Visual Arts and the Future

Angelique De Castro is a visual artistic technologist crafting stories and experiences that center marginalized narratives. Their art practice is focused on co-creating art that positions recontextualized history as an avenue for possible futures that inspire, educate, and galvanize. An alum of A4's Virtual Residency program, they are also a Software Engineer at The New York Times.

Tell us about your practice as an artist and how technology is changing/has changed it

I’m a self-taught visual artist with a background in Computer Science. I’ve always been intrigued by code and digital art as a medium for expression, whether I was coding my own Myspace profile when I was 12 or programming in Arduino to play 3D animations I made last year. Lately, I’ve enjoyed coding my own software or using open source technology like Blender to experiment with ideas in animation and 3D art. This has been especially helpful during the pandemic when visiting 3D printers and taking in-person workshops on soldering or Arduino has been hard. Hybrid code and artistic experimentation has also been the most fruitful in collaborations with other non-technical artists whose ideas are so wonderfully different from what I’m used to. Art and technology projects work with a unique set of constraints that always lead to results that surprise me.

Technology has made art practice more accessible to me, and I’m excited by being in community with others who are similarly engaged in art making with technology. In this way, my interest in technology and art has co-evolved.

How did your participation with A4 impact your career?

I’m incredibly honored to have participated in A4’s Virtual Residency in 2020-2021. The residency connected me to such talented and thoughtful peers whose art practices are uniquely informed by their Asian and Asian American heritage. As an early career artist, being in community with them has significantly impacted my growth. I had the privilege of collaborating with a few members of my cohort on projects that transcend disciplines and promote cultural narratives I don’t see enough of.

Do you have a fond memory of working in collaboration with A4 or that came about as a result of your work with A4 that you'd like to share?

I have many fond memories that would be impossible to enumerate concisely here! One collaboration particularly close to my heart is my work with Maritess Zurbano and Cathleen Abalos on the Decolonized Tarot project. I got to work with other Filipino American artists, code, animate, and support a live performance that is focused on tarot and Filipino mythology. We bonded over shared experiences from being Filipino American and felt motivated by the same things we wanted to change in the culture–there not being enough of our stories told by people like us, for example. There was also a live performance part of the project we debuted the year the virtual residency ended, and it was so special to meet people in our cohort who attended in person. We all got pretty close throughout our sessions and I’m thankful to have met and shared these spaces with them.

What are your future hopes for your practice in the arts?

I hope to continue experimenting with modes of storytelling, especially of underrepresented stories. Immersive theater and the ways in which audience participation influences the experience of the narrative also intrigues me, and there’s so much potential for technology to play a role in threading that experience.

What are your hopes for A4 in the future?

I hope A4 continues to be a cornerstone of Asian and Asian American arts in NYC and around the world. Every artist I’ve met through A4 has been so friendly and they genuinely see the value in being in community with other Asian artists. I’m excited about the prospect of meeting more artists in our community in person and hope that there will one day be a time to do so safely!

To learn more about Angelique De Castro, visit their website:

http://angeliquedecastro.com/