Synopsis: Raspao is a moving sound sculpture in the form of a Colombian snow cone cart composed of electronic components that capture, reproduce and record sounds and video in real time. For the PASEO, the vehicle delivers viewers the knowledge and taste of the medicinal plants that grow wildly along the perimeter of where the festival takes place. Every time the “raspadera” (the local raspao seller) Cristina Portillo Borja, makes an ice cone, she handles the ice-shaving machine that triggers two cameras that records the action happening in front of the camera superimposed over images of the plants.

The audience is invited to find the QR codes labels on the medicinal plants on the streets and to read it with their cellphone, which play videos that have been created in a workshop with the artist by Students of VISTA Grande High School.

Bio: Alexandra Gelis is a Colombian-Venezuelan artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. Her studio practice combines new media, installation, and film with custom built interactive electronics. Her projects incorporate personal field research as a tool to investigate the ecologies of various landscapes by examining the traces left as a consequence of socio-political interventions. She uses data capture techniques, video, sound, spatial and electronic media to create non-fiction based immersive installations and single-channel experimental moving images.

Location: Roaming

A STEMartsLAB@ThePASEO Artist
Students of VISTA Grande High School, Nicole Miceli teacher
Student-created sound and video content for hybrid Raspao/Snow cone cart

Community Collaborations: Coyote Moon business owner, Cristina Portillo Borja will be the Raspao maker, selling snow cones that contribute to the collected videos-sounds.

Daytime@ThePASEO presenting artist

Visit the project website:
paseo.migratedplants.com (English)
paseo.plantasmigradas.com (Español)