PhD Joaquín R. Díaz Durán, aka Joaku De Sotavento.
I am interested in cyborgs because they combine a rational and cold aspect with a warm and emotional dimension.
I think art matters because it takes you from your place, twists you in a kind of quantum leap, and returns you in appearance to the same place but not the same way. In this way, new media art matters because electronic media is almost everywhere and nowadays it is the structure on which the world order stands. But this order, in my opinion, is twisted, and we need a lot of thinking followed by actions. New media art could be a way of thinking this technology, which came mostly from the war industry, more creatively — and it could be of great good, not just of great profit.
In my artistic work and my research, which are very close, I try to embody in the devices and artworks I produce a critical view and a critical aesthetics of new media art.
Biography
He is currently a full-time researcher in the BODYinTRANSIT project (ERC funding) at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), where he develops interactive prototypes of sonification and haptic stimulation.
He holds a PhD in Research in Humanities, Arts and Education from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM, Spain). From his research he has developed, together with an interdisciplinary team, the Joakinator project, an interactive device to reflect on the relationship between art, technology and the body in performance.
He has presented his artistic work at Medialab Prado, Medialab Matadero, Tabakalera (Donostia), Link (Bologna), Galerías Mira (Porto) and Centro Multimedia (CDMX). He is audio designer and performer of the project Una Noche con Ramona, presented at Teatro Pradillo, Museo Reina Sofía, Espacio DT (Madrid), the Soto a Chi Danza festival at the Rotonda a Mare di Senigallia, Link (Bologna) and Spazio Recherche (Rome).
He also develops technology for the interactive works of renowned artists in Spain and Mexico, such as Santiago Morilla.
From 2012 to 2015 he was part of the robotics team of the BioRobotics laboratory at UNAM, responsible for the design and construction of the Justina robot’s appearance, participating in the RoboCup competition (Mexico 2012, Netherlands 2013, Brazil 2014 and China 2015) and RockIn (Portugal 2015).
He has worked as researcher, teacher and lecturer of interactive art in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, teaching classes and workshops at Fundación Telefónica (Madrid), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Instituto Europeo de Diseño, UNAM and Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, among others.