THE WEB CONNECTS EVERYONE TRAPS EVERYTHING MANIPULATES ALL AND ISOLATES EVERYONE PEOPLE ARE VERY CONNECTED, YET AT THE SAME TIME VERY ISOLATED ENTER SOCIAL MEDIA PEOPLE BEGIN TO PROJECT – ILLUSIONS OF HAPPINESS, WISHING TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE FULFILLED WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE EMPTY,  FALSE EXPECTATIONS, FALSE DREAMS, FALSE REALITY, FALSE IDENTITIES, AND SINCE WE ARE IN DENIAL, WE FAIL TO ADDRESS THE ROOT OF OUR TRUE PROBLEMS. COCOONS REPRESENT ISOLATION, PROTECTION, TRANSFORMATION, CHANGE, ESCAPE, PRIVATE SPACES FROM WHERE YOU MAY WATCH WITHOUT BEING WATCHED IF YOU SO WISH.

NEURONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING WE DO –  MOTOR MOVEMENTS, AUTONOMOUS FUNCTIONS , THEY POSSESS ASTOUNDING
COMPUTATIONAL POWERS FORMING COMPLEX THOUGHTS WHICH MAY HELP US EVOLVE THROUGH ENHANCED SYNAPSING , ENABLING US TO PERHAPS CONSIDER ALTERING THESE CURRENT ABHORRENT BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS BEFORE THEY CONSOLIDATE INTO A MORE PERMANENT PROBLEM. BUT THE COCOONS  ARE NOT PROTECTED FROM WHAT THEY CAN BECOME, FROM THEIR FUTURE OR THEIR DESTINY, WHERE THEY CAN POTENTIALLY ALTER OUR COLLECTIVE SUBCONSCIOUS, HEREBY INCREASING THE PROBLEM EXPONENTIALLY! EITHER SELF OR EGO PROJECTED FROM THE COCOON WHO ARE YOU REALLY? WHO IS YOUR TRUE SELF SAFE INSIDE YOUR COCOON VS THE IMAGE YOU WISH TO PROJECT  OUT IN THE INTERNET AND TO THE WORLD?  WHAT DO YOU PROJECT?  YOUR REALITY OR SURREALITY?   WHY THE NEED TO MEDIATIZE YOUR INSECURITIES WITH SUCH FURY? SEEKING EMPATHY OR IN FULL DENIAL?
THE FUTILITY AND IMPOSSIBILITY OF BEING BOTH THINGS AT THE SAME TIME: IN HERE AND OUT THERE, AND THE DEEP FRUSTRATION IT DEVELOPS IN THE INDIVIDUAL.

THIS CONCEPT TIES IN FULLY WITH THE WIDE MEDIATIZATION PROCESS OCCURRING CURRENTLY IN THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA , WHICH AFFECTS PUBLIC OPINION AND PEOPLE S LIVES , AT THE SAME TIME POSSIBLY INFLUENCING THEM…..PERHAPS THE MEDIATIZATION OF THE SELF WAS JUST WAITING TO HAPPEN.  IT IS AFFECTING US. THE WEB , WITH ALL ITS IMPLICATIONS IS RADICALLY AFFECTING OUR BEHAVIOR AS HUMANS IN A PROFOUND  ENOUGH WAY AS TO POTENTIALLY AFFECT OUR COLLECTIVE SUBCONSCIOUS ,  AND THUS IMPLANT ITSELF IN OUR EVOLUTION PROCESS AND OUR PSYCHIC DNA ,  IF IT HASN T ALREADY. THIS IMPLIES DEEP CHANGES AS A SPECIES WHICH THE HUMAN RACE SHOULD FATHOM BEFORE DECIDING WHERE TO GO NEXT ?  OR ARE WE THERE ALREADY AND WE DON´T KNOW IT YET? AFTER A WHILE THIS SYMPTOM OR EFFECT BECOMES LIKE A DRUG, YOU GET TOTALLY ADDICTED TO EXPECTING, RECEIVING AND SENDING INFORMATION, ANY INFORMATION, FOR FEAR OF MISSING OUT,  OR FEAR OF NOT BELONGING, OR WORST OF ALL, FEAR OF
BEING FORGOTTEN OR NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION?  FEAR OF SHOWING YOUR TRUE SELF?  ANNIHILATION OF SELF ESTEEM AS WE KNOW IT…  OUR WORST FEAR SHOULD BE LOSING OURSELVES AND UNBECOMING US!    JUST A POOR SKETCHY SHADOW OF OUR TRUE SELVES… NAPKINS, SKETCHES OF COCOONS, PERCEPTIONS AND AURAS SURROUNDING US AS I SIT AROUND IN CAFES AND RESTAURANTS IN MANHATTAN I WATCH EVERYONE AROUND ME , AND I PERCEIVE THEM WRAPPING LAYER UPON LAYER AROUND THEMSELVES , BUILDING THEIR INDIVIDUAL COCOONS , VERY CONNECTED IN THEIR CEL PHONES AND VERY , VERY ISOLATED SOCIALLY , NOT TALKING MUCH OR COMMUNICATING EXCEPT VIA THEIR ELECTRONIC DEVICES.   FEELING VERY HAPPY IN THEIR COMFORT ZONES PROJECTING REALITIES THEY WISH WERE REAL… SAD SHADOWS OF THEIR TRUE SELVES.

