O artista parasita: a gambiarra como processo experimental em artemídias sonoras

Abstract

In this thesis, I investigate gambiarra techniques performed in media art works. To do so, I explore the idea of the parasite-artist, observing creative procedures of artists that make use of experimental techniques applied to obsolete devices in order to create sound artworks. Firstly, I derive a definition of parasite from the field of biology, as indicated by Ramos and Azevedo (2010), and then describe the parasitic relationships as a set of communicational interferences, according to the thought of Michel Serres (1982). I situate this research in the scope of media archaeology, supported mainly by Parikka (2015; 2017). As a methodological orientation, I present a cartographic approach and the organization of constellations assembled with the observed research objects, as described by Canevacci (1997) and Molder (2010); I also develop the procedure of cartoexcavation, which refers to the methodological intervention on the empirical objects. This cartoexcavation points to further issues to be observed in a hacking laboratory, a space of conceptual and applied experimentation where I “excavate” technological/artistic/communicational devices. Grounded in Parikka (2015) and Ernst (2019) the cartoexcavation procedures conducted in this lab refer to the opening of black boxes, giving access to a deeper layer of analysis entitled geological listening. As for the empirical objects analyzed, I observe the Indonesian band Senyawa, which builds its own musical instruments; a cartoexcavation conducted in the hacking laboratory, entitled Theremin Gambiarrístico; an analysis of the musical instrument Theremidi; and another cartoexcavation entitled Unidentified Sonic Object (O.S.N.I).