"Get What You Need" is an installation that combines the interaction between two screens to generate an experience that moves from a regular screen to the participant's skin in an unexpected way, where a poem unfolds, generating a unique and personal literary experience.
It pushes the limits of on-screen interaction into a new space where the experience
becomes magical and intimate when the physical device disappears.
Technology can give us many things, but certain qualities of the human experience are non-transferable and need to be born from the person's essence. By using technology in the service of poetic art, we can generate an experience that gives each individual a small space for self-reflection and awareness.
Concept
"Get What You Need" creates a unique moment with a defined set of steps that generates a profound impact:
- The participant sees the screen and ponders the request. At this moment, the screen instructs them to approach the piece with their hands together and face up.
- The participants decide what sphere they need most (grit, calm, or clarity) and extend their arms to the screen to get it.
- When they approach the screen with a vague expectation of what will happen, his proximity activates the camera, which starts the system and moves the spheres to their hands virtually.
- When the participant almost touches the screen, the system activates the projector in the seeling, which generates the second screen in the participant's palm in a fluid motion.
- Finally, the participant can receive, in their hand, converted into a screen, a personal, intimate, and unique literary experience where the poem lives only in the reader's skin.
In each virtual object of the piece, a unique visual poem is hidden, allowing the participant to feel personally involved in the reading and to become part of the installation.
Installation
The installation plays with the possibility of synchronizing two screens, a large regular screen and a projector that points towards the floor, thus generating the sensation that when the participant gets close enough to the screen, the element they are approaching jumps into their hand.
The first version of "Get What You Need" received a great reception in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn space of ITP - Tisch at NYU. On this occasion, an improved version is proposed, with a more polished interface and complete poetic texts.
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José Aburto (joseAZ)
is an experimental poet, professor, cultural promoter, and communications professional whose work examines how digital media reshapes poetic expression. His projects have been presented in more than 25 exhibitions across over 10 countries, included in 5 international electronic literature archives, and reviewed in more than 50 academic and press publications.
He has exhibited in Chile, China, the United States, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, Canada, Norway, and Peru. His works appear in the Anthology of Latin American Electronic Literature 2021 and the ELO Collections (2016, 2021). He received the Adobe National Poetry Award (1999) and the Fulbright AIG Scholarship (2002).
In 2025, he presented “Poetry is an Invasion,” a 25-year retrospective, across 3 locations, reaching 10,000 visitors. His 2023 TEDxBarriosAltos talk reflected on poetry as a transformative force.
He teaches creative technology in many universities in Peru and holds an MA in Interactive Media Arts from NYU.
