We’ve been invited in Matera for Rupextre 2011. Here the presentation given or just watch easier the interactive pdf on issuu.com. Very stimulating discussion, indeed, with Lorenza Pignatti, Francesco Careri, Francesco Marano, Ivan Bargna! Matera, a really intense landscape, full of pathos you can’t be touched by.

greetings from matera (photo by Daniele Mancini + Irene Rinaldi)

A grid of colors follows the evolution of a dynamic system (Lorenz Attractor): each initial condition (x,y,z) in the Lorenz Space matches the color tone (RGB space) of each square of the grid. Due to the ” sensitive dependence on the initial condition”, quickly the system evolves into (un)determined chaos.

This applet has been developed under the supervision of Laura Tedeschini Lalli and the help of Gian Marco Todesco in 1999 as an assignement for a super inspiring class at the school of architecture in Rome.

Sometimes the deep abstraction of mathematical knowledge can be unfolded by choosing another gaze… the other way around is true as well?

Project by:
Daniele Mancini (the man of imagination), Gian Marco Todesco (the man of logic), Laura Tedeschini Lalli (the man of vision), 1999

Lorenz in the color space, 2011 – From an idea of Laura Tedeschini Lalli – CG by Gian Marco Todesco Music by Roberto D’Autilia

The director’s cut (me) with the help of Martina Biffa and Sabrina Fasano.

Related posts are:

The Green Village Session Video
The Green Village Session
Interactive Shop Projects – Launching Event
Scenario for Interactive Shopping

We’re proud on Thursday 29th September 20.30 will give a talk at MAXXI presenting our work within the Architectre Talks – Rome curated by Emilia Giorgi and  Alessio Rosati. On issuu.com the interactive presentation

I LOVE PDZ oggi è una mostra _9 progetti per 9 periferie dal 17 al 24 giugno 2011 @Forte Fanfulla (ingresso gratuito con tessera ARCI)

OPENING PARTY: venerdi 17 giugno ore 19 (*presentazione – *aperitivo – *dj set by D1NG ((garage, alternative, contaminazioni rock ed incursioni cinematografiche))

I ♥ PdZ è un progetto del Laboratorio di Progettazione IV Facoltà di Architettura L. Quaroni Roma La Sapienza a cura di Daniele Mancini

These ambiguities, redundances, and deficiences recall those attributed by Dr. Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel’s hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.

from “El idioma analítico de John Wilkins” by J. L. Borges

In every enumeration there are two contradictory temptations. The first is to list everything, the second is to forget something. The first would like to close off the question once and for all, the second leave it open. Thus, between the exhaustive and the incomplete, enumeration seems to me to be, before all thought (and before all classification), the very proof of that need to name and to bring togheter without which the world(“life”) would lack any points of reference for us. There are things that are different yet also have a certain similarity; they can be brought togheter in series within which it will be possible to distinguish them.

From: Penser/Classer (Think/Classify): V. The ineffable joys of enumeration, in Le Genre Humane (1982) by Geoges Perec

Interactive Shop Project
The Green Village Session

Roma, May 3rd // h.20.00 / 22.00
IED Library, Via Casilina, 57

Interaction prototyping and installation by:

InteractionDesign-IED
interactiondesign-ied.net/​

The installations presented are the new experiments for the Natural Shopping Center APPIA NEW. The theme investigated is about the relationship between human kind and the nature into the contemporary mediated metropolis: The Green Village. Unexpected reactions into the virtual dimension are triggered by some behaviours into the real.

1. The Urban Gardener 2.0. Digital vegetation for interactive gardeners.
2. From the Bud to Flower. Flower homage from a virtual flaneur
3. Floating Reeds.
4. Fratelli d’Italia. Tribute for 150° anniversary of united Italy.

For the credits, readm more

/////// Credits

Project by: Daniele Mancini with Laura Negrini
Art direction: Daniele Mancini
Interaction Design and Technology: Franz Rosati with Guido Maciocci
Digital Design: Sergio Alberini
Video Design: Virgilio Matteo Giunta

////// Studens involved:
Antonio Labbro Francia, Emanuele Macri (Digital&Virtual Design)
Sabrina Fasano, Martina Biffa (Video Design)
Rocco Cavalera, Marco Testa, Damiano Cesarini (Sound Design)

////// Thanks to:

Francesca Castenetto e Valeria Nardoni (Communication)
Pino Maccaroni (Logistic)
Riccardo Tretene (Technology Direction)
Valerio Spinelli (IED Graphic Designer)
Alessia Tuveri (Visual Art Dept.)

/////

interactiondesign-ied.net/​
interactiveshopping.wordpress.com
ied.it

Natural Shopping Center APPIA NEW Launching
Roma// December 5th 2 // 2010

Installation by InteractionDesign-IED

1. Green Village, IED Library, Via Casilina, 57
2. Under Control, Marella, Via Appia Nuova, 11
3. Urban Cave, Minieri Gioielli, Piazza Re di Roma, 41
For the credits read more below

Project by:

Daniele Mancini with Laura Negrini

Interaction Design:
Franz Rosati
Guido Maciocci

Video Design
Sabrina Fasano
Martina Biffa

With the help of the students:

Digital and Virtual Design
Daniel Bedusa
Angelo Simone Crociani
Andrea Incardona
Alessandro Alpago

Interior Design
Carlo Bindi

Graphic Design
Andrea Dall’Anna
Oriana di Stefano

interactiveshopping.wordpress.com
ied.it

As Urban Fields we got a Special Mention at REFF, RomaEuropa FakeFactory Remix the world, reinvent reality 2009/2010. Here you can read more: http://www.romaeuropa.org/

My presentation today at Architectural Association. Get here the pdf (7,5 Mb) of the presentation or just jump the photogallery here.

Being in London at Architectural Association for the 2010 Visiting Teacher’s Programme, I’ve set up a blog where you can find what exciting is going to be happening during the next three weeks

As usual, I’ve asked friends advises for my 21 days long staying in London …

1. Pieces of best architectures in London
2. Extraordinary places in London
3. Things to be absolutely done
4. One thing to buy
5. A book to read, a movie to watch
6. Somebody worth to talk with

thanks to Phil, Gillian, Stefano, Ombretta, Andrea, Angelo, Matteo, Gianfranco, Furio, Benedict, Tony

Pieces of best architectures in London

The Aviary in the London Zoo by Cedric Price – Pontoon Bridge by Future Systems, Canary Wharf- The Palm House by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner, Kew Gardens – Foster’s buildings all around London – Sir John Soane’s Museum – LLoyds building by Rogers – Economist building by A+P Smithson – Robin Hood Gardens by A+P Smithson- Tottenham Court Center Point Building – Christ Church Spitalfields – Royal Festival Hall – John Nash’s Park Crescent at the north end of Portland Place or Bedford Square in Bloomsbury – Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury – Regenerated brutalist housing project – Alexandra Road housing in Camden – David Adjaye‘s Rivington visual arts centre in Shoreditch – David Adjaye‘s Idea Store in Whitechapel - David Adjaye‘s Idea Store in Hamlet Tower – Truman Tower at Brick Lane – South Bank Centre – London Eye (the big wheel: go up in it to introduce yourself to London) – Millennium Bridge – Tate Modern – Olimpic Park

Via Benedict: Houses of Parliament – Westminster Abbey – LLoyds Building – the Wapping Project – a re-used hydraulic pumping station in thedocklands – nice. – The Art Nouveau Blackfriars pub beside the Blackfriars Bridge – the Victoria and Albert Museum, refreshment rooms (you will see why..)

