The artwork is inspired by Scan Processor Studies by The Vasulkas. The title recalls Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The left hand of darkness, but the inspiration for the piece came from an interaction with Hank Rudolph at Signal Culture. I had a chance to see there the digitized versions of the Scan Processor Studies by Woody Vasulka, premiered at ZKM, Karlsruhe.
My work is a drawing exercise, real time recording of my left hand and white paper. The right hand was adjusting knobs and patching oscillators of Jones Raster Scan (similar to the Rutt Etra Scan Processor used by Woody Vasulka in the 70s, but one of a kind built by Dave Jones for artist Sara Hornbacher). In Vasulka's work, the hand is a metaphor of expression and gesture, while for me it became an uneasy gesture, a process of prosthetization in which very familiar part of my body became alien, sucked by the uncanny vortex of the machines, in which we believe to see a glimpse of creation, when two index fingers touch each others, but the triangulation ends up with a unsettling unity.
Sara Bonaventura is visual artist, with MA in contemporary art and gender studies, diverse experiences from teaching, didactics, curatorial, pr, archival. She worked at several cultural institutions (Venice Biennale, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Giorgio Cini Foundation, Berlin Kicken Gallery, institutions based on the Reggio Emilia Approach in Italy, Ray of Light Atelier, by Reggio Children, or Ponzano Children, by Benetton Group and abroad, in Singapore IB campus of EtonHouse International Group). Currently teaching IB DP arts in Italy, at H-Farm International School Venice.