The Tribunal
A live web installation that examines the ethics of public support and the moral weight of allegiance. Visitors enter their name and a public figure they choose to stand behind. The system responds by overlaying that figure’s face onto the viewer’s own through real-time facial tracking, implicating them in the identity they have chosen. A moral verdict is then synthesized from that figure’s public record and published automatically, rendering private sympathies visible alongside the viewer’s name.
The work draws on Deontological ethics and Jones’ (1991) theory of moral intensity to question the gap between legal permissibility and ethical responsibility. In an era where public figures operate with increasing distance from consequence, the piece turns the gaze back onto the audience, asking who bears accountability when we lend our support to power. The act of watching becomes an act of endorsement, and endorsement becomes a matter of public record.
Technical Implementation
Built entirely in JavaScript using p5.js for canvas rendering and camera capture, with TensorFlow.js and MediaPipe providing real-time 468-point facial landmark tracking for face overlay placement and angle correction. A serverless Cloudflare Worker backend handles API key security, LLM proxying through NRP Nautilus, Wikipedia data fetching, and automated posting to Discord and Bluesky via their respective APIs. Deployed via GitLab CI/CD pipelines to GitLab Pages, with environment variable injection at build time.
Official Publication from NRP Here!: https://nrp.ai/art-class-on-nrp/
Experience it here: https://thetribunal-edbcf1.pages.nrp-nautilus.io/
Gitlab Page: https://gitlab.nrp-nautilus.io/gagamez/thetribunal
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/the-tribunal.bsky.social
If Only You Knew
An art exhibition that encapsulates the risk and experimentation of my practice, this body of work questions what it means to be seen through a camera and how awareness of surveillance reshapes the self. Do we present ourselves honestly when we believe we are unseen, and how does our behavior shift once we know we are being watched?
By confronting viewers with the reality that they were on camera, the installation tested how quickly self-consciousness alters movement and presence. Multiple cameras were placed in locations unknown to spectators, capturing behavior regardless of whether participants were aware of being observed. Using Touch Designer, areas of continuous motion were identified as “hot spots,” triggering the cameras to automatically zoom in on activity.
Informed by photographs of people in public and private spaces, this work reveals how surveillance quietly governs behavior, exposing the tension between authenticity, control, and performance in environments where observation is unavoidable.
*Poster designed by course staff.
*Artwork and installation by Gabriel Gamez.
Mechanica Mortalis
An interactive sculpture in the form of a plush baby that responds to touch, motion, and care. Embedded electronics inside the baby’s hollow Styrofoam head activate when a viewer interacts with it, producing intermittent “crying” sounds that encourage engagement. When held, the baby must be gently cradled to be soothed, too much or too little motion causes it to cry again, requiring continuous attention from the participant.
Through this loop of reactive feedback, the work explores the codependent relationship between humans and modern technology. The baby functions as both an object of care and a system that demands maintenance, reflecting how technologies designed for self-improvement increasingly rely on constant human attention. Informed by Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura, the piece presents technology as fragile and dependent, simultaneously artificial and animated by human presence, questioning how intimacy, responsibility, and authorship shift in our relationships with responsive systems.
*Poster designed by course staff.
*Artwork and installation by Gabriel Gamez and Kateleen Villadelgado.
An Exquisite 20 Seconds of Pixels
A generative animation created using Pygame that explores orbital motion, repetition, and impermanence through algorithmic systems. Inspired by Alan Turing’s work on mathematical pattern formation and emergent behavior, the piece simulates a central planetary form surrounded by orbiting bodies whose motion is driven by trigonometric functions.
The animation is rendered at a reduced resolution and upscaled in real time, creating a softened, low-fidelity visual texture that emphasizes movement over precision. Trails accumulate and decay over time, reinforcing the theme of ephemerality and suggesting the passage of time through motion rather than narrative. Designed as a frame-by-frame render for exhibition display, the project reflects my interest in generative systems, mathematical motion, and the aesthetics of digital impermanence.
Space in Between
An experimental short film exploring the inner mental spaces people occupy beneath everyday routines. Each character is momentarily pulled out of their environment into a projected, surreal visualization of their subconscious, before returning to reality.
I contributed to editing and sound design, shaping pacing, match cuts, and audiovisual transitions to support shifts between internal and external states. My segment focused on nostalgia and contradiction, using mixed media, analog video, and sound to contrast memory, isolation, and mediated intimacy.
*Made in collaboration with Brett Corpuz, Kyler Davis, and Lawrence Hu.