NotMakeSense is an interactive video installation that invites viewers to step into the migrant’s experience, into the disorientation of attempting to communicate and encountering the incomprehension of others. In the gallery space, a series of screens encircle the visitor; at the center, an illuminated microphone marks the point of action. On the screens, different people appear waiting, distracted, almost indifferent—until someone decides to speak. At that moment, the participant’s voice is returned in distorted form, altering the message until it becomes unintelligible. The gaze of those inhabiting the screens changes immediately, their expressions attentive, puzzled, trying to understand what is being said but never quite succeeding.
The installation thus recreates the anxiety of the migrant who, as Julia Kristeva points out, stumbles over linguistic awkwardness and faces the irritation of the natives. Yet the work extends beyond this context to address a broader difficulty: the fragility of all communication, shaped by shyness, accent, or any circumstance that many of us have experienced at some point. NotMakeSense is, ultimately, a metaphor for being lost in translation and for the impossibility of forging bonds when language—whether one’s own or another’s—becomes a wall.
Created in 2016, the piece received an award at the XXVII Edition of Circuitos de Artes Plásticas of the Community of Madrid and was selected among the winning projects to carry out a production residency at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijón, 2017). It was presented at the Sala de Arte Joven of the Community of Madrid (2017).
Technique: custom software, five HD screens, microphone, computer, and speakers
Space: requires a dark, silent environment, preferably with grey walls; a spotlight illuminates the microphone, indicating the place of interaction
Dimensions: variable; minimum of five 32” screens
Software development: Joaquín González Gigosos
Video: Pedro Alvera
Acknowledgments: Kristina Veselinova, Enzo Lotito, Manuel Martínez, Diana Toledo, Daniel Barrio
