From Liquid Neons To Rotograms: The Kinetic Sculpture Of Julio Cesar Gonzalez

Part of the challenge for today’s generation of artists is mitigating this hyper-technological world we live in. Technology has never been so pervasive and integral in our every day lives, and artists who assume the task of exploring the cultural zeitgeist and human condition of their day will find much fodder for their creative practice. But technology isn’t just affecting the subject matter and themes explored by today’s artists, but also their materials and process.

Take artist Julio Cesar Gonzalez, for instance. Gonzalez never set out to pursue an interest in technology—his practice was originally rooted in film and video production—but started experimenting with kinetic sculpture and analog synth construction during his time at RISD. He taught himself how to use and build these tools via the internet, searching for guides, resources and bits of code that he could hack together in order to manifest his ultimate vision. The open access to DIY resources opened up a whole new world of possibilities for Gonzalez and enabled him to explore the fundamental elements of video—time, movement, and sound—in an entirely new way.

As champions of technology’s ability to enable new creative pursuits for artists of all kinds, we were particularly struck by Gonzalez’s self taught approach and willingness to experiment with and adopt new tools. We sent him a few questions via email to learn more about his work and how he made the transition from video to kinetic sculpture and photography.

The Creators Project: You started out as a video artist, studying film & video at RISD. How and why did you make the transition to the kinetic sculptures and photographs you work with today?
Julio Cesar Gonzalez: I couldn’t truly give you a how and why because it’s been such a slow transition from video to sculpture. I think it’s been mostly driven by gear. Basically, in school I had a lot of equipment and, more importantly, time at my disposal. I moved to New York the day after I graduated (thanks Angie for renting that car!) and found myself with neither of those. My video ideas always involved a lot of monitors and speakers and cables. While I was in school in Providence, I would just find televisions and speakers in the street and store them in the basement of my apartment. In New York, space is expensive so storing things in my apartment wasn’t an option. I just had to adapt over the years.

What are the similarities between your early work and your present work? What are the differences?
I think I’m still in the period of my “early work” but if I were to compare what I did in college to now, I’ve become more image based. My attention span has matured. I work for an artist making large scale charcoal drawings about half my week, which has really honed my picture-making skills. Also, almost all of my artist friends are painters.

In terms of similarities, my work still incorporates time, movement, and sound (fundamentals of video). In my latest show “So So, Incredibly Beautiful”, I made a series of kinetic light sculptures that I then took long-exposure photographs of and displayed together. I think of the long-exposure photographs as taking a video of the sculpture and then overlaying every frame of the video and displaying them at once. It adds another dimension to the sculptures that you can’t see with the naked eye. They’re echoes of the sculptures’ forms, which is why I call them ghosts.

What aspects of your artistic process carried over, if any?
Image processing is pretty much the same for digital photo and video. Learning the Adobe Suite has been crucial in everything I do artistically.

You used the internet to teach yourself electrical and mechanical circuitry. Why did you choose to go this route as opposed to traditional classes?
At RISD there was a graduate major of “New Media” (I think it was called). Whenever I went to one of their shows, it seemed like they were still learning simple video techniques like how to use a camera and hook it up to a projector or a monitor, etc. Every so often, there would be something using MaxMSP/Jitter to do some live video manipulation, so I started looking up Max stuff on the internet. I found that it was pretty easy to just read tutorials online and steal a bit of code here and there to achieve whatever I had in mind. When I graduated, I started building analog synths and found I could do the same thing. I would come up with an idea, then put together schematics I found on the internet to make it happen. It’s a lot cheaper than going to school.

What were some of your favorite internet resources during this learning process?
musicfromouterspace.com
cgs.synth.net
all-electric.com

I also would just Google a lot of schematics [for] simple machines. When I started using motors and mechanical parts, I used mcmaster.com to order parts.

What is your work about? What are the topics, themes, and ideas you’re exploring?
I never set out to tackle any specific theme or topic when making my work. My work comes about subconsciously. I think the meaning comes about through the whole process of creation and exhibition. I create something that reflects some thought process I was having, then someone comes over and sees it in my studio or in a show and they have their own reaction to it. Hopefully, it resonates with someone and some nonverbal understanding happens. Another level of meaning exists in what medium that whole process is filtered through. My work involves a lot of technology mostly because that’s what surrounds me. I could either react against my environment or embrace it. At the moment, I’m playing along.

In “So So, Incredibly Beautiful,” I had a series of pieces I called “Liquid Neons.” They were made of this imitation neon (basically a row of LED’s inside vinyl tubing) hanging on aluminum frames that were being moved by motors. I then took long-exposure photos of them in motion and displayed the photos next to the machines. “Liquid Neon (Round and Round 1)” rotated on a vertical axis and was made up of red and blue LED neon and a thin yellow wire of EL wire (electro-luminescence). I see this piece as a multi-dimensional abstract drawing. It traces the action of a creative thought and manifests it in a kinetic sculpture and a photograph of that sculpture. It ends up looking like a figure composed of a translucent, light-emitting fabric. The viewer can experience the physical presence of the sculpture and reflect on the illusion of the photograph. It’s hard to explain but I think that’s a positive thing.

Do you think this access to information and resources that enables artists to teach themselves skills that used to take years of training to develop is in some way changing the contemporary creative landscape?
The internet has very obviously created this new genre of art with things you plug into the wall. It’s made it really easy. It’s like how the electric guitar invented rock ’n roll. Before the electric guitar, you had to really sit down and study your instrument to make anything sound good. With amplification and distortion, you could just bang out a few chords and you would have a song that sounded cool. The internet and digital technology does the same. You can buy a few lights and gadgets, or learn how to make them yourself, and make something that competes with the loud, fast world we live in.

Images courtesy of The Creatives Agency.