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The Mediaturgy of Videomapping. An essay by Anna Maria Monteverdi
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The Mediaturgy of Videomapping

AUGMENTED REALITY OR AUGMENTED SPACE?

Anna Maria Monteverdi

INTRODUCTION

Augmented Reality means overlaying virtual, digital elements on reality. It refers to the innovative multimedia techniques which make reality interact with digital constructions and reconstructions, thus modifying, enhancing and enriching the perceived world. It includes interactive projections, lighting techniques, virtual architecture and communication and audio-visual instruments. Its applications are numerous, ranging from overlapping virtual components onto reality (geolocalisation and referencing, logical and physical mapping) to simulation of virtual reality elements (simulating time-space interactions) and artistic applications through performances, video projections and installations. The best definition of A.R. is by Azuma (1997): “Augmented Reality enhances a user’s perception and interaction with the real world” (p.355).

Virtual reality offers great opportunities for the world of museums, galleries and archives. VR is an important tool to interact with 3D models and a fundamental help in making culture more accessible to the wide public and in documenting, recording and conservation of the Cultural Heritage. Oculus1 Rift DK2 and the Leap Motion controller allow new experiences in cultural tour inside museums, archaeological sites.

The user puts the oculars on his head and when he looks along, he can see the world in 3D; oculus device uses custom display and optics technology designed for VR, featuring two AMOLED displays with low-persistence. The technology enables incredible visual clarity for exploring virtual worlds and for using VR gaming. The headset is tracked by IR LED constellation tracking system for precise, low latency 360-degree orientation and position tracking. Features an integrated VR audio system designed to convince your ears that you are truly there. 

Also videomapping can offer new modality of augmented perception and a new experience of seeing cultural heritage. Enormous projections with images, lights and writings by LED are parts of the urban landscape and they constitute the basic arsenal of advertising.

ARA com’ERA

The mediatization of the public space

Lev Manovich states that the radical change that regards culture in the era of information society also concerns space and its systems of representation and organization, becoming itself a media: just like other media – audio, video, image and text- nowadays the space can be transmitted, stored and retrieved instantly. It can be compressed, reformatted, converted into a stream, filtered, computerized, planned and managed interactively (Manovich311). The urban screens follow the trend of a mediatization of the public spaces, bringing in open and collective places, an element traditionally used in enclosed spaces in its various forms and genres (cinema, television and computer). On one hand we consume virtual spaces through electronic devices (cell phones, GPS, huge screens) that change the perception of space and time and social relations, on the other hand we walk environments dense of screens, which create a new urban landscape.

Paul Virilio says about it:

Today we are in a world and reality split in two; on the one hand there is the contemporary, real space (i.e. the space in which we are now, inside the perspective of the Renaissance); on the other there is the virtual space, which is what it happens within the interface of the computer or the screen. Both dimensions coexist, just like the bass and treble of the stereophonic or stereoscopic (Virilio 10-11).

To characterize the urban scene in recent years is the phenomenon of “giantism”. They are called “hypersurfaces”, “interactive media facades” those walls or architectures, either permanent or temporary, designed to accommodate bright and colourful surfaces and big video projections and screens. Enormous projections with images, lights and writings by LED are parts of the urban landscape and they constitute the basic arsenal of advertising. Urban screens, architectural mapping, facade projections, 3D projection mapping, display surfaces, architectural Vj sets are some of the definitions used for describing this technique and the context is that of so called “Augmented Reality” but according to Lev Manovich it is more correct to speak about “Augmented Space” because there is a superposition of electronic elements in a physical space: a relational space in which persons could have a new type of dialogue.1

After ten years, this technique born for a specific commercial and advertising purpose as a digital signage or for the launch of a new brand, has become flexible for create live and interactive performances, live painting, laser painting, videoart using the big dimension of the architectural surface. In videomapping we could unite together graphic art, animation, light design, performances, music and also interactive art and public art. The borders of theatre change and become widen: the environment is no longer the background, is the focus of the artwork. Based on these advanced experiences, artists have created augmented reality video works, stage designs provided with video mapping of great realism and huge projections: videomapping is a new media art, a media-performative art.

Paul Virilio talks of “Gothic Electronic” in reference to this aspect of contemporary architecture linked to the role of the images:

I think that the revolution of the Gothic age, which has been so important in Europe in every field, also corresponds to the new role from the image as a building material. . . . The most interesting images are those of the windows, as in Gothic art they corresponded to information that is more intangible, that transmitted by light in extraordinarily refined creations such as large rosettes (Virilio 6).

The aesthetics of the beautiful, of the astonished, the one that Andrew Darley in his book Digital Culture defines “aesthetic of the surface”, it is behind these spectacular artistic forms related to videomapping in the work of Urban Screen, NuFormer, Macula, Apparati Effimeri, Visualia, AntiVJ, Obscuradigital.

URBAN SCREEN

We are facing a new machine vision in a theatrical sense: the videomapping projections are based on the same principle as the “ineffabile vision” of the XVI century,those paintings created on the basis of anamorphosis forcing to the extreme the linear perspective of the Renaissance. In the work based on an anamorphic way technique, reality can only be perceived through a distorted mirror, while the videomapping is nothing else than a mask that deforms a reality that doesn’t exist at all. Art history has given us not only the linear perspective but also other view, the so called “broken perspective”, the concatenation of plans, the multiple points of view that pose the problem of depth in painting, the imaginary level of the third dimension. The suggestion, the fictional construction of the space, the union of the backclothes and the first floor and the resulting artificial illusion are the basis of monumental frescos by Vasari, Tiepolo, Veronese and above all, of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel that joins architecture and paintings..

Italian painters of the late XV century such as Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) began painting illusionistic ceiling paintings, generally in fresco: he employed perspective in painting and techniques such as foreshortening in order to give the impression of greater space to the viewer below.

This type of trompe l’œil as specifically applied to ceiling paintings is known as “di sotto in sù” (“from below, upward”). The elements above the viewer are rendered as if viewed from true vanishing point perspective. Well-known examples are the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua.

We said videomapping is an art of illusion, an art of perception: so we can make a confrontation between two different kinds of OCULO2: Andrea Mantegna studied a special fresco decoration that would invest all the walls and the vaulted ceilings, adapting to the architectural limits of the environment , but at the same time breaking through the walls with illusionistic painting, as if space was expanded far beyond the physical limits of the room; nowadays the well known technological group Urban screen with the videomapping entitled “320 degree” that uses the circular surface of the Gasometer of Oberhause has tried to obtain a similar effect as a visual game of shapes and lights in which the observer experiences the sens of void and of the deph.

As Thomas Maldonado remember us, Western civilization basically became a producer and consumer of trompe-l’oeil:

Our has been called a culture of images . . . This definition would be more true, if we add that it is a civilization in which a particular type of images, images made by trompe-l’oeil, reach, thanks to the contribution of new technologies, a prodigious yield realistic . . . Confirmation is stronger, today, thanks to the computer graphics, especially when you consider its latest developments in the field of the production of virtual reality (Maldonado 48).

