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Isaías Herrera (Monterrey, Nuevo León, 1989) is a new media artist who employs digital and electronic devices to alter perception and expand sensory possibilities.
He holds a master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction from the Università degli Studi di Trento in Italy and a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey. He was invited by the Centro de Cultura Digital (CCD) to host the radio program "Notes on Human-Machine Interaction" (2023) and has received several accolades, including the Nuevo León Art Award (2024), the PECDA Nuevo León (2024 and 2022), the EFCA from Conarte (2023 and 2019), Yami-Ichi from CCD (2021), Creations with Algorithms from CCD (2020), and the Erasmus+ scholarship (2022) to study at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His work was featured in the book “A Decade to Download,” exhibited in Tokyo, New York, Amsterdam, and Berlin.
Isaías is involved in multidisciplinary projects such as the Zoonoros laboratory, which focuses on creating from a place of precariousness, alongside cellist Maricarmen Graue, writer Edgar Lacolz, and musician Fores Basura. They have performed at the Improv Fest (2022) in Canada, in France with the documentary "Là où manque une tuile, entre la lumière" (2022), and in Mexico at the Blas Galindo Auditorium at CNA, Teatro Galeón, Bucareli 69, among other venues.
Biohybrid Robot: Symbioshell (2025)
Installation
SymbioShell (2025) is a biohybrid robotic prosthesis engaged in a symbiotic relationship with the organism Physarum polycephalum. It integrates sensors, servos, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to explore new modes of cooperation between biological and artificial systems.
The AI continuously analyzes the behavior of Physarum polycephalum in real time, correlating it with environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, and nutrient availability to assess whether the conditions are conducive to its development. Based on this data, it interprets the organism’s vital and behavioral patterns, which the robotic hand expresses through improvised gestures that explore different ways to communicate its needs more effectively.
This gesture-driven dynamic raises a compelling question: when a machine engages in communication through an anthropomorphic feature—a hand—that is familiar to humans yet devoid of learned codes or established references, what kind of language might emerge? Rather than following a preprogrammed choreography, the result is an open-ended investigation into the nature of expression itself. Each improvised movement constitutes an attempt to articulate meaning—an evolving negotiation of a shared language between the organic and the artificial.
Remembered Desert (2024)
VR Installation
Remembered Desert is a recreation of five historical periods of the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest in North America. The work harnesses the potential of virtual reality to create a strong sense of presence, allowing visitors to experientially explore the relationship between history, memory, and fiction. If history is mediated by human memory and perception, does it then become a fiction? The work seeks to answer this question by creating scenarios where visitors can relive historical events and uncover stories that have been marginalized by the predominant institutional narrative.
Artificial Sonorous Ecosystem (2023)
Sound Installation
The Artificial Sonorous Ecosystem is a life simulator manifested through sound, where autonomous digital organisms experience life cycles influenced by natural environmental stimuli. Each organism contributes to the installation's soundscape in real-time. Visitors can access a web interface to obtain a visual representation of the organisms and listen to them individually. This project invites visitors to blur the boundaries between the organic and the artificial, as well as to reflect on how our senses can be amplified through electronic media and multisensory interfaces.
Collaborating: Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD), Bioluminik, Hugo Solís, Bernardo Feldman and Iván Naranjo.
Oneiric Regression (2019)
Website
Oneiric Regression transforms the testimony of a dream into sonic metaphors. This website symbolically deconstructs the narrative and reinterprets it in an auditory dimension, allowing the visitor to relive or reinterpret the dream experience. The more words used to describe the dream, the richer and more detailed the sonic experience will be.
Sound Amulets (2018)
Device + Website
These Sound Amulets are objects that contain music reacting to the environment like living beings. The sounds that compose the music change in real time, adapting to the temperature and weather conditions where the amulets are located.
The Implacable (2016)
Software
Digital musical instrument activated by the movement of bodies adorned with 'sound tattoos'—graphic symbols or fiduciary markers functioning as keys. When The Implacable detects their unique combinations, it generates MIDI sounds responsive to the motion of the carriers.
isaias.hibarra@gmail.com
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