Riccardo's first draft ToP
going to add a new version latest at 9:40
1. What have you been making? 2. How did you do it? (method) 3. Relation to previous practice
Through different means during this year I have been relating with color and light, focusing on their technological staging and contextual meaning. By taking in consideration theories on visual perception as much as playful approaches involving the emplacement of light and colours, I have been observing how from-human-to-objects we all interact with these emanations. My approach deploys a durational time-based practice based on the contemplation of atmospheric changes that take places in both site-specific and synthetic landscapes. As a way to understand different cultural values and create narrations that traverse diverse level of understanding, I am growing more and more interest toward the relation between light rendered by computational engines and light emitted by our sun. On this line, simulation technologies become tools to reflect on our experience as much as brushes to create atmospheric stories. Sampling techniques, feedback loops, procedural textures and light simulation algorithms: these are the ingredients with which I develop video animations. Inspired by practices as dance and music I am interest in the movements between postures, and the pace with which these changes are carried: sometimes this lead to animated movies, others to virtual photographies.
Opacity, transparency, this physical dynamics of overlaying and overlapping, inspire my choices and structures my workflow. It is present in my practice of digital animation as much as in my practice of natural observation, carried on by filming wind and light hitting surfaces as leafs, water and flags - as can be seen in the short film Yellow message.
Underpinning my interest for waves, there is the wish to understand and activate celebrative actions and ritualistic forms of gathering.
4. What do you want to make next? 5. Why do you want to make it?
A living room with a kid playing video games and his mother keeping him company, engaging with the action on the screen and trying to make contact by commenting on the games dynamics. The two characters are not shown, instead, the camera investigates the living room: the curtains hitten by light, a painting on the wall, the rumba floor cleaner, death natures, furniture. Sometimes there is no dialogue carried on, and the sound alone suggest the type of videogame that is being played. Sometimes the montage jump between different moment of the day and the night. After a sequence of room explorations and dialogues, the kid, scrolling trough a content manager where you can select what to play (always suggested tough sounds), find a free game ‘Enter the ♥’. The kid decide to try the game and starts to play it. The camera now arrives to the monitor, and enters into it (at a certain point there will be a switch between the camera viewpoint and virtual camera viewpoint. The film now proceed with almost no words, but solely the music and visual, with some sounds from the household.
The dialogue between the two characters revolves around the notion of adventure, making great deeds, treasures to be founded in dangerous dungeons, goods to be taken, worlds to be explored. The mother of the young kid tries to push forward the idea of spending time to take care, nurture and grow, instead of ravaging and exploit. I imagine a work that is serene, sad, meaningful, boring and cathartic.
This film wants to address the violence embedded into videogames by introducing reflections on the role of spending time playing and celebrating life with actions, until reaching a final part where it becomes an act of meditation and listening.
6. Relation to a larger context 7. References
The light rooms of Dan Flavin, the discs of Robert Irwin, the Skyspaces of James Turrell and the Ganzfeld, are inspiring me to explore interactions between light and architecture, if not digital architectures and natural landscapes (rendering engines vs the sun). Filmmaker and visual artist Pipilotti Rist says that one of the main subjects in her works is self-censorship. In the movie ‘Pepperminta’ the main character deploys the power of colour as an antidote to awake emotional intelligence, boost the immune system and overcoming one’s fear. I find her work a strong inspiration for the playfulness and irreverence of her approach. Composer and sculptor Charlemagne Palestine with his drone music and puppets, microtonal music. Phil Niblock with his sampling rudimental techniques. James Benning with his slow cinema. Samsara by Lois Patiño, engagement with local cultures, slow tempo that opens imagination, A\V meditations. Zone of interest by Jonathan Glazer for the use of sound and the relation between foreground and background. Lolo & Sosaku by Sergio Caballero, for the hacking of the western gender, the border crossing between fiction and documentation, the performativity of the actors.