Following the history of the theatre and searching similar attempts in that ancient art to give the illusion of three dimensional space, we can mention the techniques of painted background in perspective: we can quote the drawings of Baldassare Peruzzi for “Calandria” (1514), the painted scene-prototype by Serlio (the comic, tragic and satirical scene, 1545), the theorical books: Perspectivae books by Guidubaldo (1600), Andrea Pozzo (1693) and Ferdinando Galli Bibbiena (1711), and above all, La pratica di fabrica machine ne’ teatri byNicola Sabbatini (1638).

For the contemporary theatre, we can quote two examples of scenographes created with a simple technique of illusion of three dimensional space and of perfect integration of body and stage or dispositif:

– The “digital landscape” used by Robert Lepage and created by stage designer Robert Fillion for Andersen Project (2005), a concave device that includes images in video projections which, thanks to an elevation of the central structure, seemed to have concrete and lively form and succeds in interacting with the actor, literally immersed in this strange cube built around him;

– The dispositive used by Italian group Motus for L’Ospite inspired by Pasolini’s Teorema: it is a monumental scenography looming and crushes the characters, made up of a deep platform inclined, enclosed on three sides and composed of three screens for video projections. This video triptych produces the illusion of an huge house without the fourth wall.

VIDEOMAPPING PROJECTIONS IN THEATRE

The use in the theatre of the videomapping concerns not only the sets (the stage, the volumes in which images could be projected) but also objects, actors, costumes and the entire empty space.

The group Urban Screen produces a curious experiment with videomapping projection for What’s up? A virtual site specific theatre, made in Enschede (Netherlands) in 2010, where the actors were moving images projected forced into a box that picked up their intimacy, built into the walls of the building in a surreal atmosphere. Or Jump in! where the façade of the building becomes a sort of “free climbing wall” for actors who jump, climb, hide among the windows. For the opera Idomeneo, King of Crete by Mozart, Urban Screen has used an architecture of lights in mapping that adheres to the volumes of stage on which the singers acted; these structure is a simple white furniture composed by several block unite together and similar to the cliffs with the reference to the god Neptune, one of the character of the opera. Projections adhere to the structure, thanks to a software created expressely by Urban Screen called Lumentektur.

 

Apparati Effimeri an Italian technological group, has created a dramatic short cameo, in baroque style, for Orfeo ed Euridice (2014), directed by Romeo Castellucci: they used videomapping for reconstructing the scene a “grove of greenery” embedded in a scene completely empty, from where emerges an ethereal female figure, showing a sad atmosphere and a bucolic landscape worthy of a painting by Nicolas Poussin. We are in Arcadia, the scene unfolds and the video projectes on the scene moving images and 3D effects of high accuracy, leaving the illusion of wind on the leaves, the lights on the water and the evening shadows. The “baroque technologic style” of the set generates the amazing sensation reserved for large frescoes of the past and it is perfectly in syntony with the myth and with the emotions of the drama which focuses on the image live from an hospital, of the women in coma which represents in the theatrical fiction, the “double” contemporary of Euridice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmaUSAC-pg

 

Robert Lepage has used videomapping in his most ambitious project: the opera direction for tetralogy of Wagner (The Ring) produced by the Metropolitan of New York (2014). Protagonist of the scene is the huge machine designed for the entire tetralogy, a true work of mechanical engineering, made up of 45 axes movable independently of each other and surging and rotate 360 ° thanks to a complex hydraulic system which allows a large number of different forms, becoming the plug of a dragon, a mountain or the horse of the Valkyries. On the surface of the individual axes are projected 3D images in videomapping showing trees, caves, the waters of the Rhine, the lights of the Walhalla.

 

IAM PROJECT: AN EUROPEAN PROJECT FOR VIDEOMAPPING

IAM (International Augmented Med) is an international cooperation project in which 14 partners from 7 mediterranean countries work together to demonstrate and promote the use of Augmented Reality, videomapping and innovative interactive multimedia techniques for the enhancement of cultural and natural heritage sites. The Partnership is led by the City of Alghero, Italy. Other participating countries are: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Spain, Tunisia. It is funded by the European Union’s ENPI CBC Med programme and runs from October 2012 to October 2015.

The winners of the grants awarded in the framework of the IAM project are one Croatian and one French candidate. These subgrants are managed by project partner Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia region – Spain, Department of Culture).From 1 to 3 October 2014 the Spanish project partners of the I AM project are hosting the I AM festival, in Girona – Catalonia, Spain, under the title “JornadesAPP” (App Days).

Three days of round tables, discussions, demonstrations, presentations, video-mappings, mobile apps and more in various locations in the historic city of Girona.

The Spanish group Konic thtr proposed in Girona an audiovisual composition that combines symbolic elements of the building with historical elements related to the former use of the building as a hospital (now Regional Office of the Catalan Government), with visual elements related to the use of medicinal plants. Processus is the title and proposes a large scale architectural projection based on the history of the projected building. Life, death and spirituality that convert into the ADN of this XVII century building, important part of the archaeological heritage of the city of Girona.

The fundamentals of Video Mapping, according to KONIC stand on concepts that define, identify, structure and characterize the technique. The mapping has to co-live with the dramatic text, the actor’s actions, the choreography and the sound, taking part of the narrative of the piece and contribute to the tension and development of the piece through the visual evolutions. As stated by Koniclab:

We can understand it as a treated space, or as a dynamic stage set, that will bring dynamics, stories, actions along time, by its audiovisual evolution. The media co-exists with the actors and/or dancers and bring to the piece another layer in a horizontal hierarchy with the other elements composing it. We can think of a global work, in which the different disciplines and materials participate to the narration and composition of the work.The audience, from our experience, perceives the piece as a whole and is often surprised by the intimate and somehow magical dialogue established between light-image-sound-object or architecture- and the actors/ bodies, who will bring the human scale and the humane-fictional proportions.When the projection is interactive, it offers direct participation of the audience in the piece, who will then coexist with the actors and can then become a part of the fictional world, and make the step from social being to active part of the piece (Monteverdi).

In their opinion, the following elements should be taken into account when developing a stage play that incorporates this technique:

– The inter-relation image-object-volumetric support, convey the fact that the dramaturgy is focused on the image mapped onto the object. This is to say on the augmented object transformed into an object-image hybrid. The visual narrative is driven by this object-image articulation, and not only by the image. Hence, the object should ideally be related with the visual compositions projected onto it.

– The concept of Mapping = a skin made of visuals and light covering the volumetric object. A dynamic and flexible skin, which will adapt like a dress to the object onto which it is projected or visualised.

– The technology, in understanding that mapping is building a perceptual device composed of light, image, sound, software, hardware, space and time, architecture, actors and audience, and all these elements together create an experiential and relational whole.

Marko Bolkovic one of the two winners of IAM subgrants, with his group Visualia from Croatia, has presented in Girona a mapping for Casa Pastors of high visual impact made entirely in 3D entitled Transiency, inspired by the metamorphosis of life.