Extraordinary places in London

Picadilly circus – Brixton – Regent’s park – Apple store – National gallery – Science Museum – Flood Barriers on the Thames – Kew Gardens – Dover street market – Foster + Partners Associates Office – Hampton court – Ghetto – Cyberdog at Camden town – Markets (Brick Lane, Camden, Portobello) – Prime Minister’s Questions (House of Commons) – Southbank bike ride – The Tower – Tate Modern Museum – Sir John Soane’s Museum – Highgate Cemetery – Brunel’s under Thames tunnel - Greenwich – Hyde Park (walk through and on to Mayfair and Green Park) – Shoreditch – Walk the West End – Taking in as many as possible of the following: Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden (they are all touristy but they are LONDON) – Battersea Power station

Via Benedict: Go to a village in the countryside – we can talk about this. – Do go to the Wallace collection in Manchester Square and marvel at thepaintings there. – Piero Della Francesca in the National Gallery.

Things to be absolutely done

Go to a concert – Footbal match at Pub – Go to Aby Warburg archive – Flagship store by Crispin Jones on the thames – Get Fish and Chips – Go to the Karl Marx house – Take a picture to Lady D at Harrods – Take a beer at Dove Pub at Hammersmith – Eating cakes at Covent Garden – Drink to much beer! – Spend a sunny afternoon in a London park – Watch a play at the Globe Theatre – Take the boat along the Thames to Greenwich: visit the Queen’s House, Royal Observatory and Naval Museum (but not the town) – Visit Harrod’s – Go to a traditional pub for a Sunday Roast lunch – Go to RIBA near Regents Park

Via Benedict: Borrow a bicycle and pedal around and see how the city fits together. (I was much impressed with the bike share scheme in Roma) – Swim in the Hampstead Men’s Pond. – Swim in the Serpentine! – Swim in the Oasis swimming pool – Wine in Gordon’s wine bar, old vaults under the Charing Cross Station – Consider coming to my sketching club on Tite Street in Chelsea, ‘TheLondon Sketch Club’ founded in 1890, we meet on Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm

One thing to buy

Vinile (in camden town or HMV) – Latex suit in Camden Town – 70′s vinile collection in Brick Lane – OYSTER CARD – Dr Martin boots/shoes (in Camden) – Stilton from the Food Hall in Harrod’s – Should find something at Camden Market or RIBA

Via Benedict: 8 ‘Polychromos’ pencils from Cornellisons!

A book to read a movie to see

“Performance”(a movie) by Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell – “if…” (a movie) by Lindsay Anderson – White Teeth” by Zadie Smith. That’s modern London – http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/londoninmaps/homepage.html – “Notes from a Small Island”, Bill Bryson – Hanish Kureishi’s novel “Buddha Of Suburbia”

Via Benedict: one of the many books on the architecture of London at the AA, probably the Buildings of England London: Westminster, ‘the introduction’

Via Tony: Forget Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a real movie about London and Nil By Mouth by Gary Oldman with Kathy Burke and Ray Winston. Be warned though, it’s very harsh, but excellent

Via Mirti: if you have iPhone a spectacular app you can’t miss! http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MuseumOfLondon/Resources/app/you-are-here-app/index.html

Somebody worth to talk with

The Queen – David Bowie – Peter Cook – Crispin Jones - Usman Haque – One of the AOC -

Download the pdf (circa 3,5 Mb)

Download the pdf (circa 6,5 Mb)

Download the Pdf (circa 4,5 Mb)

We start a new cool project for IED Roma: innovative scenarios for interactive form of shopping. You can follow the ongoing design process on this online collaborative environment here. This project is going to be developed with a small group of best students from digital&virtual, graphic design, video, interior.

A workshop as an introduction to inflatable structures. Simple, economic, with consistently impressive effects. Urban Fields has been invited at Workshop at Compasso di Latta -[Tin Compasses], organized by NABA + Triennale di Milano presented during the Milan International Furniture Fair – Salone del Mobile di Milano 2010.

Milano Bovisa, 13th of Aprile from 2pm to 6pm

For our photogallery jump here (external page on urban fields)
For the video by naba jump here (external video)

Urban Fields has released “The Real Sessions 01. Experiment underneath Corso Francia’s viaduct, Roma – Winter 2009/10″
ready to be ordered on Lulu.com

Download for €6.00
Book (19×19) for € 22,00

You can just have a super nice preview of the content on issuu

Simple, minimal, almost intimate gestures. Over anonymous moments of everyday life. Space changes. Intention reveals what has been hidden: the shape of the sun, the thickness of the air, the relations among things, the tale of the soul. Paradoxical, surreal, spontaneous. Fast transformations like mirroring a sunlight over a building facade or swinging up and down suspended on a tree. Nomadic landscapes made of wind blows captured into transparent capsules. Simple, minimal, almost intimate gestures. Liberating gestures soon disappearing… and all those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain…

We’re pround to announce the opening of Ildebaldo Bed and Breakfast the most convenient accomodation in Rome!

This album is about the “Sensitive Object”, a project by Charles Mariambourg, Sylvain Bourreau and Leslie de Gasquet, designed during the Urban Exhibition Design Studio I held in Rome 2008. This project is featured on the Versailles School of Architecture Yearbook 2008/2009. Thanks to Silvain for the cooperation!

Here the link to the class with all the projects

Related posts on this blog:
Exhibition Design Studio 2008/2009

After many non coherent experiments, we’ve finally succeded to file our strategies of urban appropriation into a conceptually stronger container we’ve called URBAN FIELDS: it’s conceived as a common ground shared with our network of friends (including also students) coming from different creative disciplines. The principal mission is to explore the physical and social controversial condition of the contemporary metropolitan realm through spontaneous, instant and temporary appropriations of neglected public space. Urban Installations, performances, workshops, various experiments of communication and relational design will be documented at http://urbanfields.wordpress.com

Urban Fields curated the just one night workshop “MySpace.IED” for Tutto in una notte 2009 at IED Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, from 7.00 pm 15th to 7.00 am 16th May 2009. For more jump here

Urban Fields at Milanomifamale, Fuori Salone event by NABA design school. Marziani a Milano (Aliens in Milan) is a urban fictional performances happened on 22nd and 23rd April 2009 around the city of Milan

Link to Urban Fields page
Link to the Video Performance Playlist
Link to Official Milanomifamale project at NABA home page

Tonight (29th march 2009) at Circolo degli Artisti we present the Best of Urban Fields 2009 videos within the Pecha Kucha Night

Mancini Architetti & Associati has been founded. We’ve decided to provide a reliable professional framework to our practice (mainly architecture and urban planning) to go ahead with some of our projects more related to market. Very exciting indeed! You can follow our everyday client oriented design activity here

It’s ready the Relational Oppurtunity. Exhibition Design Studio 08 09 Booklet on Lulu.com

Download the pdf for €6.00
Book (19 x 19) for €25.00

You can have a preview of the content here

The selected projects presented in this booklet are mainly light, temporary, partecipatory, relational spatial devices. Their nature is between the installation and the performance, the playground and the event. They are microtransformations amplifying the more controversial, banal and anonimous quality of the places in their relations with the city. Each of the projects suggests a peculiar urban vision. For that reason there isn’t a common functional programme to respect but an interpretation, a critical point of view to be unfolded. In the Studio 2008 / 2009 we focused on the space underneath the so called Viadotto di Corso Francia crossing the Olimpic Village in Rome.

