13th october-05 november 2021 // Artoteka @ Sala BBK, Bilbao, ES

23th january-11th april 2021 // Artoteka @ Mediateka BBK, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, ES

11th-14th july 2019 // Future Relics @ Vector Festival, Toronto, CA
Group Exhibition. Anna Eyler, Aksel Haagensen, Lisa Jackson, Raquel Meyers, Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, Scenocosme (Grégory Lasserre + Anaïs met den Ancxt), Jeff Thompson.
Curated by Katie Micak and Martin Zeilinger.

7th-18th december 2018 // Open Studios 2018 @ BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao, ES
https://bilbaoarte.org/destacado/exposicion-colectiva-puertas-abiertas-2018-con-la-obra-de-los-artistas-becados-en-bilbaoarte-durante-2018/

28th June 2018 // Escenas y escenarios: Jornada de puertas (entre)abiertas @ BilbaoArte, Bilbao, ES
https://bilbaoarte.org/actividades/escenas-y-escenarios-jornadas-expositivas-de-bilbaoarte-en-junio/