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Méndez in group exhibition ‘Scalable Relations’ at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, at UC Irvine. Curated by Christiane Paul, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. ‘Scalable Relations’ is an exhibition by faculty members of the University of California Digital Arts Research Network ( UCDARnet ). The exhibition brings together works that explore digital media’s capability of representing a growing amount of data in constantly evolving relations. Addressing a range of issues—from the construction of visual worlds to self-representation and socio-cultural and political issues—the projects in ‘Scalable Relations’ illustrate the complexities and shifting contexts of today’s information society.

Rebeca’s artwork in the exhibition:

At Any Given Moment, Fall, 2008. Video projection 20 feet wide, lava rocks, gravel and sand, sound.

Artist Statement:

At Any Given Moment, Fall is an art installation consisting of lava rocks, sound, and a video projection of a waterfall. In an attempt to explore the nature of perception and media representation, this work focuses on the phenomenological approach of ‘stepping out’ in order to ‘see ourselves seeing.’ The repetitive rhythm, tight crop and large-scale image of the waterfall emphasize its particular organizational logic in time and space. Allowing us to view ourselves from the outside, as part of the representation, we learn about ourselves and challenge preconceptions of our surroundings, specifically of the nature of matter. The cross-rhythmic tensions between simple elements in the waterfall—each droplet falling at variable speed, variable light and variables of atmospheric conditions—create visual difference and reveal the patterns that one simple form, a particle of water, produces through relationships and complex organization.

Additional thoughts:

This interest is from reading excerpts of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s ‘On Growth and Form’ (1917), which posits that processes in nature fit mathematical equations, setting out to prove a unity of life by its relationship between form and function. To expand on this, I studied Stephen Wolfram’s book A New Kind of Science (2002) where he states that repetitive application of simple computational transformations is the true source of complexity in the world. So, I interpret that by thinking in terms of time and capturing images where various systems are at play. Cross-rhythmic tensions of simple elements create infinite complexity. This is at play in the waterfall—each droplet is falling at variable speed (some are just falling with gravity, some are projected by colliding with other particles), variable light and variables of atmospheric conditions. All this creates visual difference and reveals the patterns that one simple form — a particle of water — produces through relationships and complex organization.

Sound by Drew Schnurr