Marko Bolkovic said about his videomapping:

Video mapping can be made with any available material, such as video material, film. It’s necessary to adjust this material to a projected surface, which is done with special computer software. 3D video mapping is much more complicated and takes more time for its production: first of all, a model of the object where a projection will be made should be created, afterwards all the animation should be made in a special software provided just for that. The greatest difference between video mapping and a 3D video mapping lies in the final outcome – with 3D video mapping you get a realistic space effect on an even surface, and with usual, “ordinary” mapping there’s no such depth and realism. Visualia Group specialized in 3D video mapping. One of groups goals is to educate people about this rather “new art”, to show its potential and to present its great effect as realistic as possible. In this particular project the artists tried to tell a story about transiency of things, people and life itself, combining it with almost magical building transformation, so realistic and dreamy at the same time. First idea was to create video mapping with historical basis – the group wanted to show how the building was built and how it survived for 3 centuries. Unfortunately, due to a lack of material and information, the idea was dropped at the end.

The group than decided to follow its free will and artistic spirit and to simply bring life to Casa del Pastors using 3D softwares. Due to Group’s rich experience in 3D video mapping, they decided that the best way to create a really powerful and realistic effect for audience is to draw the whole building from the beginning. The front of the building (facade) was challenging enough: it is made out of bricks so it was a really one great creative challenge for the Group to model and revive the building. The Group also agreed that Casa del Pastors is a great place to “tell the story” about the transiency of time, things and life.. Everything passes and it is unreachable and unstoppable. It exists only in moments, which we’re aware of only when they’re already gone. “Transiency” became the name of Group’s “story”, which has to be told. How to present transiency through images and video animations? After discussing this, the artistic Visualia Group decided to start with creation process – clouds (air element) symbolize imagination from which emerges the water element (life), which is continued to a birth process (the tree) and it culminates with simpler form of life (caterpillar) becoming a higher, more complex form (butterfly) which is a symbol of a free art.

The 3D animation were made by Jean, and he divided this animation process in 4 different parts:

– Geometry – fragmentation and deconstruction

– Contrast – black and white matter with optical and hypnotic illusions

– Creation process – air, water, LIFE

– Colors – free art

Conclusion

Videomapping has a restrictive format, partly due to the aesthetic criteria of those leading these expressions and artistic interventions. There are certain artists that show videomapping as what we can define as behavioural or linear, showing architectural videomapping as a display full of effects produced with and upon the image and structure of the façade. This criterion, based on a restrictive approach of available effects, tends to deplete the poetic of the interventions by playing with an aesthetic model based on visual and sound effects that the public recognizes and expects.

As we have seen in the works by Kònic and Marko Bolković, the architectural mapping has to understand the function of the building onto which the artist works not only as a façade around the building but also as the context in which it is located, its history; bearing in mind that they are working with heritage buildings or historical sites. Could technologies enrich, enhance local heritage, in a new manner of communicating history, arts giving a hand to the economy, offering new and unexpected forms for visiting historical monuments, archaeological sites inspiring an interplay of different interests such as traditions, history, visual and youth culture?

We try to reflect on the rules of temporary or permanent media architecture, on their importance for the continued revitalisation of the area, on the new role of media for public spaces. We point out the shift in the application of these technologies from commercial, advertising purpose to cultural purposes.

There is a need for a strategy of sustainable urban media development that targets the intersections between the need of residents, tourists, government agencies, the commercial interest of companies and the ideas of architects and urban planners in the perspective of connecting cities, and also creating tourist attractions. We need to reflect on the relationship between the transformation of our cities and the identity-conferring power of digital architecture.

A building’s façade is more than just a wall and a framework for the entrance, it always reflects the functions of the building, it has symbolic patterns, signs or architectural elements that identify the urban typology.

If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then with innovative digital media in public space we can create dynamic revitalization of places in empathy with the area, and the audience, making visible the past, its history and functions. Media façade should primarily have the task of representing the identity of the building, of the city seen as a large number of overlapping stories and connections, history, emotions, humanity.

Referring the book Invisible cities written by Italo Calvino (1972), which suggests a poetic approach to the imaginative potentialities of the cities, the urban screens and the digital mapping works can make visible the invisible and allow us to understand, create and experience the city with all its change, story, secret folds and diversity.

The mapping has to co-exist with the dramatic text, the actor’s actions, the choreography and the sound, taking part in the narrative of the piece and contributing to the tension and development of the piece through the visual evolutions. We can understand it as a treated space, or as a dynamic stage set, that will bring dynamics, stories, actions through time, by its audio-visual evolution. The media co-exists with the actors and/or dancers and brings to the piece another layer in a horizontal hierarchy with the other elements composing it. We can think of a global work, in which the different disciplines and materials participate to the narration and composition of the work.

The audience perceives the piece as a whole and is often surprised by the intimate and somehow magical dialogue established between light-image-sound-object or architecture- and the actors/ bodies, who will bring the human scale and the humane-fictional proportions.

When the projection is interactive, it offers direct participation of the audience in the piece, who will then coexist with the actors and can then become a part of the fictional world, and make the step from social being to active part of the artistic work. There are countless options to have the public involved in an interactive way. There is still much work to do, still a lot to be explored and understood, and the rapid evolution of the technologies involved can also help us to find new solutions and criteria for the artistic intervention in public spaces.

 

Notes

1. Urban screens, is a term coined by Mirjam Struppek considered a pioneer in the field of urban digital surfaces; in 2005 she curated the first Urban Screens Conference in Amsterdam paving the way for Urban screen conference in Manchester and in Melbourne in 2007 and 2008. She wrote an essay Urban potential of public screens for interaction about the mediatization of architecture.

2. An oculus (plural oculi, from Latin oculus, eye) is a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. The oculus was used by the Romans, one of the finest examples being that in the dome of the Pantheon. Open to the weather, it allows rain to enter and fall to the floor, where it is carried away through drains. Though the opening looks small, it actually has a diameter of 27 ft (8.2 m) allowing it to light the building just as the sun lights the earth. The rain also keeps the building cool during the hot summer months (from Wikipedia).

Works Cited

Arcagni, Simone. Urban screen e live performance. 2009. Web. 10 May 2015.

Artieri Boccia, Giovanni. Preface. “La sostanza materiale dei media. Video culture digitali tra

virtuale e performance”. Videoculture digitali. Spettacolo e giochi disuperficie nei nuovi

media. By Andrew Darley. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2006.

Darley, Andrew. Videoculture digitali. Spettacolo e giochi disuperficie nei nuovi media. Milano:

FrancoAngeli. 2006. Print.

Maldonado, Tomàs. Reale e virtuale. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1992. Print.

Manovich, Lev. Il linguaggio dei nuovi media. Milano: Olivares 2002.

Monteverdi, Anna Maria. Hypersuperface and Mediafaçade. Urban Screen. 2014. Web. 02 May

2015.

—, Drammaturgy of Videomapping. Interview to Koniclab. 2014. Web. 06 May 2015.

—, L’Orfeo di Castellucci, Musica celestiale per un angelo in coma vigile. 2014. Web. 08 May

2015.

