Blog Post #9 : ChicanaFuturism

     Whilst reading Tradition, Technology and the Chicana futurist art of Marion C. Martinez by Catherine Ramirez, I was particularly drawn to Marion C. Martinez artwork. She is a composer of Chicanafuturism works. Chicanafuturism is a beautiful and modern blend of historically traditional Hispanic art forms with a twist consisting of 20th-century technology. It’s part of the exhibition Cyber Arte in the Museum of Internation Folk Art in Santa Fe, California. Chicanafuturism is a cultural transformation towards technology that, “excavates, creates, and alters narratives of identity, technology, and the future; that interrogates the promises of science and technology; and that redefines humans and humanism”(158).  Her work is comprised of physical technological parts, such as making art from disks, keyboards, green screen disks, and wires typically found inside computers and electronic devices. Martinez has stated in previous interviews that she has been making visual art with technology for over a decade due to her innate curiosity about the magic behind the screen. 

            I had never before heard of Chicana-Futurism or Afro-Futurism and I wish I would’ve been exposed to this art before! I loved all of Martinez’s work. My particular favorite was her work on creating La Virgen out of computer disks and pieces. I still can’t fathom how she was able to fit all the pieces with the necessary sizes and colors.