Roma.  Within the Urban Fields: The Real Sessions Lab, an instant workshop will be organized to explore the inflatable realm in the urban space. Participants will handle with transparent thin pvc sheets, taper and a little fan to create a landscape of inflatable shapes underneath the Corso Francia viaduct. Also a torus like shape (a huge donut!) will be built. Special event after the sunset with neon light

Yesterday 24 of July has collapsed one of the most beautiful building in Rome, unfortunatly left to deperished after the Olympic game of 1960. UNPACKED was there grabbing pictures in 2005. Keep reading for more images

Thanks to Silvia Galli, an extraordinary student of my Visual Communication Class, I got this invitation for a small speach + discussion about cultural implication of the Open Source approach. We had a very beautiful but unfortunatly short moment where many ideas cames out fruitfully. You can have a look to the official Spark Digital Entarteinement Blog reporting the events and pictures here

We got an honorable mention here

http://www.infopoint.uia2008torino.org/vincitori.aspx

How can Architecture face the challenges of economical and social mega-trends due to fast and explosive worldwide changes of the last decades? We do believe in Architecture wrapped around concrete issues giving realistic answers, and not the other way around. Only in this way Architecture can be called really “sustainable”. In our specific case Architecture is conceived around a cow, meant to be a metaphor of hte worldwide growing consumption (in the next 20 years the meat request will grow of 50%). The cow also symbolizes the natural cycling transformation of goods and materials. Our Architecture is made of industrial reusable components (scaffolding structures, corrugated metal sheets), recyclable materials like OSB, PVC fabric, straw bales and products of the cow living cycle like milk and manure. It’s an Architecture that lives and explains itself with the consumption of straw, the production of milk, the manure growing producing methane and the vitality given by visitors participation.

We’re proud to announce the catalog of our Behind the scenes exhibition has been published and it’s ready to be bought or downloaded at Unpacked’s bookstore. Now you can also point your browser to http://www.passolibero.it where the exhibition is featured. To know what Passolibero is, please refer to the posts listed below.

Quick visit to the two most recent buildings in the Uijthof University Campus, Utrecht NL: the almost childish yet supercool Basket Bar by the (un)disciplinate NL Architects and the severe and aristocratic Utrecht University Library by Wiel Arets… in the back the most paranoid building by mr. K. appears: can you say the name?

Fantastic meeting with Kamiel Klaasse at NLA’s office in Amsterdam discussing a new book I’m curating for 22publishing. I had the chance to see the latest projects and to talk about their current activities. Following this link you can reach the Photogallery documenting the visit; continuing reading you can watch the video interview

00:00.00
We’ve talked about the condition of crisis of architecture in the Netherlands nowadays. Essentially the truth is after 9/11 the Netherlands suffered the worldwide shock but today there is a relative prosperity.

00:02.17
Some very experimental NL’s projects were cancelled because of lack of trust by contractors

00:05.40
NLA’s architecture comes out by revealing the hidden potentialities of what is banal and often neglected but mostly by referring to the discipline e.g. pragmatically challenging exhisting typology.

00:11.25
NLA are growing up: if you manage to survive the first 10 years then you start flourishing! It means you can be more specific and deeper in investigating projects.

00:14.11
NLA started they activity being four partners and now they are three. What did it happen to Mark? You must distribute ambition over different projects and be able to deal with frustration..

00:20:25
Mark is now Projects Developer for a large company.

00:20:35
How confident NLA are with italian young genration? Where we talk about Holland-Italy, Beniamino Servino and IAN+

Title: Interview with Kamiel Klaasse
Duration: 00:26:17.53
Size: 42.24 Mb
Interviewer: Daniele Mancini
Location: Amstedam, NLA Office
Date: November 23rd 2007

The complete transcript of the 45′ interview will be available in few weeks.

Related posts on this blog are:
NL A Interview. First Part (2004) (to be linked)
NL A Interview. Second Part (2004) (to be linked)

Dietro le quinte di uno spazio vissuto photography exhibition
Photos by: Irene Rinaldi and Paolo Rinaldi
Videoinstallation: Unpacked (Daniele Mancini)
Catalog: Unpacked (buy me!)
Passolibero Exhibition Surface | Via Roma, 11 | Città della Pieve (PG)
17 (vernissage),18,19 August 2007 | 19.30 > 24.00

DIETRO LE QUINTE di uno spazio vissuto.
Fotogrammi di spazi sospesi fra passato e futuro, tra storie già vissute ed altre da vivere.

Si tratta di una raccolta di materiale fotografico, non artistico ma nato come strumento di documentazione della lunga trasformazione a cui è stato sottoposto questo antico edificio. Le successive operazioni di demolizione, traforatura, apertura, puntellamento, effettuate hanno liberato via via, e in tempi diversi, incredibili potenzialità spaziali e nuovi modi di percepire gli spazi fino allora diversamente conosciuti.
La simultanea presenza, ancora appiccicata sui brandelli di muro, delle tracce note di spazi domestici, impressiona, facendo dialogare epoche e storie diverse: la stratigrafia di una vecchia casa viene letta come la stratigrafia di tante vite.

E ancora lo sconfinamento della vista dagli interni nel cielo, incolla la scena in una dimensione irreale, archeologica e silenziosa.

Ma quello che rimane tra le mani di queste visioni è potente materiale effimero.

Istantanee di spazi rari, delimitati da muri sgretolati, altro non hanno se non il valore di impreviste scoperte. Queste transitorie scenografie dalla durata di un temporale, non si ricorderanno se non fotografate almeno una volta. Quello che varrà di nuovo e di nuovo ancora è lo spazio vuoto tra i limiti, l’aria respirata, l’aria entrata e uscita e poi l’ultima, quella raccolta nei nuovi luoghi dove si vivranno delle nuove storie.

La sequenza delle immagini, montata in loop si innesta in uno spazio privato occupandone un’intera apertura su strada, il passo carrabile della casa.

Le immagini, appartenute a quel luogo, ci girano di nuovo all’interno come fossero il vero scenario dietro quel portone: lo sono state in fondo, lo sono e lo potranno ancora essere.

Il pubblico assiste dalla strada alla sequenza dei fotogrammi come spiando all’interno della casa, traguardando da più angolazioni lo spazio interno, in una visione pressochè simultanea.

Se nella nostra storia le quinte sono i brandelli di muro rimasti in piedi, di una storia che c’è cucita sopra, dai quali traguardare i cieli e le altre case, per gli spettatori le quinte saranno il muro della nostra casa e i fotogrammi saranno la storia che stavolta vogliamo raccontare.

Photos by: Irene Rinaldi and Paolo Rinaldi
Video Installation: Unpacked
Curated by: Daniele Mancini and Irene Rinaldi
Catalog: Unpacked

Passolibero is an indipendent exhibition surface showing temporary video projections and interactive installations. It is a space for radical explorations in the fields of new media and contemporary art. The very unusual yet very banal context, the door of a garage box in the medieval village of Città della Pieve, make this surface a cutting-edge chance for video makers, photographers and interactive artists in general. Passolibero has been launched in August 2007 and its activity is curated by UNPACKED (Daniele Mancini and Irene Rinaldi).

After three incredible years, at the end I’ve defend my PhD dissertation. Below you can read an abstract of the content in english and few (commented) slides of my presentation. Can really architecture get benefit from interactivity? How? What conceptual framework does inform the project of interactivity? Could the Sensible City metaphor be an interpretation key for the current discourse on modernity and contemporary?

Sensitive City. Interactive practices in the contemporary metropolis.