Virilio, Paul. “Dal media building alla città globale: i nuovi campi d’azione dell’architettura e

dell’urbanistica contemporanee”,Crossing n°1, numero monografico

Media Buildings,Dec. 2000: 10-11. Print.

Life migrations, videomapping per Alghero nel quadro di IAM project
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International Augmented MED – Alghero è un progetto di cooperazione internazionale guidato dal Comune di Alghero, che coinvolge 14 partner appartenenti a 7 Paesi dell’area mediterranea (Italia, Spagna, Giordania, Libano, Palestina, Tunisia, Egitto).
Il Festival conclusivo del progetto europeo si è svolto proprio nella Città di Alghero e ha visto la partecipazione di medialize.it nell’allestimento di uno spazio urbano interattivo, invisible MIGRATIONS, di uno spettacolo di videomapping sull’architettura della Torre catalana di Piazza Sulis e uno speciale spettacolo di videomapping, life MIGRATIONS, dedicato alla valorizzazione del monumentale sito archeologico Nuraghe Palmavera.

TORRE-SULIS-ALGHERO2

Eventi di New Media Public Art che hanno visto la Città protagonista di un felice connubio tra la storia e l’espressione artistica delle tecnologie emergenti.

Maggiori informazioni sul sito IAM PROJECT >>>

Concept & Design >>> Pasquale Direse
Crossmedia Production & Composition / 3D Animation >>> Angelo Ruta Damiano Spina Aggeliki Tsekeni Raffaele Lelli Pasquale Direse

Interview to Konic thtr about their videomapping creation in Alghero, Torre della Maddalena
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A New Videomapping Creation by KONIC THTR (ES)

“Torre dei Sogni” is a visual poem to be screened on the Forte della Maddalena’ (Garibaldi Tower), one of the most beautiful and important architectural monument of Alghero. A small tribute to the dreams that take us back to the Neolithic world, goddesses and warriors, costumes andmamuthones‘ masked faces. And that commemorates the essence of the rich and complex Sardinian culture. It is part of the EU project IAM; Koniclab is a thatrical and multimedia company founded by Alain Baumann and Rosa Sanchez. 

NOSOTROS_01_KONIC

AMM. About which subjects, topics did you work for the videomapping in Alghero in the frame of IAM project?

KONIC thtr: The piece was prepared for Torre della Maddalena also called Garibaldi  Tower, an architectural landmark of Alghero in Sardinia. Alghero is a fortified city on the seaside, protected by walls erected during the sixteenth century. The tower is a circular bastion that is part of the walled fortification surrounding the city, and is located on what used to be the Customs dock in the harbour. It is a tower for defense and security, facing the sea, and it was built with the purpose to protect from the extraneous and  foreign. Therefore we conceptualize the building as a catalyst or osmotic filter displaying Sardinian cultural references.

We were interested in showing Alghero as part of a culture of cultures on the island of Sardinia. For this purpose, we extracted and synthesized some key eras, which we considered as important and this gave the structure to our projected audiovisual work. In the script there is a narrative journey through time, allowing us to establish a relationship of continuity in some cultural key  elements in which the Sardinian audience can (hopefully) recognize themselves. Here I explain briefly why I chose those elements and how I interpreted them. The most relevant elements of the script structure are: the prehistory, the Sardinian Carnival, the traditional clothing, the sea and coral.

The Sardinian prehistory is an important period and some elements and symbols of that time have persisted and are still present nowadays, with their evolution through time. In the Prehistory section, we reference the pre-Nuragic culture of stone, the Neolithic burial sites carved into the rock and the characters who have remained in the Sardinian popular tradition in the form of legends. The domus de Janas with red ocher paintings and engravings, and small Janas figures and mother goddesses, associated to the funerary context.

From the Nuragic civilization of the Bronze Age, we kept the characteristic nuraghe towers, built out of large stones and applying the principle of false dome, as its shape is closelly related to the one of the tower. The Nuragic culture also produced the enigmatic sculptures of giant stone warriors and the votive elements in form of small bronze warrior figurines.Warriors and navigators, with an agropastoral economic system, we can establish relationships and bridges from these ancient cultures to the Sardinian carnival characters, also shown as shepherds and farmers.

In the video, after the Nuragic warriors we present the Rite of Sardinian Carnival. Some authors establish the origins of Carnival of Mamoiada in prehistory. This Carnival is one of the most famous events of folklore of Sardinia. It is also known as “ Mamuthones Dance ” and its transmuted and powerful characters are the Mamuthones and Issohadores, carrying for their dances archaic black masks and whose dress consists of black sheepskin and thirty kilos of bronze cowbells. The ritual is not a festive one, but rather gloomy, based on the idea of death and rebirth, a rite of celebration of Dionysus, Greek god of vegetation and ecstasy, who dies and is reborn each year in the natural cycle of eternal recurrence. With the death of the God, for a while also does the fertility of the land die. Carnival masks and ancestral dances take us to another representative element of Sardinian culture, which are traditional costumes. Also from the origin of the agro-pastoral tradition, the rich and varied shapes, colors and embroidery serve as identity element, differing in each town it will show the group or community one belongs to. We end the projection with a reference to the sea as the tower looks to the west and to the sea, and for centuries the rays of the sunset have reflected the sea onto its walls. And the Coral as a distinctive feature of the island, an important part of the Sardinian economy and whose red color connects with the ocher of the pre – nuragic paintings

AMM.: Sardina is the land of the ancient masks, Mammuthones with an antropologic (and theatrical) value. Could you define videomapping a sort of modern mask  having something to do with mutability, metamorphosis in that arcais sense?

KONIC thtr: I agree with you. The tower is understood as a skin, a fragile membrane that separates and unites life and death. And the mask do fulfill very well this role of an element that can achieve the mutability, transformation and metamorphosis. The mask, the other side, the other identity or representation, has been used since the Paleolithic by most human groups across time. The mask disguises, hides and / or reveals the identity of who wears it. We have worked with the personification of the tower, the building, humanizing it by giving it a human shape. It is body and it is also character. It becomes the main, mutable character of the audiovisual show which is being staged. The tower, the building itself, becomes the bearer of the mask. The rationale behind a mask is that it will be inhabited by spirits or by others, that is, the identity in the user of that mask will change. When in use, there is a loss of their previous personality as the new one is acquired. When the magic or religious ceremony becomes theater, the mask allows the actor to go beyond their humanity and become a mythical character, leaving aside completely his/her own personality. A key role in the mask is to give a sense of continuity, of unity between the present and the beginning of time.

Videomapping allows us to make these qualitative transformations through image and sound, almost instantly, offering cultural references that the audience can identify. In this sense, the videomapping event takes a role of mediation comparable to the role of the mask in theater and in the rituals, a mediation that is done for, and with, the audience.

AMM.: Your videomappings have always an iconographic force and great visual impact; do you think that the media narration in videmapping has a restrictive format, rules, grammatic to which one needs to obey?

