Poetics of Instability: Subversion of Gravity through Digital Performative Art

This article points to the subversion of gravity as one of the characteristics of the poetics of instability, a concept previously proposed and developed by the authors, based on the selection and analysis of nine digital media art artifacts, whose main poetic motto is the focus in destabilizing our perceptions about gravity. In this initial phase, images made available by the artists themselves on open platforms on the internet were analyzed. The questions of interest were: what effects/sensations are pursued and provoked? What are the artistic strategies to carry out destabilization? What differences and similarities are there between these initiatives? How can different strategies have different impacts on processes and results? To better answer these questions, the strategies for subversion – or destabilization – of gravity found in the artifacts were scrutinized and categories of analysis were created based on the relationships between the observed variables. The findings are discussed in detail and summarized in explanatory tables.