Knight Fellow Rodolfo Peraza is a Cuban-born multimedia artist working between Cuba and Miami. Through an interdisciplinary, pedagogical practice, Peraza builds space, both virtual and physical, to promote technological access and literacy. He was joined by Tommy Martinez, technologist, arts worker, and Director of Technology at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, to talk about the trajectory of his practice, from a childhood fascination with early, room-sized computers in Cuba, to the development of several community-based programs addressing the digital divide.Tommy Martinez
Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, how you became interested in technology and art, and how you’ve used these mediums to explore public and private spaces, politics, et cetera?
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Rodolfo Peraza
When I was a child living in Cuba, computers were rare and very hard to access. I was fascinated by the idea of these strange machines in very secretive places. I was able to sneak into these somewhat hidden offices and I remember playing games on East Germany-made computers.

‍Nothing’s in vain, everything is prohibited (2003), a public space intervention with street signs in Havana, was the first work I produced using computers to design my own pictograms. This piece created with metal street signs was a pivotal moment in my art process and has moved my interest to work in public space since then. I’m interested in exploring the edges of the public, private, and institutional limits within specific social contexts. Nothing’s in vain, everything is prohibited used a global aesthetic to address political and social issues, like access to internet and technology among other issues that affected Cuban people at that time.

TM
Can you tell us a little bit about some of those first experiences with the computer, and how access to those machines opened up new paths in your exploration? I’m thinking about this in relationship to the access you’re providing for young adults in your VRCamps.
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RP
There is personal synergy between my first experiences with computers and the VRCamps. The VRCamp program curriculum features the history of art and computers through immersive experiences. I have some vivid memories from the late ’80s in Cuba of room-sized computers from the ’60s and ’70s, so I recall the evolution of computing technology—from the aesthetics of magnetic tape data storage, typographic character games, and high-contrast screens to the current computers. VRCamp is a way to revisit this art-tech history and my personal memories, while building on my interest in community creation in virtual reality.
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TM
You have started several different community-based organizations centered around art and technology. Can you tell us about Fanguito eStudio, VRLab, and MUD Foundation and how you see them relating to the public space?

RP

Fanguito eStudio was the first independent art space project I opened to the public in Havana, Cuba. It was my studio apartment where I, in collaboration with engineers, artists, and curators, developed art apps, game art, and open-studio exhibitions. The VRLab app was first prototyped and developed in the studio. VRLab app has been the continuation of different site-specific pieces, art actions, and events using virtual reality as a medium.

MUD Foundation is the continuation of these ideas. MUD stands for Media Under Dystopia and has the mission of creating art programs and exhibitions where artists, digital theorists, and engineers can converge to develop community-based projects.

With the MUD Foundation, we intervene in the public space in several cities and countries with projects like Guerrilla Hotspot from our Art+Hack+Data program. We provide a free wireless internet network for specific communities to capture anonymous internet footprints to be shown in real-time through WebXR (extended reality) as a site-specific action. Guerrilla Hotspot aims to bring awareness to issues of data privacy, the digital divide, and digital rights.

We are planning to expand this kind of action in different parts of Miami, where the internet penetration is the lowest in the US, like the city of Hialeah. The focus of MUD is to amplify our social impact, merging site-specific programs and sharing the outcomes in real-time through the internet, using WebXR as a medium.

TM
Can you tell us about VRLab specifically and how that relates to MUD Foundation?
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RP
VRLab is a web-based app that allows users to create interactive 3D experiences in VR. This app was created long before new frameworks like A-Frame and web-based open-source projects that are boosting the WebVR, now WebXR, capabilities. MUD Foundation’s vision is to create an XR platform for merging physical and virtual worlds in site-specific projects. At MUD Foundation we use VRLab to create specific VR projects on the web and to visualize real-time internet traffic footprints. In our VRCamp, we use VRLab to co-create new worlds with the participants in an immersive approach. We plan to upgrade this app with new frameworks and open-source platforms that can improve the current app capabilities. At MUD, VRLab continues to be a tool as well as an exploration process to keep us in the loop of this technology’s updates.
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TM
I want to get back to this idea of world building and building better worlds and better realities for ourselves. But first I want to note that when you were working on browser-based VR technology in 2012, we were very much in the early days of this as a strictly web-based experience. Since then, we’ve seen an explosion in technology like WebGL and Three.js and the other tools you mentioned that make creating virtual environments on the web easier. You were forecasting that at a very early stage. Can you tell us a little bit about how the technology has caught up to you now, and where you see it going in the future?
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RP
Right now there is a revolution on the hardware side that is bringing new possibilities to the community of artists and developers creating environments in VR, AR, and XR. At the same time, there are new frameworks that allow users to interact in real-time, bringing social presence to the virtual world. This is a work in progress. We closed the MUD Foundation venue because of Covid, and we are thinking about how we can transfer MUD synergy and programs to a platform based on XR and real-time servers. We know from experience that this is a big shot and we are willing to start the first prototyping processes.