KONIC thtr: Yes, you could say that it has a restrictive format, partly due to the aesthetic criteria of those leading this expressions and artistic interventions. There are certain trends that show videomapping as what I could define behavioral or linear, understanding architectural videomapping as a display of effects produced with and upon the image and structure of the facade. This criteria, based on mimicry, from my point of view has a restrictive approach and library of available effects, and tends to deplete the poetic of the interventions by playing with an aesthetic model based on visual effects and sound that the public recognizes and is waiting for. From my point of view, and this is how I apply it, the architectural mapping has to understand the building onto which it intervenes, not only as a facade around the building but also as the context into which it is located, its history; bearing in mind that we are working with heritage buildings or sites. And what do videomappings provide to these iconic buildings with a great symbolic meaning for the citizens of that city, who know them and consider them as something relevant to their culture?What can we bring with a visual intervention on their surfaces? There is still much work to do, luckily, still a lot to be explored and understood, and the rapid evolution of the technologies involved can also to help us find new solutions and criteria for the artistic intervention in public spaces.

 AMM.: Which are your next digital works?

KONIC thtr: We are currently working on a small scale stage project called Hypernatural in which  we use micromappings on stage to bring the set to life. Hypernatural is a site specific creation for dance, music and moving image. A show that explores our relationship with what we understand as nature through our links with color, light and objects. The interactive mapped images, the light and the sounds will be the support with which we will narrate our relationship between ourself, architecture and landscapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview to Xavi Bové, artistic director of FIMG, International Mapping Festival in Girona
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My interview in Girona to the musician, engeneer and artistic director Xavi Bové. Xavi Bové’s career has been focused on the relationship between visual and musical disciplines, specialized in live events.

Born in Lleida (Spain) in 1978, he is an image and sound engineer, and widened his studies with a video direction postgraduate and a master on digital audiovisual creation. Along his seven years as an OPERA VIDEO DIRECTOR of more than 30 titles in Gran Teatre del Liceu Opera House in Barcelona, he has been exploring different ways to show the opera drama in audiovisual language, giving the audience the chance to enjoy opera in a cinematographic way, and acquiring big international opera panorama knowledge. He has directed live broadcastings for TV, Internet and Cinemas worldwide in High Definition, and also the first 3D opera live broadcasting in Spain. Several titles are available on DVD worldwide under high quality labels such as Virgin Classics, DECCA, Arthaus-Musik, C-Major, Opus Arte, Unitel, TDK and Euroarts.

Xavi has directed VIDEO MAPPING projects, applied over different kind of surfaces, such as buildings, trees, planes, balloons or bodies, and is the ARTISTIC DIRECTOR of FIMG, International Mapping Festival in Girona (www.fimg.cat).

He has been commissioned for creating ARTISTIC CORPORATE and ADVERTISING CLIPS combining the needs of companies with a sensitive approach.

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He has been art director for live concerts creating LIVE VISUALS and combining stage design, video-creation and mapping techniques, for bands such as Fon Roman, Guillamino and dÉbruit, and for festivals such as Connexions and DeProp.

Xavi Bové is responsible of the visual area on ENVOLVENT, an events promoter and communication/booking agency specialized in electronic music and visual arts, with a weekly radio program (www.envolvent.com). And is also co-founder of FAVOLA IN MVSICA, which aims to give high-quality solutions both for live broadcasting and creative video recording and post-production, mainly focused on classical music.

For MUSIC FESTIVALS he has been the director of live broadcasting and live internet streaming for SONAR Festival and Summercase Music Festival. He has directed MUSIC VIDEOS for electronic and pop bands, (Undo, Maurice Aymard, Gui Boratto, The Moustaches,…) and was the cinematographer for a music video for the Berlin Fashion Week. He has also directed live music concerts recordings for DVDs, such as for the rock musicians Bunbury & Vegas. He also plays tunes as aMUSIC SELECTOR for special events under the name of HERR BOVE offering Vintage and Electronic Sets.

Cycle of Life”,  Prize for innovation, International Videomapping Festival in Girona (FIMG). Selected at V International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art 2015. Interactive Videmapping from live performed classical music.

In CINEMA, Xavi Bové has directed documentaries about music such as “Music of Shapes” about new musical theories by Raúl Quílez; he has been the second unit director of the documentary film “Llach, la revolta permanent” by Lluis Danés about the life of a Catalan singer; he directed the recording of “Tranuites”, a visual theatre and circus project; and he also directed more than 10 shortfilms, including the film festivals selected “Eine Neue Nachricht” (fiction), “Requiem für eine Tanne” (video creation),  “Mala Sombra” (fiction) and “Viure al mar” (documentary). He worked as art director on “Final”.

He TEACHES seminaries and master’s classes about relations between music and image, for institutions such as La Salle University and EMAV audiovisual school in Barcelona. He also worked for three years as a workshops and films curator for the REC Film Festival (Tarragona). Xavi has lived and worked in Barcelona, London and Berlin and nowadays is based in Girona (Spain).

Currently he is working on different projects that bridge these art disciplines, combining his experience and knowledge and playing with the experimentation of languages, formats and interactivity.

In the interview he speaks about CYCLE of LIFE, his interactive videomapping Prize for innovation, Girona Festival. Selected at V International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art 2015. Interactive Videmapping from live performed classical music.

Videomapping “Torre dei sogni” by KONIC THTR for IAM project, Alghero
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“TORRE DEI SOGNI“ by KONIC THTR  is a visual poem to be screened on the ‘ Magdalen Tower’,  also known as Garibaldi Tower, an important architectural monument part of the wall surrounding the city of Alghero. It was part of IAM project

It is a tribute to the dreams that will take us to the Neolithic stone world, their goddesses and warriors, theirmasked faces of the ‘mamuthonesor the delicate variety of costumes with which the Sardinian people love adorn themselves.

The tower hides within the memory of this city and the essence of the culture to which he belongs, which has traces back through time, throughout the centuries and the various peoples who inhabited it. The images and music of Torre dei Sogni are inspired by the rich and complex Sardinian culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3JHoMG05rM&feature=youtu.be

Call for videomapping by IAM project. Location: Alghero
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Il Comune di Alghero, nell’ambito del progetto Europeo “I AM – International Augmented Med” di cui è capofila, ha pubblicato il bando per l’individuazione del migliore progetto di videomapping da proiettare sulla facciata esterna de Lo Quarter, complesso recentemente ristrutturato nel cuore del Centro storico.

Le proposte progettuali dovranno far riferimento al patrimonio culturale e ambientale, alla storia e alle tradizioni della Città di Alghero, con un chiaro obiettivo di promozione turistica, e saranno giudicate da un’apposita commissione: i primi due classificati riceveranno un contributo di euro 6.000,00 ciascuno. Gli elaborati dovranno essere consegnati in busta chiusa entro martedì 8 settembre 2015. Le altre due proposte progettuali contenute nell’Avviso preinformativo – un’App destinata ai più piccoli capace di valorizzare in chiave didattica il sito archeologico del nuraghe Palmavera, un prodotto audiovisivo innovativo che utilizzi dispositivi a pilotaggio remoto – saranno oggetto di un ulteriore bando, in pubblicazione nei prossimi giorni.

