Binary Space Partition

Binary Space Partition, a site-specific work developed at the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, started a dialogue in order to construct new layers of meaning and memory in physical objects. In the manipulative use of media formats such as computer games, she developed an installation linking two questions related to the definition of space: How is memory constructed and how can reality be perceived through it?

Jacobo built a virtual version of the Büchsenhausen Lab using the game engine from Quake III Arena and used it as the set for a short machinima film: from the first-person perspective, viewers walk through a branching tunnel before finally entering the space of the Lab through a hidden door in the one of the walls. The empty room contains a few items that are a permanent fixture in the space: the copy machine, two blue benches, the kitchen, the large table and the bookcase by Atelier Van Lieshout. The viewer’s attention is first directed to traces of blood on and next to the copy machine, indicating an act of violence in the past. Then he or she walks towards the the big table, collects the health balls located there (upon which the shaky vision became clear), hurries back and once again disappears through the wall.

Viewers of Mónica Jacobo’s installation were simultaneously confronted with two narratives related to the Büchsenhausen Lab: visiting an exhibition and the plot from the first-person perspective of a shooter. At once physically and virtually constituted, the space itself became the center of attention and main object of contemplation. In the spatial configuration of the machinima projection and the mutual feedback of narrative zones, Mónica Jacobo created a hybrid physical-virtual space in which the once genuinely separate zones of experience blurred into one another through the process of “virtual memory”.

A video documentation of the installation and machinima film can be found on YouTube by searching for “Binary Space Partition”.