Re‑Embodying, Situating, and Resisting: Creative Strategies for a Latin American Cyborgism

Gustavo Guzmán

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper explores the role of gesture in body politics and cyborg narratives within contemporary arts discourse, particularly as it relates to NIME and the overlapping fields of creative computing, media arts, and research-based artistic practices. We examine how machine co-creation redefines our comprehension of embodiment in today's technology-driven society, and argue that adopting a neutral stance under the guise of scientific development is problematic, especially from the vantage point of the Global South. Our triggering premise is the seemingly fundamental paradox in gesture studies, as it is considered both natural and encoded, innate yet conventional, culturally-specific and universal. And while substantial literature exists on gesture as a versatile mapping tool in NIME, much less attention has been given to the politics inherent to its capacities—even less so as a critical vessel in contexts that are bound to academic and industrial innovation. Consequently, we argue for a situated and community-minded shift in our creative practices, lest we want the fruits of our labour become yet another tool for techno-corporatism. Through three case studies in Chile, we demonstrate how gestures-in-the-machine can serve as socio-political signifiers, leveraging performance activism, telematic events, and civic tech initiatives to spark meaningful actions.

Citation

Gustavo Guzmán. 2026. Re‑Embodying, Situating, and Resisting: Creative Strategies for a Latin American Cyborgism. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784233 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_75,
 abstract = {This paper explores the role of gesture in body politics and cyborg narratives within contemporary arts discourse, particularly as it relates to NIME and the overlapping fields of creative computing, media arts, and research-based artistic practices. We examine how machine co-creation redefines our comprehension of embodiment in today's technology-driven society, and argue that adopting a neutral stance under the guise of scientific development is problematic, especially from the vantage point of the Global South. Our triggering premise is the seemingly fundamental paradox in gesture studies, as it is considered both natural and encoded, innate yet conventional, culturally-specific and universal. And while substantial literature exists on gesture as a versatile mapping tool in NIME, much less attention has been given to the politics inherent to its capacities—even less so as a critical vessel in contexts that are bound to academic and industrial innovation. Consequently, we argue for a situated and community-minded shift in our creative practices, lest we want the fruits of our labour become yet another tool for techno-corporatism. Through three case studies in Chile, we demonstrate how gestures-in-the-machine can serve as socio-political signifiers, leveraging performance activism, telematic events, and civic tech initiatives to spark meaningful actions.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {75},
 author = {Gustavo Guzmán},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784233},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {9},
 pages = {635--643},
 title = {Re‑Embodying, Situating, and Resisting: Creative Strategies for a Latin American Cyborgism},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_75.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}