La rappresentazione pubblica degli elaborati avverrà durante il Festival di chiusura del progetto I AM, che si terrà dal 25 al 27 settembre 2015, e renderà Alghero il set del grande festival internazionale della Realtà Aumentata, durante il quale saranno presentate le tecniche realizzate dagli esperti dei sette Paesi del bacino del Mediterraneo aderenti al programma: Italia, Egitto, Giordania, Libano, Palestina, Spagna e Tunisia. L’intero centro storico di Alghero sarà teatro di videoinstallazioni, videomapping, ricostruzioni in 3D e proiezioni che coinvolgeranno i più importanti edifici storici e siti archeologici. L’avviso è consultabile sul sito istituzionale, nella sezione “Servizi al cittadino – Bandi, avvisi e graduatorie” e all’Albo pretorio del Comune di Alghero.

Link all’avviso: http://www.comune.alghero.ss.it/it/servizi-al-cittadino/documento/Avviso-pubblico-preinformativo/

Link al sito del progetto I AM: http://www.iam-project.eu/

I AM è un progetto di cooperazione nel Mediterraneo finanziato dal programma 2007-2013 ENPI CBC Med dell’Unione Europea. Si svolge dal 2012 al 2015, è guidato dal Comune di Alghero e coinvolge 13 partner di 7 paesi del Mediterraneo. Il budget totale è di € 3.060.650 di cui il contributo del programma ENPI CBC MED costituisce il 90% (€ 2.754.5839).

Il progetto mira a riunire esperti nei campi delle IT/multimedia e del turismo. Questo sistema di cooperazione intersettoriale ha l’obiettivo di sviluppare servizi innovativi per la valorizzazione del patrimonio naturale e culturale. Si concentra sull’utilizzo della Realtà Aumentata (AR), tecniche interattive e multimediali.  Le attività includono momenti di formazione e lo sviluppo di progetti pilota su un sito culturale specifico in ciascuno dei 7 paesi partecipanti.

Mostra di videoarte a Genova per il progetto IAM
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IAM ovvero International Augmented Med è un progetto finanziato dall’Unione Europea basato sulle tecnologie interattive per i beni culturali, nato da un interessante partenariato che riunisce  quattordici partner di sette paesi intorno al bacino del Mediterraneo (Italia, Spagna, Egitto, Libano, Tunisia, Giordania e Palestina). L’ente capofila del progetto è il Comune di Alghero, l’altro ente italiano, partner associato, è il DIRAAS dipartimento universitario di arti e spettacolo di Genova di cui fanno parte le progettiste ed esperte di new media art Liliana Iadeluca e Anna Monteverdi.

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In questi giorni a Genova, Palazzo Ducale, Sala Dogana è stato inaugurato uno degli appuntamenti previsti dal programma triennale di IAM, ovvero una mostra di opere di artisti significativi legati alla videoarte e all’arte interattiva selezionati e messi in ambiente dalla mano esperta di Liliana Iadeluca, light designer e allestitrice museale. La luce, i dispositivi video, le proiezioni su superfici murarie o su vecchi tv a tubo catodico o su plasma mostrano un’arte video in evoluzione, sia nei contenuti che nella postproduzione; alcune delle opere usano sistemi interattivi presi a prestito dalla videogame art, come la Kinect one o la tecnica del videomapping. La documentazione del videomapping realizzato da Marko Bolkovic TRANSIENCY a Girona è un racconto astratto della germinazione vegetale e dell’evoluzione tra effetti optical, geometrie e decostruzioni di elementi architettonici. Installazioni di Alpha Version, Zlatolin Donchev, Cesare Bignotti, Roberta Orlando, Erika Brunelli e molti altri.

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Poi ancora, opere di audiovisual art nelle figurazioni geometriche astratte che si rispecchiano, di Angela Di Tomaso, la vera rivelazione della mostra che non mancherà di far parlare di sé in questo settore della digital art. La sua videoinstallazione non sfigurerebbe in ambienti internazionali come Ars electronica.

Questi progetti europei sono un vero crogiuolo di sperimentazione tecnologica e ottima vetrina per far capire dove stanno andando le nuove tecnologie e come si sviluppano i linguaggi mediali.

Ma il vero focus del progetto IAM è la loro applicazione non solo nel campo artistico ma anche e soprattutto nell’ambito turistico: archeologie del passato, musei potranno beneficiare delle tecnologie della realtà aumentata e grazie all’arte, inventare nuovi modi di vivere il territorio, favorendo una nuova economica culturale.

Le regole per una drammaturgia del mapping secondo i Koniclab
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Sempre alla ricerca di nuovi territori tecnologici da esplorare e sperimentare drammaturgicamente (dal videoteatro alla videodanza interattiva alle videoinstallazioni alle performance telematiche) la compagnia catalana Koniclab approda negli ultimi anni quasi naturalmente al videomapping sia negli spazi pubblici che nei teatri, genere che nasce con una intenzione promozionale diventando un passaggio “obbligato” per lanciare grandi marchi nel campo automobilistico, della moda, della tecnologia.

Si è passati dai manifesti pubblicitari inquadrati e stampati alle insegne al neon fino al digital signage (la réclame in formato elettronico, a led su schermi LCD o al plasma su touch screen in spazi pubblici). Il termine videomapping spesso viene scambiato con urban screens, coniato storicamente la prima volta dalla pioniera degli studi sulle superfici digitali urbane, Mirjam Struppek[4] nel 2005; fu usato per la prima volta al primo Urban Screens Conference ad Amsterdam a cui seguirono quella di Manchester e Melbourne, nel 2007 e 2008. L’estetica del videomapping che ha un gran debito nei confronti di panorama e diorama e delle diverse fantasmagorie della cultura popolare ottocentesca[1] ma anche nei confronti degli studi sugli scorci prospettici in pittura, sul quadraturismo, sull’effetto pittorico illusorio di sfondamento volumetrico. Si può dire allora che il video mapping e l’architectural mapping sono la prosecuzione ideale, in epoca di realtà aumentata e di dispositivi immersivi, delle macchine ottiche e degli esperimenti anamorfici del Seicento. Come ci ricorda Thomas Maldonado, la civiltà occidentale è diventata una produttrice e consumatrice di trompe-l’œil nella sua tendenza avanzata verso l’iperrealismo: “La nostra è stata definita una civiltà delle immagini. (…) Questa definizione sarebbe più vera, se aggiungessimo che la nostra è una civiltà in cui un particolare tipo di immagini, le immagini trompe-l’œil, raggiungono, grazie al contributo di nuove tecnologie di produzione e di diffusione iconica, una prodigiosa resa veristica. Ciò appare chiaro con l’invenzione della fotografia e poi, in modo più evidente, con quella della cinematografia e della televisione. La conferma più incisiva viene, oggi, dall’avvento della grafica computerizzata, soprattutto se si pensa ai suoi ultimi sviluppi finalizzati alla produzione di realtà virtuali.”[3]

