Human beings have been using machines for millennia, and the world we have built no longer works without them. In recent decades we have become accustomed to living surrounded by technologies of all kinds and, almost without realizing it, we are now immersed in a new era. An era where the radical transformations brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact implied by the Second Quantum Revolution force us to rethink our relationship with machines, that is, to redefine the world we have built. To adapt to changes with such unpredictable consequences, the need to build a general Third Culture has become a major issue. Knowing how art incorporates and interprets technology can facilitate a friendly, constructive and even productive relationship at the height of such changes.
Rubén Ramos Balsa (Santiago de Compostela, 1978) is a Galician artist and technologist living in Singapore. Trained as a researcher at the University of Vigo, he has been working on the relationship between art and science for more than two decades.
In his plastic work, he has experimented with technology in a disruptive way, anticipating with his proposals many of the developments that have subsequently ended up being part of commonly used technology. His work has been shown in more than 20 countries, representing Spain on several occasions in highly relevant events.
