Francisca Olivares: Let’s talk about the work you developed based on the ISS data. The first thing I want to ask you is how was the process of turning universal intelligence data, from the world of mining, into a work of art?

Sergio Mora-Díaz: First, thank you very much for the invitation. For me it is a pleasure to be working on this cross between art and science. Well, in this ISS-based work, as in all the others that I have developed in this collaboration with UNIT, I take process data and translate it into graphic compositions. This gives us an account of the ways in which these processes work, and in this way, people can become a little more aware and understand the world around us in a different way. In this particular case, we worked with mining, with a series of qualities inherent to the composition of the minerals that reach a plant. They gave me a series of indicators, corresponding for example to the hardness of the mineral, the level of clay, the solubility, among others. These elements are used as tools when composing graphically.

FO: This work in particular makes me think about the concept of “cycle”. It is a work that, because of how the particles move from the inside out, seems to be mutating, but with the same permanent energy. Was that your intention?

SMD: Sure, being created from indicators of the mineral composition, that is generated. These indicators, having a number, qualify the mineral at a certain moment. From that, I discovered that the information was indeed cyclical. Each measurement generates a new set of compositional qualities. Then, with those elements, which are numerical patterns, I am generating the images. I wanted with this work precisely to account for the changes, and with that, to refer to cycles of nature. What I imagined here is how the Earth itself is changing and how its materials are mutating over time, it is transforming.

FO: In general the cycles are easy to visualize in the plant world. Given our time scale, one can observe how a plant is born, grows, withers and returns to earth. Here you approached the cycle from the mineral … tell me about that.

SMD: Indeed. You mention the issue of scale. We are used to detecting faster cycles. We can see the change of the plants you mention. However, the Earth, in its geological composition, works with cycles that are much slower, therefore we cannot perceive them in the same way or in the same magnitude. The challenge was how to translate that and I think it worked quite well. In this composition that I make, I propose a form that could refer to something alive that is mutating, but from a mineral bond. What interested me here was to reflect on certain scales and proportions of change of the Earth in a language, time and rhythm understandable by our perception

FO: In this sense, the work allows us to think about the cycles of nature in materials that are not alive ..

SMD: Sure, the mineral is not alive, but it is mutating as well. It is affected by the weather, the wind, the internal composition of the Earth causes the mineral to change. These processes invite you to think of the mineral as if it had a certain life.

FO: I would like to talk about the motion decision that you decided to use for these particles. I have seen some videos of moving plants and one can see that not all plants move the same. Not all flowers bloom the same, some do it once, others slowly. How did you develop this particular movement?

SMD: Here is the mathematical logic. Those numbers that the UNIT Data Science team gave me, from real measurements, I translate them into graphic information. This figure for example, which can be understood as consolidated, is made up of several rings. Each of these rings corresponds to one of the mineral composition dimensions and then these particles in each ring take different sizes and positions according to the numerical values. With that, the overall morphology of the image keeps changing, based on how the measurements change separately. The logic of the particle seems pertinent to me, to imply the complexity that exists in the measurement of elements separately, but which make up a totality, a unitary figure.

FO: One might think that the changes are turning the figure into another. But it remains the same.

SMD: Exactly, that was something I was looking for. That the qualities were defined in such a way that the figure could be understood as the same, as a unit that follows its own logic. It has the qualities of a unitary element, following its pattern. In each cycle it changes and transforms, with a new morphology. All these cycles are part of the same family, always in the same essence.

FO: Finally, this work helps us to reflect on the permanent and the impermanent …

SMD: It’s true, there are qualities in the work that change, but everything is always governed by the same pattern.