Architecture, Art, Technology, Communication, Urban Condition, Exhibition, Installations, Interactivity, Narrative, Sensible Landscape, Hybrid, Digital, Network, Simulation, Invisible, Fiction

The contemporary urban landscape is an emerging territory for interactive experiments by artists, architects and creatives of communication who design and realize installations which very often last only the time of a performance. The city thus looks to be dressed by a sensitive yet invisible and reactive skin able to perceive, decode, connect and store the multiple stimuli from the natural environment around. Its real time reactions often belong to an emotional, synaesthesic and almost irrational communication realm. The thesis’s goal is to decipher the phenomenon of the interactive experience within the city, seeking for genealogies in the experiences of the past and discussing the conceptual themes. The main idea is that the interactive design practice, through its operative and sense horizons, is an appropriate tool to interpret the many contradictions of our Contemporary urban condition in struggle with a still strong Modern vision of the world.

In the city of the Real Time, the pervasive interactive device modulates again, by means of time manipulation (synchrony/asynchrony of the communication) the concept of contiguity (tele-contiguity), presence (tele-presence, ubiquity), participation (hypervoyeurism), control (remote control) and spatial representation (1:1 mapping), extending the cognitive and operating abilities of men.

Within the Invisible City, the immaterial flows of information saturate the metropolitan air with fluid energies, ready to be “activated” by sentient and reactive membranes which make their aesthetics and sensuality visible with synesthetic restitutions.

The City of the Relations is a planetary playground where cooperative and participative social networking practices are consumed, which go indifferently from real to virtual territories because they are intimately connected by the pervasive layer of information technologies. It is an interface city, a subtitled city which is constantly deprived or increased of its memory and of its intrinsic values so that it becomes an anti-monument, for instance a non representative example of no power but only of the relations which it triggers among the people and of the narrative interconnections with other monuments.

Sensitive City. Interactive practices in the contemporary metropolis.

PhD Thesis in Theory of Architecture, DiAR Dipartimento di Architettura, Facoltà di Architettura “Ludovico Quaroni” di Roma La Sapienza

-

Città Sensibile. Pratiche interattive tra arte, architettura e comunicazione nella metropoli contemporanea
Daniele Mancini

Tesi di dottorato in Composizione Architettonica (Teorie dell’Architettura), DiAR Dipartimento di Architettura, Facoltà di Architettura “Ludovico Quaroni” di Roma La Sapienza, XIX Ciclo, 2007

Tutor: Lucio Altarelli

Romalab has concluded its Real Sessions with a conference at MAXXI – museo delle arti del XXI secolo, where reserches of each partecipant groups have been presented. Among them you can also find our Unpacked Active Landscapes, an interpretation of the current urban condition of Rome through an electromagnetic field EMF exploration.

http://malupa.posterous.com/visions
http://romalab.wordpress.com/

L’ Hertzian Space è lo spazio invisibile e impalpabile delle onde elettromagnetiche nel quale siamo da sempre immersi (infatti anche la luce e’ un particolare tipo di onda con una specifica lunghezza e ampiezza per esempio). Ma negli ultimi anni questa dimensione è stata arricchita dalle onde emanate dai telefonini, dai dispositivi di trasmissione wireless, dai satelliti, dai radar e via dicendo, i quali costituiscono un fenomeno recente di fortissimo cambiamento che coinvolge la condizione economica, politica, architettonica e urbana delle nostre città: una sorta di ultima citta’ fluida e mutevole e che si sovrappone alla citta’ solida costruita. Active Landscape si propone di far emergere questo fenomeno con una serie di mappature dirette e cercando di comprendere come l’architettura possa cogliere l’occasione di lavorare al confine tra l’astrattezza immateriale e la concretezza materiale attraverso l’elaborazione di scenari di appropriazione e uso pubblico dei “territori” elettromagnetici”, che immaginiamo in qualche modo “abitabili”.

Mapping. Il paesaggio delle onde elettromagnetiche si è arricchito di nuove onde che per essere trasmesse e captate hanno bisogno di differenti tipi di antenne. Il valore che la nostra società attribuisce alle radiofrequenze è dovuto alla loro capacita’ veicolare informazioni a distanza.

Statistic. In Italia il rapporto tra numero di telefonini (che sono delle antenne portatili riceventi e trasmittenti!) e abitanti ha raggiunto, secondo le fonti europee un rapporto di 1 a 1 nel 2006 con una curva di crescita esponenziale, e dal punto di vista del numero degli abbonamenti sottoscritti ci collochiamo al quinto posto su scala mondiale (fonte Eurostat).

WiFi Scaping. Questi sono i fotogrammi del video che racconta il paesaggio delle reti WiFi che si incontra percorrendo Roma dal centro storico alla periferia: si può descrivere Roma attraverso i differenti paesaggi WiFi

Active Landscapes. I paesaggi di onde elettromagnetiche prodotte dai dispositivi di tele-comunicazione possono essere pensate visivamente come una sorta di arcobaleno o aurora boreale metropolitana: è una sorta di Aria Attiva, che sono solo veicola informazioni ma ha una sua sensualità e capacità di reagire agli stimoli. A seconda dei luoghi, l’aria attiva ha connotati diversi. Questa è una immagine interpretativa che prefigura una serie di azioni progettuali ibride tra biosistemi, spazi urbani e l’ultima città dei flussi che non può essere basata su perimetrazioni, zonizzazioni, separazioni e imposizioni ma che si deve confrontare con la natura fluida delle relazioni tra i tre sistemi (rif. No Stop City di Archizoom)

Flowing ElectroMagneticField. L’Aria Attiva è instabile, quindi non si può descrivere con una istantanea ma solo con una sequenza che ne registra la mutevolezza.

Spectres of the Spectrum. Lo Hertzian Space è uno spazio politico, di conflitti, potere e lotte finanziare senza scrupoli. Il caso Enel-Wind ne è un esempio ma anche il caso Telecom e le intercettazioni telefoniche degli ultimi tempi oppure il caso dell’11/9 la cui trama è corsa attraverso trasmissioni radio e intercettazioni antiterrorismo tardive

Usman Haque: Briefly I was born 1971, Washington DC, USA, trained as an architect at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London from 1990 to 1996, with a year out working in Malaysia ’93 to ’94 …

DM: Watching back, how relevant has been your background in architecture for your current investigation/activity? Can you say something about the cultural imprinting you got from the Bartlett School?

UH: I am an architect and I do what I do simply because I would like to contribute to the architectural discourse so, yes, certainly my background has been relevant to my current activity… Of course I am well aware that studying at the Bartlett in the 90s has had certain effects on me, and some might say that I have been brainwashed. I prefer to say that I am simply the obvious result of what you get if you mix up Frosso Pimenides, Simon Herron and Stephen Gage in a blender….

DM: Who was the most inspiring teacher during the school and why?

UH: Must be Prof. Stephen Gage, (I later taught in his unit too). Stephen is probably one of the only people who simultaneously understands the deep intricacies of cybernetics while also being able to detail a roof that doesn’t leak…

DM: How did it come you follows a class in cybernetics?

UH: I was introduced to cybernetics by my tutor Ranulph Glanville. This had a profound effect on my life and work because I suddenly discovered that a lot of the things I had been thinking about in an unstructured way actually had historical precedent and had been carefully thought out and formalized even before I was born. The elegance of cybernetics is that it enables you to understand how to build complex systems; even more important is that it enables you to understand how complex systems can build themselves. It provides a rigorous framework for building up an understanding of everything from languages to environments to interactions.

In particular Ranulph told me about the work of Gordon Pask; and a few years later I remembered that I had actually attended a lecture by Pask without knowing who he was – the entire hour had gone completely over my head and I hadn’t understood anything. How I kicked myself later for not paying more attention…. Ranulph also introduced me to some of my favourite people on the planet, people I have kept in contact with and continue to work with to this day; so this too has had a profound effect on the way I live and work.

