Mental Staircase

By leaning onto different approaches to exploring the domains of technology in light of natural phenomena, one artist and a duo from Spain, Moisés Mañas and Playmodes (Eloi Maduell and Santi Vilanova), present their works at the Universitat Jaume I’s exhibition space Display-UJI. Under the title Mental Staircase, the project emphasizes the connection between the two seemingly unrelated themes - water and star constellation. Previously generated works encompassing video, sound, and objects will be reformulated according to the space, aiming to immerse the Belgrade audiences into a poetic yet critically charged experience.

Marcel Duchamp’s painting Nude Descending a Staircase reflected increasing technological advancement and its impact on the human experience. From a contemporary perspective, this iconic 20th-century masterpiece seems like a static metaphor of the never-ending movement of our minds moderated by algorithms. Driven by the task of addressing ever-changing ways of seeing, especially nature, through this exhibition project Mañas and Playmodes strive to highlight that every aspect of our reality has become the subject of social and political contestation in times when we are blinded by the endless flow of seemingly scientific data.

Curators: Vladimir Bjeličić and Maya Marja Janković

The exhibition is a continuation of a collaboration between Universitat Jaume I’s exhibition space Display-UJI and the Cultural Center of Belgrade’s Podroom gallery. Supported by the Spanish Embassy.

Real-time data visualization/sonification
Custom software (JAVA, C++, Supercollider)
Videoprojection and multichannel sound

Constel·lacions transforms the celestial vault into a dynamic audiovisual canvas. A real-time cartography of Belgrade's night sky that turns the stars—now hidden beneath light pollution—into protagonists of a mathematical ballet. The system captures the coordinates of the hundred brightest stars above the viewer at each precise moment, weaving ephemeral connections between them that challenge historical interpretations of the firmament.

Periodically, a new generative pattern emerges, develops, and fades away. In the brief interlude before a new algorithmic creation appears, traditional astronomical constellations are revealed with their ancestral names, only to be quickly replaced by new imaginary configurations.

This dialogue between the commonly accepted sky and its possible visual and sonic interpretations invites us to reflect on how humans have organized and made sense of the universe. Through the classical quadrivium —the convergence of astronomy, geometry, mathematics, and music— the work recovers the primordial act of imagining stories from points of light, questioning what narratives and patterns we would create today if we could once again contemplate the night in all its depth.

Constel·lacions is both specific to the place where it is exhibited and universal; anchored in the present moment but connected to the atavistic tradition of looking up and finding meaning. It is an invitation to rediscover our capacity for abstraction and to question what cultural imprint we would leave on the firmament… if we were to look at the stars again…

Audiovisual installation generated with real-time data
Variable dimensions

The title comes from the Arabic concept of “Azarbe” + “Data”.

Azarbe: “The channel into which irrigation surpluses or seepage go through the irrigation ditches. channel, canal, irrigation ditch…”

Viver is a small town rich in natural and hydrographic heritage in the Alto Palancia region of Castellon (Spain). This work addresses coexistence and transmutation between the tangible heritage elements of Viver such as water, fountains, irrigation structures, etc. and the intangible, raw data of these same elements of planning and communication.

The result is an experimental audiovisual experience of visualisation of the data collected from this physical heritage (location, size, sections, shapes, etc.) recursively mixed with information on the socio-economic identity of the community of Viver (demographic and economic data, etc.) as an act of depatrimonialization in the context of technological and scientific understanding of the environment.