The MUTUO art gallery has hosted a series of exhibitions with projects from the Master's Degree in Data and Design

Last year we generated, collected and stored more data than in the previous 5,000 years of human history. Until today, we did not have the technology to record reality on this scale (or for so much selfie), but now we have it in the palm of our hand. And how we like it… Unfortunately, that does not mean that our societies are better informed.

Data alone masks the reality it describes, blurring its meaning, and dulling emotions. It's hard to figure out what two degrees of average temperature rise means, or a transmission rate of 1.5… or a million deaths, for that matter. In a world of flat Earthers and alternative facts, transforming data into understandable and honest information is, more than a necessity, a question of survival. MADD house has been a series of exhibitions by students of Elisava's Master's Degree in Data and Design. For a month this space will become part of their final project and a showcase of critical thinking, research, data design narratives and interaction.
 

Exhibition #01:
Nationalities. An Exploration on Border Mystification
Author: Pedro Vallejo

Nationalities are universal, they affect and surround every person in the world, they are a vital factor in your personal development, and it’s something you don’t initially get to choose. While It may appear in the western world that we live in a globalized and free world, freedom and mobility can turn into a really individual process depending on what nationality you have.

This exploration seeks to give a new perspective and spark a conversation regarding our identity and how we relate with one's own nation and support for its interests, and ideals. As a society, the nationalities' principles are inflicted and untouchable and there’s no space to question them, and can’t help but wonder if the world as we know it could exist or revise flags, borders, international law and passports.

Exhibition #02:
Body Builders. An exploration of body cult society
Author: Carla de la Torre

We live in a "fit" society, where gyms are temples of transformation towards a globalized stereotype. The cult of the body plans and controls our daily routines and ends up shaping our identity, fueling the fitness industry, which only continues to grow. At the same time we are in the age of information, of data. It is said that having information is power, which can also be applied to the fitness paradigm. We design our body through rituals in gyms by entering data (15 repetitions of squats for 3 sets, 100 grams of rice...) to construct the ideal body and at the same time gain individual power. Beauty ends up being measured, weighed, equated, and compared. 

The concept is epitomized in the bodies of body builders. Body mass, corporal and data body, representing an ideal of power. We all see this social group as far from our reality, but the body-builders of the past are the fitness followers of the present.

Sport today has become a complex commercial, political and social activity, where the aesthetic  body is confused with the healthy body, moulding the canons of beauty and our self-esteem at will. And the way we get entangled is by following these data rituals.

Exhibition #03:
Behind the Fear. An exploration of gynaecological violence
Author: Maria Moreso

Throughout our lives, women, or people with vaginas, will visit the gynecologist multiple times. The Public Health recommendation is to do it every 1-3 years, depending on individual circumstances, however, more than 50% of women will not follow this recommendation. It is not news that almost no woman likes going to the gynecologist. Unfortunately, feeling anxiety, fear, vulnerability, shame, and discomfort are part of the common experience of many women when visiting this specialist. But, why do we experience it this way?

The lack of sensitivity and empathy towards a patient in an extremely vulnerable position, the judgment, infantilization, paternalism, the lack of scientific advancement, misinformation, the taboo or normalization of female pain are some of the subtle forms of patriarchal violence that women suffer in relation to our intimate health. A violence that occurs in a medical context where, apparently, the values ​​of care and attention prevail, and where precisely the opposite of violence is expected.

Gynecological violence affects half the population, it is a complex and systemic problem in which a multitude of factors intervene and in which we all participate more or less consciously. This exhibition seeks to detect and denormalize these situations as an indispensable first step for change.

Exhibition #04:
The Origin, the Unknown. A Walk Through the Invisibilities of Menstrual Cycles
Author: Joana Bisbe

Human beings have managed not to become extinct thanks to something as basic as menstrual cycles. Yet our culture has taught us to see this natural process as something dirty, polluted and shameful. Reflecting on how we learn about menstrual cycles gives us a hint of the biases ingrained in our current understanding spread by those who wrote history, made research and preached. What do they all have in common? They aren’t menstruators. Hence, all their explorations, recordings and writings are from an external point of view dismissing the emotional and physical changes linked to the cycle and only detected by those who experience it. 

It is key to understand that menstrual cycles have become a political issue where the power lies in controlling the common knowledge and bodies. Invisibilizing them by making it a taboo is just a mechanism to ensure this perspective. This is why the exhibition gives a first-person menstruator’s approach to menstrual cycles. It invites and includes their voices, experiences, and perspectives to rewrite the story and create collective knowledge to reflect on the relationship we have with this bodily process and reshape it towards a healthier, sustainable, and collective experience.
 

Credits

Authors: Pedro Vallejo, Carla de la Torre, Maria Moreso, Joana Bisbe
Tutors: Domestic Data Streamers, Maria Fabuel, Pau Aleikumsalaam
Transmedia support: Playmodes, Santi Vilanova, Eloi Maduell
Acknowledgment: Paadín, Marc Panero, Marta Handenawer, Iasa Monique, Saul Baeza, Oscar Tomico, Lluís Sallés. Clara Subirats, Achos, Rosa Monge, Rosa Arredondo, Mònica Molins, Ane Guerra, Jaume Rios, Irene Rodenas, Helena Marzo, Elisava Communication Team, Elisava and Mutuo Centro de Arte