To know more about Pask and cybernetics I should direct you to: “The architectural relevance of Cybernetics”, which Pask published in AD back in 1969; or perhaps my own forthcoming article “The Architectural relevance of Gordon Pask” coming out soon in an AD publication edited by Lucy Bullivant (title not yet sure but something like 4dSocial) might begin to explain some of these things.

DM: Many of your projects explores the application of Open Source strategies learned from Computer Science. You often recur to the expression “Open Source Architectures”. Can you explain the analogy?

UH: “Open source” in the software universe refers to a type of source code (with which software is designed and built) that is accessible to all; that is freely distributed as long as it remains equally open; that allows for modification and derivatives as long as the result is equally open; that is non-discriminatory; where patching is possible without disturbing the integrity of the main work; and that is technology neutral.

Similarly, an open source architecture requires a framework in which the distinction between “those who design” and “those who use” is replaced by participatory system that encourages a constructed project to be constantly “patched” or “performed”.

Such an architecture comes close to the visions Dutch artist, architect and situationist Constant had in his project New Babylon. In this massive exploration he assumed that everyone is an artist in the design and construction of their spaces, events and lives. His project proposed a worldwide structure constantly built and rebuilt by its inhabitants, a structure that varied throughout its lengths as different groups of people contributed to it and altered it in different ways.

DM: This implies Architecture could be think as a software. What does it imply?

UH: Traditionally, architecture has been thought of as hardware: the static walls, roofs and floors that enclose us. An alternative approach is to think of architecture as software: the dynamic and ephemeral sounds, smells, temperatures even radio waves that surround us. One might also consider the social infrastructures that underpin our designed spaces. Pushing this analogy even further, we can think of architecture as a whole as an “operating system”, within which people create their own programmes for spatial interaction.

Architectural design that emphasises “softspace” over “hardspace” is a little like “software” design rather than “hardware design” in computer terminology, where “hardware” refers to the physical machine and “software” refers to the programs that animate the machine. In an architectural context, technology is used to provoke interactions between people, and between people and their spaces.

If softspace encourages people to become performers within their own environments, then hardspace provides a framework to animate these interactions. The idea of an architectural operating system lies in the design of the systems that integrate the two. One model of operating system that is particularly relevant to architecture (since the design of space is always a collaborative process) is an open source system.

Applying open source to architecture suggests a collaborative democratic project that exists in time as well as space: an architecture that is created by people through its use, as a performance, a conversation, a bodystorm that goes on throughout the life of the architectural system, whether it is a building or other architectural situation.

DM: So, the final goal of the Open Source Architecture looks to be, essentially, to make people participating in the design of their own environment in a more sustainable way…

UH: Yes, to find ways that enable people to become more engaged with the spaces that we inhabit; to this extent it is quite explicitly socio-political. Works like Open Burble are less about the spectacular urban experience and more about exploring ways that “normal” people come together to design, construct, negotiate and critique with each other concerning design decisions.

DM: Let’s talk about the other (ideological) aspect that consequently comes from the Open Source ethos: hacking, or, in general, reusing what other have done before for a new purpose. You wrote a sort of Do It Yourself Manual about reusing low tech components of hacked toys you can find “on the shelf” … Which was the motivation?

UH: I was always interested in hacking, in the sense of taking things apart to understand how they work, and trying to find ways to assemble them so that they work differently or possibly better than before. I guess that’s how I became involved in technology, because it is the currency that our culture deals with, and hacking cultural constructs is the most fun of all…

About Low Tech, it is simply the natural way to go: I’m not terribly good at designing electronics, my software skills are varied but from a professional perspective quite mediocre and so I have to take an approach where I can put together things quickly to the best of my abilities…

I wrote the Low Tech Manual in collaboration with Aether Architecture (Adam Somlai-Fisher) thinking at artists and architects (like myself) who want to cheaply prototype interactive spaces and responsive systems. They don’t necessarily need the precision and accuracy that scientists usually do in order to explore the poetries of interaction. They therefore often do not require such sophisticated equipment in order to develop truly interesting interactive projects. All the sensors and actuators needed can disassembled from inexpensively off-the-shelf toys and simple technological devices that might even already exist in people’s homes.

DM: Another theme you tackle is the way technology help us to make visible the invisible, to reveal, to augment, to put under the spot a phenomenon we usually ignore…

UH: Well, I am not that interested in making visible the invisible, although I recognise that it is often the by-product of my work (e.g. Sky Ear, Wifi Camera); I am however, interested in operating with phenomena that are impossible to photograph.

Scent of Space (2002) for example, is an interactive smell system that allows for the three-dimensional placement of fragrances in space with minimal dispersion due to air movement. The system enables us to move beyond using fragrances for mere branding
of space; we are now able to use them to create fragrance collage zones and boundaries on-the-fly.

Scents of Space posits that if an architectural space could be precisely “tuned” with scent collages, it would be possible to create completely new ways of experiencing, controlling and interacting with space.

Another project that continues my investigation into a non-visual architecture is Haunt (2004). Using humidity, temperatures and electromagnetic and sonic frequencies that parapsychologists have associated with haunted spaces, this project aims at building an environment that feels “haunted”.

There are some observed spatial phenomena that tend to correlate with a haunted sensation in a space. Infrasound, at frequencies of 18 or 19Hz, is just outside our ability to hear, however our bodies can feel these low rumblings subliminally. Such frequencies have been shown to elicit feelings of unease and to upset the sense of balance. Wide fluctuations in temperature, which can make hair stand on end, have been associated with apparently haunted spaces. Finally, electromagnetic fields appear to play a particular role in so-called hauntingsxii. Some have argued that electric fields from appliances, antennae or nearby power cables have created sensations of haunting.

This project does not attempt to explain how the phenomena arise, or even how they give rise to haunted perceptions. Rather, the project focuses on how the psychology of human perception gives rise to the construction of space. In pursuing the opposite of what architecture is often assumed to be, this project will attempt to make an uncomfortable space.

Incidentally, I should also say that I am not interested in artistic interpretations of ‘synaesthesia’ – such interpretations always depend on a metaphor that just isn’t valid.

DM: And, what about the impossibility to 100% predict how an installation will react to external agents? I’m talking about the indeterminacy you as an artist (or architect or performer) have to manage thinking about the users action/reactions…

UH: One big problem with so-called “interactive” architecture and art is that in fact there is no indeterminacy: the designer has pre-determined the algorithms, and the possible inputs and outputs, even if he/she isn’t able to predict what someone might do (e.g. by having a movement sensor, you’re not able to predict how someone will move, but you’re still restricting input to that which can be quantified as “movement”; you’re also pre-defining what the system will output in response to what it considers “movement”). It has often been thought that the use of a dynamic/responsive system like a computer in itself enables a designed artifact to “open up” to public participation; but actually, the rigidity of algorithms and input/output criteria usually employed in such systems mean that they are just as autocratic as traditional media.

Indeterminacy would be a good thing I think, just like Pask’s “under-specified” systems; in contrast to the half-loop model of “reactive” algorithms often employed in so-called “interactive” works, Pask was more interested in double-loop models where (in the first loop) nothing exists until one enters in conversations with the artifacts (or until the artifacts themselves have conversations) and (in the second loop) variations in goals (of the designed construct *and* the human participant) create evolving and unpredictable interactions whose sum total is “conversational” in a valid sense.

