" By the numbers "
Installation, community collaboration, laser cut, Soccer ball, print, acrylic, generative art.
30 x 130 x 15 cm (9 elements, variable measurements)
2013
Project commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey for the exhibit "About the soccer ball".

"A digital circuit is capable of processing and/or working with digital signals, which have only two voltage values and are discreet in time... [...] Due to the discreet nature of digital representations, there is no ambiguity (untrue, dubious) when the value of a quantity is read..."

All science and knowledge invested in playing soccer are reduced to two possible values: win or loose. The same way digital systems process information, the complex framework of technological, biological and social factors that condition the development of a soccer game are filtered by a binary scheme in which two alternatives govern the logic of the game.

The process begins inserting the ball designated for the experiment in a regular encounter of the junior soccer league of the municipality of San Nicolás de los Garza (MX). From the beginning to the end, a complete unit of soccer game was played with this ball, introducing it to its natural context and generating itself the information that will be used as reference. Upon the video recording of the game, a binary code is obtained from the sequence of movements, registering in every "bit" the times that each team touches the ball. The final result is a digital map that gives us a computerized narrative of the encounter. The quantification of all this data is used to divide the ball in 932 fragments: the total amount of bits, and distribute the corresponding amounts to each team. Preserving the geometric construction of the ball (20 hexagons and 12 pentagons), the shape and amount of bits in which it was divided are proportional. The final result is attached to the binary code to contribute to the evaluation of quantities and numbers as valuable information or not.

Special thanks to: San Nicolás Junior Soccer League, Club Pingüinos, Forza Italia, Jorge Martínez, trainers, parents and referees.