Patchery, Laetitia Morais, PT


The categorisation of the species, into particular hierarchies as defined through the sciences, requires re-evaluation. Humans tend to appropriate nature, attempting in our movements, to tame or domesticate nature, so as to have ‘pieces’ of it, within reach, within control. ‘Patchery’ reflects on this issue and on the relations between notions of natural-artificial; looser-winner; space-point and source-font.

The fish is a “quiet animal”, a symbol of fragile simplicity, with no rational actions. Setting up an aquarium, with a single fish in it. The movements of the fish are captured by a camera and represented graphically. As the observers, our movements are also tracked and a small game created between the observer and the fish.

Credits

Laetitia Morais

About the Creator

Since 2004, Laetitia Morais has been researching the relation between electronics and nature and their historic and social graphic representations, as a mode of imitated or copied nature.

Exploring the relation between organic and artificial symbioses, Morais started by using digital code to examine the algorithms of unicellular plants. This resulted in a body of work, where she mapped ‘biological limbs’ to create a series of generative visuals. This method allowed for a set of aesthetic rules to emerge, through, which Morais could compare different examples and allow for other genetic transmissions to be realised through her graphic, almost architectural projections.

Originally from France but now resident in Portugal, Morais, graduated from the University of Oporto, Fine Arts (painting) and the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, (cinema-video and sound art). Alongside her individual practice, her approach to real-time, generative visual creation has lead to various collaborations with: electronic engineers (p.e. INESC); TV productions (p.e. RTP - abre-te césamo); theatres (p.e. TAGV + Marionet) and musicians (p.e. Vitor Joaquim, Zavoloka, Mosaique, Rui Monteiro).