It is not about concealing and then revealing but rather about “creating” information, just as Wikipedia does in the context of the web. Pask was interested in exploring models in which data is actually “created” by the participants and nothing exists until one enters in conversations with the artifacts (or until the artifacts themselves have conversations). In his participant-focused constructional approach, the data has no limits. In his systems, how something reacts is closely entwined with how externalities (like humans) reacted to the system in the past; indeterminacy is a pre-requisite.

DM: I’m very much interested to know more about your ENVIRONMENT XML. I’ve recently intervied Carlo Ratti from MIT who is working on projects with quite similar purposes. Briefly, how d’you expect other people will use/visualize data?

UH: No idea actually! Just hoping that people will make things that connect together remotely; something like Tobi Schneidler’s “Remote Home” would be relatively straightforward to achieve with environmentXML.

All Environment XML does is provide the feeds – people can decide what they want to do with that info: make an interactive environment, a device that responds to remote spaces, build a web page that updates with remote environmental conditions, whatever…. I have some plans for connecting to some of the already-existing feeds, but I prefer not to discuss them just yet because I am more interested to let people think about how they would like to use them. Like Flickr, the idea is that you are able to share the data that you have created.

DM: Still I think the meaning of the project is missing unless you visualize/represent/sonify data somehow…

UH: I don’t think data aesthetics are a particularly useful end-product – it is much more important to consider what happens to the concept of architecture when spaces become intimately entwined even though geographically remote. It is less about making something representational and more about making actual connections (and by extension relationships) between things.

EXML is basically three things: a repository for data feeds; a dialect of XML enabling people to standardise the way they connect remote environments through the internet; and a system for adding “tags” to their feeds in order to share them without knowing in advance who is going to make use of them.

As a first step, I’ve released a Processing library making it easy to stream and receive data in just a couple of lines; next I hope to integrate it more closely in the arduino platform.

DM: What do you aim? The pre-vision? Which is the hidden context?

UH: There is a strong conceptual link to Stafford Beer’s Cybersyn project in Chile, which connected up industries around the country in order to develop complex second order cybernetic systems. I would love to be able to work with something like that, once there are many feeds added to the Environment XML repository.

DM: Is it more about, again, the idea of an open source platform? How close is this project to Pinkie and Open I/O by Burak Arikan?

UH: There are many connections and I have briefly discussed the project with Burak; though as I understand it Pinkies are a particular hardware platform (Environment XML is of course hardware independent).

DM: You belong to a pioneering generation of interactive artist/architects that need to face also the not very easy issue of make institution trust your experiments… Where do funds come from? Do they come from academia ? Private sponsors? From the art circuit?

UH: My projects tend to be funded by institutional grants, occasionally commissions or large scale events. Interestingly, more and more of the institutions I have been involved with are open to (or even insist on) open source or Creative Commons approaches.

DM: How difficult is to be granted?

UH: It’s very difficult; I think I have less than 10% success rate, though it seems to be getting a little easier now that past work has been funded.

DM: Why it is difficult by your point of view?

UH: It’s difficult because, frankly, it should be difficult. If it was easy to get things funded then I think we would see even more crap than we already see funded….. I cannot complain about this difficulty because I think the process also helps to tighten up proposals, make you really think about what you are intending to do, ensure that there really is a point to the proposal you are trying to put forward. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the approach also then defines the kind of work that gets funded… In this sense, there is one aspect that makes it problematic for me: I almost always have to force my projects to fit into a particular category, usually one that they don’t sit comfortably in. I would like to leave them in a more general “architecture” category, but sometimes I have to respond to more “artistic” concerns that may not come naturally, or, as in Evolving Sonic Environment, artificial consciousness discourse – which is certainly interesting but then I have to attain a certain level of rigour that is often absent in less science-based approaches.

DM: How did you manage the first sponsorship? I mean, what was your first sponsored project? How consistent was the budget?

UH: The first project sponsored…. Hmmm…. Maybe that was my Moody Mushroom Floor, my diploma project at the Bartlett; while I was trying to finish it off I ran out of money for some of the expensive electronics so I called up MPS electronics and told them about what I was trying to do. I think they agreed to give me about 80% of the stuff I needed free of charge. As far as process goes, the project always comes first; and then one day I find the appropriate funding avenue.

DM: Say references you never miss to look at and more. One architect, why?

UH: Cedric Price: he has done it all ! It seems like he’s done everything you’d ever like to try…

DM: One architecture, why?

UH: My aunt’s shower room in Karachi, Pakistan: it is amazing how small you can make a room and still make it both efficient and comfortable.

DM: One book of architecture, why?

UH: The Idea of Building, by Stephen Groak: in this book Groak sets out everything from novel design processes, “intelligent buildings” to ambient environments, in very clear and prosaic way (he was an engineer at Ove Arup).

DM: One book , why?

UH: An Approach to Cybernetics, by Gordon Pask: explains in great detail but very clear language why cybernetics is relevant to the design of novel systems. Also Evergreen Review/What is Pataphysics: gives you a new way of looking at the world.

DM: One movie, why?

UH: Fists in the pocket (I pugni in tasca) Marco Bellochio: it was the first film I ever saw that left me stunned and wanting to make my own.

DM: The project you would have done, envy, why?

UH: Paypal: because in the 90s I set up something called The Global Village Bank with my friend Naoki, and if we had only been a little more business-minded it could have become Paypal….

DM: A piece of art, why?

UH: “Kagoshima Esperanto” by Tadasu Takamine: his work is stunningly moving. I think I love everything he has ever done.

DM: A place to visit, why?

UH: The concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Tschumi said “To really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder.” It seems to be that Guantanamo is the solidification of everything that architecture means today.

DM: What excite you more in the work you done?

UH: Everything, just before I do it.

DM: What bore you more in the work you done?

UH: Everything, just after I finish it…

DM: Thank you!

Here lies one whose name was writ in water (on the grave of John Keats at Acatolic Cemetery in Rome)

We’re very proud we got an honorable mention for this project because it was our proposal for the Memorial Park in San Giuliano di Puglia where a dramatic earthquake happened in 2002. Our investigation has avoided nostalgia for the tragic event focusing instead on the idea of a monument as an optimistic vision of life.

Have a nice look of our submitted A3 booklet (included the reduced A1 posters) on issuu.com

read the review on Arch’It

Short trip in Paris for Pauline’s graduation in Versailles’ School of Architecture. Very nice time, many exhibitions, many people, many events: we enjoy the football worldcup 2006 final match at 10.000 meters over the sea, coming back with a crazy ryanair flight …

As participant of Romalab we’ve commited to curate the blog of the group. Have  a look to the Unpacked explorations (foto diari category)!

Visitammo la mostra di Nunzio al Macro proprio un anno fà. Ci colpì molto Mediterranea, 51 elementi di legno carbonizzato appoggiati a due pareti d’angolo: discutemmo se fossero lance e scudi archilochei; ci domandammo se fossero stati appena deposti oppure erano ordinatamente pronti ad essere imbracciati per l’imminente battaglia; ma poi ci venne il dubbio che componessero piuttosto l’alfabeto inespugnabile di una scrittura antica; e prima di andare indugiammo ancora po’ sul titolo che sottolineava l’interpretazione di un Mediterraneo come sublime fonte arcaica di matericità, di essenzialità, di ritmicità…

Ex Pastificio Cerere, San Lorenzo , Via degli Ausoni, 2 / Venerdì 20 Gennaio 2006

ore 12.00.

Daniele. Ti facciamo una domanda molto diretta che in fondo è quello che ci interessa sapere: che cos’è il Mediterraneo per Nunzio?