NAPKINS ARE THE COMMON DENOMINATOR IN EVERY ESTABLISHMENT AND REPRESENT THE ETHEREAL LEVITY OF THE MATTER, AND THEY SOAK THE INK AS I ABSORB THE FEELINGS EMANATING FROM THE COCOON COMMUNITY SURROUNDING ME, HANGING BY  A THREAD FROM THE WEB, APPARENTLY DEPENDING ON IT FOR THEIR SOUL´S SURVIVAL. EVERYONE WEAVES THEIR WEBS ABOVE AND AROUND THEMSELVES, CREATING THE COCOONS ADAPTED TO THEIR OWN PERSONALITIES. THE COCOONS ARE SUSPENDED FROM THE WEB VIA UMBILICAL CORDS, WHICH FEED THEM NUTRIENTS FOR THE NEURONS AND AMONG OTHER THINGS,   INNER LIGHTS WITH THE POWER TO POTENTIALLY CHANGE,  EVOLVE  AND PROVIDE PEOPLE WITH THE HOPE AND PROTECTION AGAINST THE WEB S MANIPULATIVE,  SEDUCTIVE AND ADDICTIVE POWERS. THERE S AN URGENT NEED TO BEGIN AN EMANCIPATION OR LIBERATION PROCESS FROM THE WEB, NOT TOTAL, BUT TRYING TO KEEP IT TO A PARTIAL MINIMUM USE PER DAY. WE NEED TO DISCONNECT, BREAK THE CHAINS, RIP THOSE LAYERS OFF THE COCOON
AND GET OUT OF IT!!!!   LIBERATE OURSELVES, BE ABLE TO SEE THEM OR THINK ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENTS AND NOT FEEL AN URGE OR NEED TO IMMEDIATELY USE IT… WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT OFFLINE IS THE TRUE LUXURY IN LIFE NOWADAYS.

WE NEED TO RELY ON OUR INNER LIGHTS TO GUIDE OUR CONSCIENCES AND RELY LESS AND LESS ON THE EVER-GROWING AND MANIPULATING  POWERS OF THE WEB WHICH WILL ONLY ISOLATE US MORE AND MORE FROM EACH OTHER… THE WORLD NEEDS MORE PERSONAL CONTACT, PERSONAL TOUCH, THAN EVER BEFORE…IT HAS BEOME TOO IMPERSONAL! 

EDUARDO NAVARRO Q.
PANAMA

PROCESS: 
The name of the whole concept and that of the installation is COCOONS, because that’s what it’s all about – people connecting to the web isolating themselves within social media by weaving cocoons around their personas.

