The work NORMA is a digital poem that combines text, sound, moving image, and programming within the Processing environment. In the work, a recorded and processed monologue functions as the main narrative axis, guiding the temporal development of the image. At the same time, sound elements that evoke the presence of a cat enhance the dramaturgy.

In the visual composition, a moving red ball of yarn leaves behind a trace, upon which the words of the monologue are gradually formed. The text appears temporarily and then disappears, forming a process of continuous emergence and decay. The movement of the yarn refers to a cat’s play, while the presence of a digitally processed human figure, facing an unseen screen, defines the addressee of the speech.

The work explores the relationship between human and machine, not only as a relation to the screen but as a broader condition of coexistence and dependence on technological systems, through a reversal of perspective: the voice belongs to a cat that demands the attention of its human, while at the end a digital cat appears as an object of desire, introducing an ironic condition. The title NORMA, inspired by the name of the artist’s cat, functions as a reference to memory.

Maria Koskina