Nunzio. Devo dire che per ciò che riguarda questo argomento io rimango ancora molto legato a quello che ho imparato a scuola cioè che il Mediterraneo è tutti i popoli che si affacciano su questo mare medi-terraneo. Un luogo mentale prima che fisico.  Poi io trovo il mare Mediterraneo tra i più belli e più interessanti… Non che gli altri siano meno affascinanti, anzi! A volte sono più caldi, più limpidi… Ma il Mediterraneo ha permesso alle culture che si erano sviluppate nelle vicine civiltà orientali di diffondersi e confrontarsi… Pensa a Ulisse che lo ha percorso in lungo e in largo fino ad arrivare alle Colonne d’Ercole. Credo che il Mediterraneo sia veramente la culla della cultura occidentale – che poi è quella greca -  anche perché è stato, anzi, continua ancora ad esserlo, lo sfondo del conflitto ideologico e religioso tra l’oriente e l’occidente … di culture che si aprono e si scontrano sotto una luce che è unica…

Irene. Una luce unica? In che senso?

Nunzio. Beh la luce meravigliosa del Mediterraneo! Il sole che c’è tutti i giorni probabilmente è la quintessenza che ha permesso alla cultura greca di irradiarsi … è una cosa unica! Ogni luogo  possiede un carattere unico che influenza il modo con cui si impara a rapportarsi con il mondo. Io penso sempre ad un viaggio che ho fatto qualche tempo fa in Madagascar che avevo visto solo in televisione o al cinema. Quello è un posto con un tasso di umidità pazzesco che ti cambia il respiro, dove il cielo sembra che ti tocchi la faccia e la notte hai l’impressione persino di poterlo afferrare … Li l’umidità e il calore fanno si che la vegetazione si riproduca con velocità accelerata e i paesaggi intorno cambiano molto più rapidamente … Niente a che vedere la situazione che trovi a Delo per esempio …

Daniele. Ecco, i luoghi che secondo te più incarnano i valori di questo Mediterraneo che ci stai raccontando?

Nunzio. Credo che siano per la maggior parte in Grecia… Kekova è un posto straordinario che amo molto, vicino ad Antalia; poi il Monte Athos che ho visitato tanti anni fà quando ancora ci si poteva andare; poi ti direi una parte della Spagna ma anche il Nord Africa che purtroppo non conosco molto bene, e forse la Turchia che potrebbe essere considerata la porta a oriente di questo Mediterraneo che entra a contatto con la cultura islamica.

Daniele. Hai detto prima che la luce del Mediterraneo è estremamente significativa. Immagino che anche per il tuo lavoro sia molto importante. Come si concilia la fascinazione per la luce, la luminosità,  con le tue opere che invece sembrano “mangiare” quasi la luce ? Tu ti esprimi con il legno bruciato che è nero … È curioso, non trovi?

Nunzio. Si è vero, a me piace lavorare con questi materiali grezzi e abbastanza semplici. Uso anche il piombo e a volte la ruggine, anche se devo dire che ho iniziato con il gesso che invece è bianco… Comunque, diciamo che io sono la parte scura del Mediterraneo, quella più nera, che deriva da un archetipo primordiale. In fondo io brucio il legno per togliere tutta l’estetica naturale del materiale e farlo diventare il suo fossile, la sua anima: rimane lo stesso ma con un altro aspetto, il più essenziale.

Daniele. È come se eliminassi la patina della vita, del tempo…

Nunzio Si, diciamo così… Pensa invece che per dieci anni ho lavorato con il gesso che dipingevo ad acquerello. All’inizio persino lo immergevo nel colore per cui subiva delle trasformazioni nel tempo dovute all’assorbimento dell’acqua e del colore: a me sembravano un pò delle schegge, non so come definirle in un modo comprensibile, come delle forme un pò scheggiate intorno, come delle scaglie insomma, che poi venivano appese alla parete e qualche volta toccavano terra … volevo ricostruire dei luoghi mentali un pò mnemonici.

Irene. E invece questa tua opera “Mediterranea” che tra l’atro è stata esposta al Macro? Ci racconti come nasce questo titolo?

Nunzio. Quella è un opera particolarmente grande che ho realizzato in occasione di una mostra in un museo tedesco nel 1989. Andai a vedere il museo e parlando con il direttore riuscii a convincerlo per farmi assegnare un certo spazio. All’inizio pensavo di fare tutt’altro ma poi è nata questa opera con tanti elementi che sono una specie di alfabeto personale fatto di tanti rimandi, di tanti aspetti come quello della divisione dello spazio oppure della scansione del ritmo. Ma la cosa che mi piace far notare è che questi 51 elementi sono stati appoggiati alle pareti come se fossero in procinto ci essere imbracciati e trasportati via. C’è una forte tensione in questo … come di attesa. Poi, essendo disposti attorno ad un angolo, costituiscono una sorta di percorso di 13 metri e non un’opera da guardare solo nella sua interezza. Il titolo Mediterranea è nato dal fatto che ho impiegato molto tempo per realizzarlo e mi sono accorto di essere andato a pescare nei rapporti più intimi con le mie radici …

Daniele. Potremmo dire che questi 51 elementi sono simulacri di un alfabeto spaziale primordiale?

Nunzio. Non del tutto … Io penso che la parola giusta sia “archetipo”. Infatti non è né arcaico né primitivo, perché ha a che fare con un filtro che è quello della storia dell’arte, della sua evoluzione … Se vedi Picasso, ne ha fatto una lunga esperienza, e proprio come artista del Mediterraneo!

Daniele. Perché’ Picasso è uno che incarna bene i valori del Mediterraneo?

Nunzio. Beh, c’è tutto Goya, c’è Velazquez, c’è la luce, c’è il movimento… Poi lui viveva ad Antibes, portava la maglia a righe e già la maglia a righe fa parte della sua storia!  Credo che la Spagna anche se porta d’occidente, l’Andalusia in particolare, sia proprio il simbolo assoluto del Mediterraneo di cui ci sentiamo parte.  Poi io ti dico questo, riferendomi a quello che mi hai chiesto prima: se parli con un francese o con uno spagnolo anche se non hai capito niente, senti che sei molto vicino. Se invece parli con uno svedese è molto dura! È qualcosa che fa parte di un altro universo dove evidentemente non mangiano olio d’oliva… Insomma per quanto sempre meno visibile, siamo condizionati dall’aria che respiriamo: adesso io ho preso uno studio a Torino che è una città che amo per l’arte, per tanti amici che ho e  per i tanti rapporti che ho instaurato. È sicuramente una città straordinaria, mediterranea… però torno qua a Roma e c’è un clima … non so, è diverso!

Irene. Ma dunque le tue relazioni con i maestri? O con la generazione precedente? Com’è stato il rapporto di formazione o di crescita?

Nunzio. Guarda, ti racconto la mia storia. Io ho fatto studi un po’ canonici, ho fatto la scuola d’arte dove ho incontrato degli insegnanti interessanti. Secondo me la qualità di quello che riesci a fare, dipende anche da chi hai incontrato. E dal rapporto che hai avuto. Quasi sempre succede che prosegui dei filoni di chi ti ha preceduto. Io devo dire che sono stato abbastanza fortunato, ho avuto dei bravi insegnanti anche quando andavo al liceo. Poi all’Accademia ho incontrato Scialoja che all’epoca non insegnava pittura ma scenografia. Molti artisti della mia generazione o di quella precedente, tipo Kounellis o Pascali, hanno fatto il corso con lui, e questi sono tutti artisti che io amo …

Irene. Rispetto a questi artisti che hai citato, tu come ti differenzi?

