Description

Liber Rotavi, as a hypermedia art piece, combines poetry and multimedia by integrating 35 classic sonnets, more than 13,000 images and 120 musical components that are configured in different levels of construction and integration.

The art piece has 3 different versions: “Diurna” for daytime, “Crepuscular” for dusk or dawn, and “Nocturna” for nighttime. The algorithms that assemble the hypermedia art piece are affected by the time in the computer’s clock. The most “pristine” version takes place around 1 pm and the most “muddled” version happens around 1 am. The sonnets change by a reconfiguration of the individual words following late research in neurology: If the first and last letters of a word are kept in place, but the position of the inner letters is altered, the human brain is still capable of processing language. In the “Diurna” version, the inner structure is completely kept. In the “Crepuscular” version, the inner structure is significantly altered but the sonnets can still be read with ease. In the “Nocturna” version, the shuffling of the letters is enough as to make them unintelligible.

The metric and rhyme of the Spanish classical sonnets are rigorously followed, but the rhythm, breathing, and use of some words and special phrasings provide a unique flow and tension to the reading experience. Some of the sonnets deal with the dichotomy between flesh and data, human spirit and technology, time, memory, and oblivion, and perception and fragmentation. In some moments, the classical sonnets offer a subtle digital ontology.Besides the alteration of the written language, the vignettes that create the visual atmosphere of the art piece also go through several levels of construction/deconstruction also determined by the time of the day. Around 1 pm the imagery reach their highest level of realism and around 1 am they attain their highest level of abstraction. Finally, the musical elements of the art piece endure similar transformations throughout the day.

In essence, Liber Rotavi is an art piece that does not exist in a fixed form, rather it is reconstructed differently at run time.The 35 sonnets are divided into 4 sequences. In “Creación” or Creation, origination and destruction, memory and oblivion, joy and discontent, expose the dilemma of a poet who ponders his existence and his decrepitude. In “Destrucción” or Destruction, the poet reflects and laments about death without entirely losing hope. In “Tesoros” or Treasures, love and memory of the loved one is celebrated. In “Ella” or Hers, the poetic voice changes and it is the loved one who evokes love and pain. The closing sonnet is a final reflection that reconnects conceptually with the beginning of the piece.

Liber Rotavi’s can be experienced intuitively through an easy to navigate system; however, the art piece is also conceptualized as a public art piece that can be projected in a public space (for example, the side of a building).