Lo justo (The Just)
Each edition of Ropa sucia includes a digital file that presents a singular “reading” of its texts, as conveyed by a tailor-made algorithm, combining analog and machine-driven generativity. This digital file evokes an unfolded concertina book and incorporates stills from Lo justo.
Caballero worked with coder Cameron Nelson on Ropa sucia‘s algorithm. Nelson used the artist’s previous performative interventions as source material, where poetry was transformed through interpretive dance, chalk, and acrylic into a series of handmade marks.
The composition relies on an array of digital drawing tools including Python, shader code, HTML, and Javascript via the p5.js framework, and draws on a visual language developed in Caballero’s prior choreographic works.
Scattered stamps of the poet’s body in motion – still frames from the recorded choreography, extracted with AI – contextualize the generative mark-making as they dance between the words on the page.
The resulting linear etchings speak a guttural language that transmits the immediacy and urgency of performance.
