Sacrificio Chiribiquete / Juan David Figueroa & Nicolas Sanchez

Sacrificio is a virtual environment that emulates a portion of the Chiribiquete, a site that some describe as the "Sistine Chapel" of America's archeology, located in the Colombian Amazon. Chiribiquete is one of the largest biodiversity centers in Colombia and a gateway to ancient cosmologies holding a collection of more than 75,000 cave paintings, petroglyphs, and pictograms. It is currently a protected park, being a mixed heritage of UNESCO. Its access has been very limited since its recent discovery in 1989. Only a handful of expeditions have been carried out to Chiribiquete, making it almost untouched by modern men. Sacrificio proposes a digital (and fictional) reconstrucción of Chiribiquete that was made through the process of photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is a (smart) technique that utilizes photography to measure the dimension and position of physical objects or locations. This data is used to create a 3D (three-dimensional) model or virtual reproduction of the same object or environment. It is the process of measuring (metria) with light (photos). This tool has been widely used in engineering, architecture, and geography to construct precise three-dimensional cartographies that accurately represent cities or vast landscapes. For this project, we used the limited audiovisual material available from Chiribiquete in order to build Chiribiquete’s fictional replica through photogrammetry, somehow repurposing the idea of this smart technology. We want to invite visitors to navigate the new memories of this sacred place through a multidisciplinary art experience, without being physically present, hoping they’ll recognize the need for protecting this majestic place.

Bios: Nicolás Sánchez is a Colombian sound artist and producer based in London who focuses his practice on the philosophical and physical aspects of sound. Furthermore, his Unterbog project has freshened and consolidated the underground electronic music subculture surrounding Techno in Colombia for almost a decade. Now based in London, Nicolas is co-founder of the Ambient label Hoy Records and Tratratrax, a record label created to showcase the relationship between Perreo (as a resistance sound of Latin America) and electronic/future sounds and narratives. Juan David Figueroa is a Colombian new media artist and designer based in New York, exploring poetic relationships between computation and physicality, currently working on how technology is shaping the connection between humans and nature. He uses computer vision as a medium for critical thinking and re-imagining the digital and natural landscape. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Computer Arts in the School of Visual Arts in New York.

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