Born in Gijón 1985. Lives and works in Pontevedra
Artist and researcher, she is a graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Vigo, where she is currently completing her thesis La piel biónica. Membranas tecnológicas como interfaces corporales en la práctica artística. Where she investigates about the technological prosthesis, focusing on the hybridizations among cyborgs and wearables, as a paradigm of expanding of the human sensorial capabilities.
Her work has been selected in numerous competitions and won several awards among which stand out the Artista Revelación del Principado de Asturias award in 2008, Premio Tentaciones 2011 – Feria Estampa, Madrid – or the Alnorte 2012 production grant, as well as the Astragal award 2013 which she produced the corpo-realidadproject.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions, national and international, being present in countries like Portugal, Argentina, Colombia, Australia and Japan. Among the most recent samples there are Eidos da Imaxe in the MARCO de Vigo museum and corpo-realidad en CS-LAB of the Zokei University, Tokio.
Artist and technologist. With a wide experience in system design, creation of interactive and multimedia environments, web design and robotics.
He has taught various multimedia materials of the Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Vigo and is currently in the Master of Animation and Audiovisual Illustrated book at the same university.
In his work, Valverde investigates about chaos as way of order, proposing the creation of random vectors. At the same time he pays special attention to the relationship between man and machine.
In 2010 he received the first prize of the 11th Muestra Internacional Unión Fenosa. Organized by MAC de A Coruña, due to the interactive installation Reflejos y Antireflejos. His work has also been awarded in Tentaciones 2011 –Estampa. Madrid– and in AlNorte 2012. He has also been selected in numerous competitions, among them; stand out the El premio de Grabado Máximo Ramos de Ferrol, Lúmen_Ex – Premios de Arte Digital de la Universidad de Extremadura–, as well as the XLIV Certamen Nacional de Arte de Luarca, Asturias.
His recent exhibitions include Relacions/Interactions in the Verge Gallery in Sydney and Desenho na Universidade Hoje, in Porto, Portugal.
http://www.a-valverde.net/
http://uh513.com/
María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde will develop during their residency at the Centro de Arte ‘Environment Dress’, the winning project of Next Things 2015 – Conducta, a joint call by Telefónica I + D and LABoral
María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde, artist collective working since 2009 under the name uh513, have started their residency at Plataforma 0. LABoral Production Center, where they are developpping Environment Dress, the winning project of NEXT THINGS 2015 – CONDUCTA, the Forth Global Art & Technology Challenge, a joint call for Telefónica I + D and LABoral.
With Environment Dress they propose to create a smart dress that captures environment data to measure the aggressiveness around us and analysing how it affects our mood and behaviour.
This wearable dress will be equipped with sensors to analyse questions such as variations in noise, temperature, atmospheric pressure, ultraviolet radiation or the amount of carbon monoxide present in our daily life. All this information will be transferred, via Bluetooth or open wifi networks, to a mobile phone connected to the Internet and it will generate a big database set up with the geolocated references collected. These data will be shown to the user wearing the smart dress, or to anyone connecting to the project’s web or app, through an “amiable” visualisation.
Enviroment Dress will be a dress developed in open code, with free hardware and software. The projects website will host as well all the information needed for anyone to material needed to build one’s own dress.
María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde will develop this project in an artistic residency of six months, that will be distributed between LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, in Gijón, during two months, and Telefónica I+D in Barcelona, during four months. Telefónica R&D will provide a work space in its location, equipment as well as access to technological knowledge and Telefonica’s technology platform. LABoral will provide lab space, equipment and technical support as well as access and exchange with other artists and creators at the Centre. LABoral also provides accommodation in Gijón.