1.  First step: Information gathering in bars, restaurantes, metro, buses and cafes – this is where the sketches are drawn on paper napkins (because every place has them available) watching closely the people around me and making sure i perceive their spirit all caught up on the web’s social media information magnet, not interested in much else going on around them, save their battery’s life…

I use inks to draw the sketches and play with the diffusion factor depending on the absortion capacities/qualities of every different type of napkin i find. Initially i only used black inks which exploded into different color schemes as soon as water was added – these are the stage 1 napkins.   Afterwards i used other colors as well as coffee, wine, scotch, cigar ash, etc… to enrich the drawings with human flavors…
I have to confess that i have left the last napkin sketches plain and dry, with just the inks, no diluting external factors such as water, coffee, etc…  perhaps enjoying the pre diffusion stages for more time, or maybe for want of more directness in people motives, luring them out of their cocoons…. or maybe I know I can throw liquids on them at any moment, the right moment, and bring out their true colors…

2.  Second step, bring sketches to the studio and use them to create my 3D COCOONS.  I used plastic human skeleton models wrapped in clear plastic and other materials because I wanted to represent an x ray of ourselves as current abusers of social media, part of the symptom/diagnostics in trying to seek a remedy. Inside the skeletons  I purposefully used mechanical parts because of the AI implications of the whole concept,  such as washer dryer hoses red and blue to represent veins and arteries ,  larger ribbed gray hoses representing windpipes and esophagus,  mechanic lamps to provide internal light to the structure hence the x ray,  baby dolls representing our passing of these tendencies to future generations and the collective unconscious, other hoses for the babies umbilical cords, electrical cable as the umbilical cord for the COCOON connecting them to the web above and providing energy to the light , nutrients to the neurons and the power of hope to humanity, also plastic bottles for stomachs as a personal critic to plastic waste in oceans and because thats where all the plastic fish eat is ending up, safety blinking bike lights as the ♥️ hearts , etc.. I use clear saran plastic to wrap up the COCOONS because it s see thru and shows all the inside parts and the illumination, and also a great metaphor to the auto-wrapping metamorphosis  people suffer  every time they go deep inside social media, caring little for their outside world. Wish it or not, between the lines, clues about their true personalities always show. I built/wove a (spider)  web on the ceiling of the studio from where the cocoons hang , this had to be specifically worked in situ to the exact dimensions of the studio s space to accommodate the cocoons.  Im still praying it holds until today.

3.  Third step –  paintings.  Reinterpreting the information of steps 1 & 2, and in mixing  it I felt the need to present a combination of factors in a different media for which large format “canvases”  is perfect. I absorbed the info from the napkins,  filtered it through the visual impact of the 3D COCOONS and created  a new, more fluid interpretation, taking the opportunity to explore some textures and raw monochromatic color schemes after the nuances  the human character posesses.   As several paintings have advanced i have noticed that the figures are becoming more diffused, diluted, as though the characters are losing their humanity and becoming dispersed, acquiring a mix with  AI cloud-like characteristics… losing human touch within their artificial self evoked environments.

During the presentation/exhibition the COCOONS should be surrounded by streaming data of all types of social media. This will happen with 4 projectors displaying images and sounds simultaneously of facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter, etc… to every wall in the precinct,  the input provided by the spectators that attend the exhibition as direct accomplices of the happening….  the COCOONS will be immersed in such a melange of information turmoil that a catharsis will be imminent and complete…and maybe even hopeful, but above all i think that s how they must feel being assaulted by so much data simultaneously… Im also beginning to ponder on the dilemma of how much does POWER have to do with all this? From government control, to the internet providers, to the software and hardware creators,  to ALL the intermediaries along the way, and finally to the end users, the COCOONS themselves….    they have truly trapped us in their webs!!!!   And their plan is really LONG TERM!!!!   And Big Media is in on it too!!!   They are of course in cahoots with each other given the mutual dependance of end users on them both and the complementary coexistence they share in abusing everything they seek.

At the same time, there s also an issue of individual power each of us may wield,  for example when i have information i feel will be appreciated or feared by other social media users/abusers…do i send/share it? Or don t   i? Why?  What motivates me to do either? Elation? Happiness Enlightenment?  Evil?  Or  simply to feel power over others, one of the oldest human traits …  it might be the power to inflict a plethora of feelings upon others , or the power to withhold info, or maybe just pressure them onto resending the info at hand…. who knows… who will ever know …complex physiological matrixes at play.