Inside your PC tower right now is a city. It's a grid of lights, chips, and wires. Miami-based artist Alejandro Franco added streets and highways to rejected computer parts to create his art form.
His computerscapes, like one called Urban Resemblance that took two and a half years to create, are debuting at Revel on the Block this Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale.
"I have something worth showing now," Colombian-born Franco said. "There is a fascinating association between the city in the physical and the electronic circuits that inhabit everyday household items." He studies and works in fractals. A fractal is based in mathematics and is a geometric form that repeats. It is a pattern that is shown in both minuscule and grand scales.
"We see a fly and we see a very abstract thing, a head, a wing," he explains. "We don't get to see the details that they are formed of. We can only see so much."
He goes on to explain that looking at a circuit board and looking down to Earth from an airplane is what inspires him. "The electronics surrounding us are little cities; I didn't manipulate them much -- they were just there," he says. "What I'm showing is a house made from wood and inside the house is the city. I covered the inside walls with mirror to show the non-ending city."
He's chosen a special weekend in the Fort Lauderdale downtown area to reveal his newest creations. Now in its second installment, Revel on the Block is a biannual arts festival that takes place in FAT Village. It is hosted in conjunction with the FAT Village Arts Walk, which takes place the last Saturday of every month, when galleries, studios, prop warehouses, and roving performers take their work to the streets.
The brainchild of Cadence, C&I Studios, and Helium Creative, Revel on the Block aims to connect the local artistic community with the public. Families, friends, and pooches alike are invited to take part in the event. The night features food, music, yoga, art, and good excuses for shopping. A hula-hoop play area and the painted Play Your City Pianos will keep the super-restless entertained. Food trucks, including Frankie Dogs, Joji, Slow Food Truck, and Bite Gastrotruck, will be serving fare for the hungry.
And for the musical element, Steph Taylor, Joel DaSilva & the Midnight Howl, Richard Vergez, and Corey Bost will all perform. Joining Franco are artists Ashley Huizenga, Adam Badlotto, Jonathan Baez, and so many others. There'll be so much to look at, taste, and hear that you'll forget about your cell phone, that tiny computer in your pocket. Possibly, Franco's work will help you even see your everyday computing devices differently. There's art in this computer. And Franco will show you what it looks like.
Revel on the Block. 2 to 11 p.m., Friday, July 26, at Fat Village, NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Visit revelontheblock.com.
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By Marisa Cutaia
