Alecio-project proposal

GRADUATION PROJECT OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

During the last few years, my photography practice has focused on the development of photography bodies of work about nature as main subject matter. In 2019 I have started a research on the theme of Nature vs Culture, its evolution and further consequences. I am fascinated by the moment of transition of a natural environment into a cultural heritage and the natural world as inspiration for the artificial landscape.

1 What do you want to make?

The project I’m working on it’s called Visible Forces, and focuses on the nature-culture dualism. I am interested in creating visual associations between the natural landscapes and the artificial world, showing how plants, rocks and animals are able to inspire humans in the way we think and build our surroundings.

I am using photographs as main medium to investigate these topics.

On one hand I have produced a series of images with the nature as core: landscapes, plants, rock formations that are in comparison with the artificial world such as building, vehicles and daily life objects. This comparison sometimes is more literal and visible, sometimes more subtle and less linear.

Moreover, I have produced digitally manipulated images, that originate from my landscapes photographs and through the use of a randomized computing process, some unexpected elements are added, turning the original photographs into more abstract representations of nature.

The plan is to print a book that will narrate my personal interpretation of the “culturalization” process, including the photographs and visuals I have produced.

2 How do you plan to make it?

I begun shooting the photographs in 2019, in Brazil, and during this year I have added some more images shot in The Netherlands and Italy.

During September 2021 I have started collecting minerals and gemstones: now I am in the process of scanning these natural objects and including them in the book as archival documents, treated in black and white. The idea is to print these images with a specific printing technique with a silver finishing coating.

Moreover, during the past months I have been working on the creation of few digitally manipulated images. Starting from my original pictures, I mix them up with the use of a software that creates a random final visual effect.

The idea is to develop further these creations: Expanding the research around gemstones, cataloging 15 to 20 new stones; Produce more digitally manipulated files - 4/5 more. Select, edit and assemble photographs

All of these outcomes will be organically integrated within the final book, conceiving a storyline as relevant as possible for my own narrative.

Regarding the book design, I am working together with a duo of graphic designers, we are developing together the book concept, graphics layout and printing materials and supports.

Reflecting on the final outcome, in addition to the book, I would like to create an immersive installation for the graduation show. My wish is to exhibit few images on a large scale, most likely printed on light-boxes, accompanied by soundscapes in order to create an immersive experience.

3 What is your timetable?

November: → Images editing → Start the images selection process → Collecting minerals

December: → Start working on the book layout, graphics and paper → Initial thoughts on the crowdfunding campaign → Scan minerals

January: → Continue working on the book layout, graphics and paper → Design the crowdfunding campaign

February: → Finalize the book layout and graphics → Print dummy book → Finalize the crowdfunding campaign

March: → Launching the crowdfunding Campaign → Ending Crowdfunding Campaign

April: → Book Printing → Initial thoughts on the exhibition

May: → Book Launch in Milan/Rotterdam/Paris/Habitat → Start Working on the exhibition

June: → Build up the exhibition

4 Why do you want to make it?

I started to develop an interest into this topic few years ago, while I was reading texts about the anthropological studies conducted by Claude Lévi-Strauss during the last century, mainly focused on ethnographic field research in Brazil. I was mainly struck by his analysis on themes such as linguistics, taboos, signs and traces.

As time passed, I started to dive deeply into these topics and I realized that there was a straightforward yet unconscious link with my photography research projects realized the previous years. I’ve always been interested in the natural as well as constructed landscapes.

As a true outdoor lover, practicing hiking and sport activities in nature, I accumulated hundreds images of natural environments, plants details, city landscapes, exploring my surroundings with the medium I feel closer to me, the photo camera. In this spontaneous flow of events, I became aware of the importance of these topics, and then emerged the idea to consciously and actively produce a body of work that would talk about these issues.

In 2019 I did a trip around Brazil. With the research in mind, I tried to translate the theoretical texts I was reading into visuals, looking for traces and signs of that nature/culture dualism. Two years after, the images shot along the time started to compose a more unified body of work.

I wanted to take advantage of this time to develop the narrative in the most efficient yet meaningful way, delivering it in the right outcome.

5 Who can help you and how?

Menno Boer - Darkroom and printing tips David, Ine and Rosella could help me with the narrative of the story as well as visuals.

6 Relation to previous practice

I am interested in developing a practice that deals with creating and expanding narratives deriving from literary works and turn them into fictions or documents, in order to create images by using a tone that can be both revealing and recreational. This project intends to be a continuation and a deeper dive into my ongoing research on Nature and Culture dualism.

As I previously mentioned, during the last year I’ve been working on different series of images that presented how natural landscapes and elements had inspired or affected our surrounding ‘artificial’ world.

For instance, in 2018 I developed a project called Port Talbot, a documentation of the environmental, social and economical effects on one of the most polluted city in the UK. During these years, my visual language as well as the approach evolved, but the fundamental premises remained.

My intention is to develop the concept more in different directions, theoretically as well as practically, building a body of work that live as a generative evolution of the previous ones.

7 Relation to a larger context

Nature and culture converge in many ways that span values, beliefs and norms to practices, livelihoods, knowledge and languages. As a result, there exists a mutual feedback between cultural systems and the environment, with a shift in one often leading to a change in the other. For example, knowledges evolve with the ecosystems upon which they are based, and languages contain words describing ecosystem components. If plants or animals are lost, then the words used to describe them are often lost shortly afterwards, and this changes the way the natural environment is shaped by the practices of those human communities. Nature provides the setting in which cultural processes, activities and belief systems develop, all of which feed back to shape biodiversity.

8 References/bibliography

De Lattre, M. (2021). Mother’s Therapy. The Eriskay Connection.

Hartmann, J. (2021). Mastering the Elements. The Eriskay Connection.

Steadman, P. (1979). The Evolution of Designs Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts /Philip Steadman. Cambridge University Press, 1979.

March L. and Steadman P. (1971), The Geometry of Environment (London, 1971), pp. 229-32.

Thompson, D. (1992). On Growth and Form (Canto) (J. Bonner, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107325852

Cook, Theodore Andrea, Sir. (1903). Spirals in nature and art. J. Murray. Retrieved from 10.5479/sil.25890.39088001368638

Cook, Theodore Andrea, Sir. (1914) The Curves of Life (London, 1914)

J. Stoots. Karl Blossfeldt Indisputably Modern, 2011

Murata, H., Material Forms in nature: The Photographs of Karl Blossfeldt. Scholfield, Peter Hugh. “The Theory of Proportion in Architecture.” (2011).