Il videomapping di Koniclab a ottobre 2014 per Girona (Spagna)è legato al progetto europeo IAM. La proiezione è avvenuta sopra una facciata di un palazzo del XVII secolo. Il videomapping era inserito nel programma delle ‘Jornades app’ un Festival Festival legato alle attività del progetto europeo IAM. ENPI CBC MED di cui Koniclab è partner. Ramificazioni, colori e un pulsare di luci e creazioni visive in movimento che anima la proiezione di PROCESSUS che ha al centro il sentimento della vita, essendo la struttura un edificio che negli anni ospitava un antico ospedale e una farmacia storica. I corpi proiettati ci riportano anche alla dimensione teatrale, e la struttura diventa un immenso palcoscenico in uno spazio pubblico. La narrazione visiva suggerisce spazi e tempi lontani ed evoca territori ultraterreni resi tangibili da geometrie e ramificazioni che lambiscono l’architettura reale e virtuale insieme in una composizione sonora e visiva che unisce elemento astratto e reale insieme, immagine e immaginazione. Il rosa è il colore dominante che mescola il sentimento di vita a quello di amore.Abbiamo chiesto ai fondatori Rosa Sanchez e Alain Bauman cosa significa creare teatro con il videomapping dal punto di vista del programmatore e del performer.

Dalla nostra personale esperienza nel mettere in pratica questa tecnica capisco che nel videomapping ci sono diverse tendenze, formalizzazioni e modi con cui creare e tradurre l’idea di proiettare immagini in superfici non convenzionali. Mi voglio riferire al videomapping e al suo uso sul palco come elemento drammaturgico della performance. Le fondamenta del videomapping si poggiano su concetti che definiscono, strutturano caratterizzano la tecnica. A nostro avviso i seguenti elementi dovrebbero essere tenuti in considerazione quando si sviluppa uno spettacolo sul palco che includa questa tecnica. E sono:

L’inter-relazione immagine-oggetto-supporto volumetrico, trasmette il fatto che la drammaturgia è focalizzata sull’immagine “mappata” sull’oggetto.Questo per dire sull’oggetto aumentato trasformato in un ibrido immagine-oggetto. La narrazione visiva è guidata da questa articolazione oggetto-immagine, e non solo dall’immagine . Quindi , l’oggetto dovrebbe idealmente essere correlato con le composizioni visive proiettate su di esso.

Il concetto di mapping:  è una pelle fatta di immagini e luce che coprono l’oggetto volumetrico. Una pelle dinamica e flessibile , che si adatterà come un vestito per l’oggetto su cui è proiettata o visualizzata.

La tecnologia, nel  comprendere che la mappatura sta costruendo un dispositivo percettivo composto di luce , immagine, suono , software, hardware , spazio e tempo, architettura, attori e spettatori , e tutti questi elementi insieme, crea un insieme esperienziale e relazionale .

Questi tre concetti sono una chiave importante per noi comprendere e integrare la tecnologia nel lavoro di Konic quando questo include la proiezione di videomapping nel lavoro scenico e lo rende parte di una drammaturgia della performance.Il mapping deve convivere con il testo drammaturgico, con le azioni dell’attore, con la coreografia e i suoni prendendo parte alla narrativa complessiva del lavoro scenico e contribuendo alla tensione e allo sviluppo della performance attraverso le evoluzioni visive.

Possiamo considerarlo come uno spazio trattato, o come una scenografia dinamica , che porterà dinamiche , storie , azioni nel tempo , dalla sua evoluzione audiovisiva . I media coesistono con gli attori e /o ballerini e portano alla performance un altro strato in una gerarchia orizzontale con gli altri elementi che la compongono . Possiamo pensare a un lavoro globale , in cui le diverse discipline e materiali partecipano alla narrazione e composizione dell’opera .  Il pubblico , dalla nostra esperienza , percepisce la performance nel suo complesso ed è spesso sorpreso dal dialogo intimo e in qualche modo magico stabilito tra luce -immagine-suono- oggetto o architettura- e gli attori / corpi , che darà la scala umana e le proporzioni porterà la scala umana e proporzioni umane-finzionali. Quando la proiezione è interattivo , offre una partecipazione diretta del pubblico nella performance , che poi coesisterà con gli attori e poi potrà diventare una parte del mondo fittizio, e fare un ulteriore passo da essere sociale a diventare parte attiva dello spettacolo.

Qual è stato il concept per il videomapping di Girona? 

SI trattava di un intervento in uno spazio pubblico, e questo conferisce una serie di caratteristiche che sono piuttosto differenti dai mapping sulla scena che ho descritto prima. La performance si basava sull’architettura di una facciata ma si basava anche sulla storia dell’edificio. L’edificio è per noi un contenitore dinamico di informazioni che sono state generate nel corso del tempo. Abbiamo esplorato modi per estrarre l’essenza della storia di questo edificio e sintetizzarlo in un viaggio di 14 minuti proiettato sulla facciata. Essendo un vecchio ospedale che aveva a che fare quindi con la vita e la morte di molte persone che sono passate attraverso le sue dipendenze. Questo ospedale conteneva anche la più antica farmacia della Catalogna dove venivano usate piante medicinali. La narrativa video ci porta dal DNA dell’edificio, dalla formazione cellulare della vita, dalla pelle dell’edificio al corpo dell’edificio, le stanze e le piante mediche mostrate nella forma di fotografia presa dall’archivio storico dell’edificio. Alla fine della performance, un punto di svolta evoca la morte, come omaggio a tutte quegli esseri viventi che hanno trovato una fine, è espresso dalle immagini di parti del corpo che sono frammentate ma tuttavia ancora viventi.

 


[1] A. Darley, Videoculture digitali, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2006, pp.71-74

[2] L’anamorfismo è un effetto di illusione ottica per cui una immagine viene proiettata sul piano in modo distorto, rendendo il soggetto originale riconoscibile solamente guardando l’immagine da una posizione precisa. Come ci ricorda Jurgis Baltrušaitis: “L’anamorfosi – parola che compare nel Seicento, benché si riferisca a combinazioni già note da tempo – inverte della prospettiva elementi e princìpi: essa proietta le forme fuori di se stesse invece di ridurle ai loro limiti visibili, e le disgrega perché si ricompongano in un secondo tempo, quando siano viste da un punto determinato. Il procedimento si afferma come curiosità tecnica, ma contiene una poetica dell’astrazione, un meccanismo potente di illusione ottica e una filosofia della realtà artificiosa.” J. Baltrušatis, Anamorfosi o magia artificiale degli effetti meravigliosi, Milano, Adelphi, 1969, p. 13.

[3] T. Maldonado, Reale e virtuale, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1992, p. 48.

[4] Mirjam Struppek ricercatrice e curatrice è specializzata sul tema dello spazio pubblico e nuovi media; è tra i fondatori dell’Urban screens e  dell’International Urban Screens Association (IUSA).

