El eco

Author: Rubria Rocha de Luna

Year: 2026

Medium: Electronic Literature / Interactive Digital Narrative

Description

El eco, part of the Memoria series, is an interactive digital poem that explores the intersection of the migrant experience and the lived grief of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease. Through a kinetic and responsive interface, the work visualizes the struggle of memory and presence. As the user interacts with the text, the words evade the cursor, mirroring the elusive nature of a fading memory, while the cyclic nature of the poem captures the relentless, daily repetition of caregiving. It is a digital archive of a daughter’s return and the persistent effort to anchor a parent in a reality that is constantly slipping away.

👉 View the project: https://rubriar.github.io/el_eco/

Artistic Statement

El eco utilizes the instability of digital text to mirror the fragility of the human mind under the weight of dementia. By making the words physically "flee" from the viewer’s touch, the interface subverts the act of reading, transforming it into a futile, repetitive attempt to hold onto something that cannot be fully grasped.

The piece positions the screen as a site of mourning and resistance; it documents the tension between geographic distance—the "north"—and the intimate, domestic space of the memory-eroded kitchen. Through code, the work transforms the personal archive of a mother-daughter relationship into a space where, despite the inevitable erasure, the history remains inscribed in the digital fabric.

Credits

Developed for the course La máquina creadora, led by professor Iván Vergara García, Universidad de Salamanca.

Concept, Code, and Visual Design: Rubria Rocha de Luna (with Gemini Pro AI Code Assistance)

Images: Edited from personal archives via ChatGPT, 2026

Technology: HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Sound Assets: Music by Nikita Kondrashev from Pixabay

All rights reserved © Rubria Rocha de Luna, 2026.