According to your likeness / my Image

Tina Escaja




“Quadrúped@: ‘A tu semejanza / mi Imagen.’ - ‘According to your likeness / my Image,’- presents samples of a larger project that intersects poetry and robotics by means of large photographs that trigger augmented reality components -available by using the free AR browser Blippar (blippar.com/App store) with a mobile app.- The spider-like creatures in the (originally) large photographs intend to accentuate anxiety and removal between species, thus complicating the already ambivalent relation between humans and technology, ultimately questioning its binary foundation. These creatures’ legs are engraved with segments of a poem in both, English and Spanish, a poem that explores and simultaneously questions the relation between creator and creature from the point of view of the robot/poet-poem. The final lines of poem number VII, that serves as title of this exhibition, re-phrases the biblical pronouncement on the creation of humans, as perceived by the robot: “According to your likeness / my Image.” With this statement, the notion of creation is reformulated and bent by the unsettling power of e-robotics. The embedded interactivity (3-D imaging of the robot-poems; videos; interface; etc.), experienced through the Blippar AR browser, underlines this existential exchange between robots and humans, matching electronics with poetics. To view, use the link above to launch the app, then view the images through the lens.


About the Artist

Tina Escaja (also known as Alm@ Pérez) is a Spanish-American digital artist, poet, activist, and feminist scholar based in Burlington, Vermont. Her creative work transcends the traditional book format, leaping into digital art, robotics, augmented reality and multimedia projects exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Escaja has received numerous recognitions and awards, and her work has been translated into six languages. A selection of Escaja’s literary and digital projects can be experienced at www.tinaescaja.com