Nunzio. Io sono uno che lavora sullo spazio di sicuro, ma su un’idea di spazio che non è necessariamente un’idea diciamo fisica o plastica o che ha un’enorme estensione. Io lavoro su un aspetto abbastanza particolare, che è anche il mio modo di vedere le cose cioè quello dell’essenzialità, della riduzione, del fare con meno elementi possibili senza grande clamore. Quello che mi caratterizza è la non spettacolarità, apparentemente il non clamore, il non colpire l’occhio. Richiedo allo spettatore un po’ di attenzione !

Daniele. Ma un Cinese che cosa capisce della tua arte? Quello che tu mi stai dicendo è mediamente chiaro per un occidentale ma nel momento in cui ti trovi a confrontarti con un pubblico diverso abituato a scale, dimensioni e temi totalmente differenti, come la mettiamo? Quando tu realizzi le tue opere d’arte, ti metti mai nella condizione di pensare a come verranno recepite ?

Nunzio. Prima di tutto io di principio ritengo di non fare dell’arte. Ci sarà qualcuno che un giorno dirà che quello che io faccio è arte oppure no. Io mi muovo e opero nello spazio spostando, modificando, cambiando e pensando ad alcuni oggetti in una certa maniera. E questo ritengo sia molto importante sia per me che per gli altri. Poi per quello che riguarda come ci guarda un cinese, io non lo so proprio! Secondo me come mi vede uno delle isole Figi che sta tutti i giorni dentro l’acqua e raccoglie conchiglie è un problema sociologico di cui se ne deve occupare qualcun altro. Io mi preoccupo di fare delle opere che dovrebbero avere un senso al di là delle culture. Generalmente viaggio molto e cerco di avere dei rapporti con tutte le culture e ti devo confessare che più che la Cina ho frequentato abbastanza il Giappone. L’ultimo viaggio l’ho fatto un mese fa e a luglio scorso sono stato per più di un mese e mezzo tra Tokyo e nella regione di Hokkaido. Sai che per molti giapponesi io sono troppo giapponese ?

Irene. Perché ti dicono che sei troppo giapponese? Per il bianco e per il nero? Perché ti vedono minimalista? Noi siamo stati molto di recente in Giappone e devo dire che l’essenzialità di alcune forme di espressione effettivamente sono assolutamente affascinanti …

Nunzio. Non solo per quello… e comunque mi hanno detto che amano molto il mio lavoro! Ti racconto questa cosa. Io ho abitato in un’isola che si chiama Assos a Cefalonia, c’era un piccolo posto, bellissimo! Una piccola baia,  naturalmente con la sua bella fortezza veneziana perché, sai, i veneziani stavano dappertutto. E in questa piccola baia di Assos c’era una casa che ci avevano affittato con pavimenti di legno. Era talmente bella! Arcaica, essenziale, senza nulla, era veramente ridotta all’osso, solo con la cisterna. Secondo me poteva averci abitato Omero! Insomma una roba fantastica. Ecco, io trovo che anche i giapponesi vivano in quel modo là.  Hanno il tatami, hanno cioè un certo tipo di spazio essenziale. Poi c’è  la cerimonia del te con tutto il suo rituale, c’è la piantina, una soltanto, in un giardino, poi lo spazio riservato al pensiero, alla contemplazione… tante cose che io ritengo vicine, stranamente, alla cultura mediterranea.

Daniele. Alla luce di quello che ci stai dicendo, possiamo unire questi due punti geograficamente così distanti tra di loro e dire che il Mediterraneo lo si può trovare anche in Giappone?

Nunzio. Senz’altro! C’è un tipo di rapporto, c’è un certo tipo di Mediterraneo anche in Giappone. Secondo me comunque i Giapponesi non conoscono bene la Grecia, altrimenti capirebbero da dove provengono le radici della cultura italiana che loro amano così tanto.

Daniele. E comunque non sei incuriosito in qualche maniera da questa fenomeno controverso che è la Cina in piena espansione ?

Nunzio. Guarda, quello che a me interessa forse sono i rapporti per cercare di capire. Della Cina, tranne la Muraglia Cinese che gli astronauti riescono a vedere quando vanno nello spazio, ne so molto poco. Andrò a settembre prossimo a fare una mostra proprio a Pechino e devo dire che il mio spirito sarà quello di capire di più che succede in un paese con un miliardo e mezzo di persone e con una spinta economica spaventosa. A Tokyo ho visitato una mostra sulle città più grandi del mondo. C’erano dei plastici eccezionali e quello che saltava più agli occhi era Shangai! Però devi ammettere che questi sono fenomeni di cui uno piglia atto ma poi va avanti con il lavoro che porta avanti da anni.  Se poi succede che si riesce a relazionarsi, allora si cerca di rifletterci meglio…

Irene. Ci racconti invece del tuo rapporto con gli architetti? Noi ci siamo laureati con Anselmi e Cellini che sappiamo che tu conosci e che in qualche maniera hanno esplorato molto con la loro pratica i confini tra l’arte e l’architettura. Ci piacerebbe scambiare qualche battuta per capire che margine c’è di collaborazione, se c’è …

Nunzio. I miei rapporti con gli architetti non sono stati molti nella mia vita. Mi è capitato un caso strano, curioso, anche interessante. Alcuni ragazzi hanno partecipato a un concorso prendendo spunto da una mia opera esposta alla Galleria Nazionale di Roma per progettare un …

Daniele. La Concert Hall di Sarajevo, no ?

Nunzio. Proprio così ! I ragazzi si sono ispirati a questa mia opera che era una superficie molto plastica di legni bruciati forse perché pensavano alla guerra, e dopo un po di tempo mi hanno portato il progetto per sapere che ne pensavo. Io all’inizio non sapevo come reagire anche perchéero all’insaputa di tutto! Siccome poi sono stati molto gentili, e anche molto modesti ho deciso di aiutarli e abbiamo fatto un plastico assieme. Il rapporto che abbiamo instaurato è stato abbastanza interessante perché riconoscevano in pieno i mio contributo. Questo lo dico perché normalmente gli architetti non lo fanno mai! Usando gli stessi strumenti gli artisti e gli architetti guardano allo stesso problema con occhi del tutto diversi e ahimè per un artista l’approccio dell’architetto è sempre gratuito e velleitario, per un architetto viceversa quello dell’artista è sempre…

Daniele. Inutile!

Nunzio. Appunto! E quindi vedi che a volte possono nascere delle collaborazioni molto interessanti ma piu’ spesso succede che ognuno va per la sua strada e non ci si confronta mai, anzi si pensa solo alla reciproca inutilità.  Devo dire che con degli amici architetti ho partecipato altre volte a concorsi ma trovo che ci siano delle difficoltà oggettive di comunicazione, nel senso che l’artista, almeno come lo intendo io, lavora più su un’idea che normalmente si porta dietro e che racconta se stesso. Questo significa che sono ammessi degli errori, ovvero gli errori colpiscono, se capitano solo lui. Invece l’architetto è molto responsabilizzato. Lavorando con altri, non si può’ permettere di sbagliare altrimenti l’errore coinvolgerebbe uno stuolo di persone a molti livelli.

Daniele. Bene. Per ora ti ringraziamo e speriamo di poter rimandare ad una prossimo intervista un ulteriore approfondimento su questo tema che secondo noi vale la pena di mettere a nudo, magari facendo un concorso assieme !

Irene. Grazie.

Daniele Mancini e Irene Rinaldi

04 02 2006