Yann-Loic Lambert e il videomapping narrativo “Records”
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Il francese Yann-Loic Lambert è uno dei due vincitori del subgrants del progetto europeo IAM dedicato al videomapping e alle realtà aumentate applicate ai beni culturali. La commissione ha dichiarato il progetto di Yann-Loic Lambert e di Marko Bolkovic i migliori e quindi hanno concesso agli artisti una residenza nella città di Girona dove avrebbero effettuato il loro videomapping a Casa Pastors. Lambert lavora come progettista video per Groupe F e come videoartista indipendente dopo aver effettuato studi di Musicologia all’Università di Grenoble e aver frequentato un Master specifico su realizzazione audiovisiva e multimediale all’Università della Provenza. Attualmente vive a Marsiglia.

Il mapping proposto ha un carattere poetico e narrativo. A differenza dei mapping che spesso sono proposti nei festival, ricchi di effetti 3D e di interazione video e sonora che richiama alla club culture, il video di Lambert è intanto piuttosto lungo, e ha più le sembianze di un vero e proprio film. Lambert, nel rispetto del luogo, sia come palazzo che come città, usa la superficie per raccontare le memorie dei cittadini. Il succo del mapping sta nelle parole citate alla fine della proiezione tratte da Borges “Noi siamo la nostra memoria, siamo questo museo chimerico di forme incostanti, questo mucchio di specchi rotti.”

Il mapping ha un titolo legato proprio alla memoria “Records” che significa ricordi, souvenir. La cassetta dei ricordi può essere proprio un videomapping che si apre e squaderna davanti agli occhi degli spettatori la magia di quello che la città di Girona, cuore della Catalogna, contiene, di quello che conserva come prezioso. La poeticità del videomapping nasce da questo ingigantire le piccole cose di tutti i giorni, quello di fissare tramonti e pietre della città, da qui anche il progetto di prendere appunti dalle memorie degli abitanti e di raccontarle con stile volutamente naif.  Girona è una delle città più caratteristiche della Catalogna con una storia monumentale di grande pregio. Adagiata sulla valle del fiume Ter, alla confluenza con il Güell, il Galligants e l’Onyar, in una posizione strategica sulla tradizionale via di comunicazione fra la penisola iberica e il continente europeo, mantiene tracce di storia romana. Sulla riva destra dell’Onyar c’è la città vecchia e Casa Pastors è un edificio del XVI secolo appena sotto la cattedrale. Il mapping si anima di suoni, di voci di bambini che giocano, di acque, di rumori di lavoro, ma anche di festa, e le fotografie ci permettono di intravedere abiti e costumi di quaranta, cinquant’anni fa, e quella macchia colorata sulle fotografie in bianco e nero diventa il festone luminoso che si vedeva nelle sale da ballo di una volta. Poi il teatro, le giocolerierie di strada, questa era Girona e in parte è la memoria nel cassetto di tante città che aspettano di essere aperte e mostrare

Lambert ci racconta come ha immaginato il suo mapping realizzato con Amanda Diaz Ubierna, in cui ha usato immagini evocative, 3F, fotografie e veri “reperti” di memoria, portando il formato ad allargarsi a diventare film narrativo, in cui il pubblico in alcuni casi si dimentica anche della grammatica architettonica a cui il mapping è vincolato.

Ho iniziato a lavorare come videomaker e dopo studi universitari mi sono impegnato in questa modalità artistica. Si impara tantissimo in questo campo con la pratica che unisce la proposizione artistica e tecnica. Il titolo del mapping è catalano Records e nasce dall’idea di fare un ritratto sensibile della città. Non è semplice parlare della storia, non quella con una la S maiuscola, ma quella fatta di storie individuali e fare in modo che tutte queste piccole storie aneddotti fabbrichino una storia della città e della sua memoria. Così che comincia questo progetto: Ogni essere umano morirà un giorno, ma sa che i ricordi resteranno qua, nella pietra della città. E quindi ogni pietra ha un suo ricordo particolare, ricordo come souvenir. 

Questo mapping lo abbiamo scritto in due: l’idea era quella di andare a incontrare degli abitanti e quindi siamo venuti qua in residenza in Spagna a Girona per incontrare le persone che ci hanno lasciato storie molto differenti sui vari momenti passati, dell’infanzia, della festa, sul fiume, che è molto importante qua a Girona. Ci hanno lasciato delle storie sull’inondazione che la colpì. Poi ci sono stati racconti buffi come quello delle bare perché quando c’è stata l’esondazione le bare sono state prese dal fiume e trasportate in giro per la città. Ogni persona ci ha lasciato una immagine. A partire dai ricordi che abbiamo potuto collezionare noi abbiamo interpretato, trasformato questi ricordi in immagini. Avevamo già un’idea ma per raccogliere storie e scrivere una sceneggiatura abbiamo impiegato alla fine un mese e mezzo. In precedenza avevo già lavorato su superfici architettoniche, ho già avuto esperienze di proiezioni su palazzi storici. Qua volevo avere una immagine molto raffinata e dettagliata, ero alla ricerca di una forma di realismo. Le immagini sono realiste arrivano da un universo vero, concreto: l’acqua del fiume che sale fino a esondare dagli argini, il realismo dei riflessi dell’acqua e anche la maniera con cui gli oggetti erano trasportati dall’acqua in modo lento”.

(Traduzione di LILIANA IADELUCA-IAM project)

Augmented Med- Augmented Reality for cultural heritage
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I AM Festival 2014

     

The I AM project in brief

The project aims to bring together  experts in two fields, IT/multimedia and tourism.

This cross-sector cooperation system will develop innovative services for the enhancement of natural and cultural heritage sites. It focuses on the use of Augmented Reality (AR), multimedia and interactive techniques.

Augmented Reality refers to multimedia technologies which superimpose digital elements on reality, thus enhancing and enriching the perveived reality.

Activities include training workshops, Augmented Reality festivals and pilot AR applications for one heritage site in each of the 7 participating countries.

 I AM is a Mediterranean cooperation project funded by the European Union’s ENPI CBC Med programme. It will last 3 years, from 2012 to 2015, is led by the City of Alghero in Italy and involves 13 partners in 7 countries around the Mediterranean. Total budget is € 3.060.650 of which the ENPI CBC MED contribution makes up 90% (€ 2.754.583).

The 2014 IAM FESTIVAL is scheduled to take place in two locations:

    Taybeh, Palestine,
from 21-22 September
  Girona, Spain, from
1-3 October.

Lead Partner: Municipality of Alghero, Italy
University of Genoa, Italy
Government of Catalonia, Ministry of Culture, Spain
i2Cat Foundation, Spain
KonicLab, Spain
Library of Alexandria, Egypt
Municipality of Jbeil, Lebanon
American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Department of Antiquities, Jordan
Jordan University of Science and Technologies, Jordan
Municipality of Al Taybeh, Palestine
RIWAQ Centre for Architectural Conservation, Palestine
Regional Commisariat for Tourism of Nabeul-Hammamet, Tunisia
Association for Geographic Research and Studies, Tunisia