I think COVID is somehow helping to create these new user expectations, where people want to connect in different ways, not only with video and flat screens but with the interfaces that achieve another level of presence that we are currently missing. It will take time to reconnect as we did in the old normal. I think society won’t come back to anything like 2019 in the next decades. XR interfaces and real-time servers will be key in future human interactions.

TM
You touched on the pandemic and how that has caused you to shutter your physical space. I wonder if you could speak more about ways that you’ve had to adapt, and how you’ve seen the general population’s attitudes towards the presentation of virtual art change in the past year or so.
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RP
A good example could be the art industry, which is trying very hard to continue sharing content and keep their market open through the pandemic. This new interest in virtualizations is opening the possibility of being part of this evolution of how art is presented and consumed beyond the physical art world like artist studios, galleries, museums, or art fairs. I think we can participate in this process without having to rely on mimetic representations of traditional art spaces, by taking advantage of the new possibilities and freedoms that come with this new medium.
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TM
Over the past year, I’ve seen a lot of artists and institutions adapt to this new medium of presentation in virtual spaces and I’ve seen some really interesting attempts at doing this. In many ways I think we’re still growing into these new possibilities.

You spoke a little bit about people being able to present information in real-time, and how that is going to be an exciting part of the coming future. What have you seen or done in the past year that you’re particularly excited about in this new state of being?
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RP
On the side of technology, the difference with the past is indeed the use of real-time servers. This growing massive infrastructure where we can build new metaverses is changing the relationship we have with prior virtual experiences. Something that was exclusive to multiplayer games is now becoming a new normal for other digital contexts, also disrupting the web browser user experiences.

In another context: perception. I remember at the beginning of my career working in 3D digital environments, a common thought was that I was making video games when in fact, I was creating 3D environments as a virtual space for conceptual artworks. The spectators culturally relate this type of media to gamers or the game community, and that has been changing in the last few years.

We are immersed in interesting times where users are getting a different idea of what virtual is or could be. That is the opportunity we have right now. The combination of real-time interactions and a changing community perception. This is our new action realm.
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TM
Data visualization appears to be a central focus in your work. What insights do you think we are able to gain from working with real-time datasets and quantitative measurements of the world around us?
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RP
In 2016–17 I did the second iteration of a project named Pilgram 2.0: Naked Link in collaboration with Jommy Barban and Olivia Solis. It was a conceptual work that explored the boundaries between data visualization and art made from data collection, creating a link between scientific InfoVis and data sublimation. Naked Link discovered the invisible structures that tie Miami and Cuba by monitoring and analyzing the packet data traffic and exploring the existing communication infrastructure. Real-time data gathering applied to art actions, in the case of Naked Link, helped to visualize processes and internet infrastructures that otherwise would be invisible to the naked eye. There are infinite applications for these kinds of methodologies that could be playable to art, activism, and social justice contexts.

TM
We’ve seen how powerful online communities can be through the recent financial social hack with Reddit day traders. I’m wondering what kind of transformative power these networked communities can hold in the future, and if there’s any hope you see in that?
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RP
Regarding the GameStop investment scandal, I think what is interesting is how digital communities can organize actions that clearly impact the financial apparatus, showing flaws in the current economic system. In my case, what I’m trying to achieve through art and tech and community-based actions is to bring more people to participate, not only as spectators, users, or players but as designers of a digital future.