TESEOBIOMÉTRICA

I take as a point of reference the Paradox of the Ship of Theseus: the history of this king, and his return from Crete in a boat to Athens. The ship suffered damage and deterioration, a situation that demanded the gradual change of its parts. This particular case, prompted philosophers to wonder if at some point the ship was still being the same, or was already something else. I adapt this premise to replace the ship as the subject in question, with the -contemporary human beign, expanded in its identity and functioning- by digital devices and with ubiquitous connection with telecommunications. I wonder speculatively: In what sense could the machines continue to function, if the human being is replaced or removed from the process?

Since the pandemic, I became interested in mobile phones and smart watches(smartbands) that measured in a particular way my steps, my pulse, my oxygen and carried my detailed record, beyond the visual or the sound; now they took my biometric information. I took this research to physical space through an installation, where I propose a series of mechanisms that simulate (deceive) the exercise that I perform: jumping rope, with two motors and a red led light, controlled by arduino that will send information to the biometric reading system of my smartband, making it believe / think / misrecord an activity, where, as in Theseus' paradox, I replace myself in the equation.