Chamber of Visions
The "Chamber of Visions" installation is a grand artistic display designed to celebrate the restoration and exhibition of Filippo Balbi's magnificent work "Testa Anatomica". Housed in the charming refectory of the historic Certosa di Trisulti, the project stands out for its deep immersion achieved through an audiovisual system consisting of three screens and a 5.1 sound system, enhanced by a Virtual Reality headset experience. The installation aims to transport viewers into a world where art and technology converge seamlessly, offering a unique and captivating experience.
"The Chamber of Visions" pays tribute to Balbi's visionary qualities. It does this by blending traditional parts of electronic audiovisual composition with a dive into artificial intelligence. Within this captivating environment, viewers are led on a discovery journey through two distinctive works that showcase the highest level of advanced technologies in contemporary artistic production, offering a multi-faceted view of the creative process. However, these works differ significantly, both aesthetically and technically.
The first one titled "Anima et Corpo" explored Balbi's work by blending real and AI-generated images.
This fusion enhanced the sensory experience, amplifying the original work's meaning and emotional impact. The use of AI added a modern twist to Balbi's historical piece, creating a unique and immersive experience for viewers. This innovative approach brought a fresh perspective to the traditional art form, captivating audiences with its combination of old and new techniques.
The second work brings the bodies of Balbi’s “Anatomical Head” to life and giving them voice through a device called E.C.T.O.R. Through this machinary, the heads gain self-awareness and individuality. Mr. Cellito, the father of ECTOR, was believed to have presented this device at the 1865 World Fair in Paris. This event coincided with Balbi's exhibit at the same fair.
E.C.T.O.R is a dream machine, a puzzle to solve, and a lens to explore the unknown. Many barriers have been broken, boundaries blurred, and perspectives expanded. E.C.T.O.R. allows us to navigate through uncharted territories, opening doors to endless possibilities.
With E.C.T.O.R, we can delve into realms beyond our imagination, pushing the limits of our understanding.
Chamber of Visions #Anima et Corpo
Expanded Oratory for the Anatomical Head of Filippo Balbi
The Anatomical Head impresses with its metaphorical power, urging us to reflect deeply on humanity and its relationships. We perceive through a natural multiplicity, enabling us to embrace diversity and celebrate various narratives. Designing an installation with multiple audiovisual points, we aimed to honor the artwork in the best way possible. Through this approach, we invite viewers to engage with the artwork on a profound level, encouraging introspection and appreciation of the complexities within human existence. During the development process, we have explored concepts such as simultaneity, plurality, harmony, diversity, uniqueness, cohesion, strength, society, horror, flesh, bodies, voices, stillness, movement, choreography, dance. These concepts reflect the perspectives emerging from Balbi's work. Each body is a soul, a memory, a story, converging into a single powerful organism.
Balbi strips bodies to create a figure that defies immediate recognition, much like in any complex organism.
He brings together singularities and harmonizes them into a unity, where the coexistence of diversities forms a system that embodies beauty.
Technology enables us to build a world of relationships, in which we and the audience participate, embracing the complexity and asymmetry of the "multiple vision."
In the installation, words become tangible, sounds turn into movements, and images draw us into a deeper listening experience. This powerful audiovisual explosion we have captured, reassembling its fragments in an empty space, expanding our perception into a bright new dimension of intermittent intersections and complex layers of meaning. Our aim is to invite contemplation, to immerse in an aesthetic experience where sound, image, and word form a new horizon of knowledge. It's an intertwining where barriers between artistic forms disappear, fostering a deep connection between the artwork, ourselves, and the world
Chamber of Visions #E.C.T.O.R. VR
Experiments of Capture and Phantasmagorical Transmutation of Memories
"Come, wandering spirits, come to behold the unstoppable ECTOR; a mechanical wonder that defies limits! Its steel frame glistens under the sun, gears turning with precision. Witness its power as it moves effortlessly through the air, a marvel of engineering. Embrace the awe it inspires, a testament to human ingenuity!"
Dr Warren Cellitol
Facing the Anatomical Head by Filippo Balbi, we felt wonder and enchantment. What dreams, visions, and feelings led to such a work? If we could understand the creative process, we might uncover the hidden mechanisms behind every masterpiece. In the presence of their beauty, we would “bow to the unknown that emerges”.
If just one of those tangled bodies could speak freely, detached from its assigned role, we could uncover the unspeakable. With a device to engage with those figures, we could explore the secrets of invention, delve into the intricate temple of creativity, and reveal its magnificence and depth. Every question we pose would find an answer.
We envisioned ECTOR, using today's technology to recreate a machine that makes the subtle workings of the mind visible.
We invented a logographic device for transforming nightmares and simultaneously contemplating dreams and memories, an ideal machine able to materialize the undefinable.
We freed the bodies of the Anatomical Heads, giving them a voice and substance.
They appear in the images we present, faithful recordings of the processes within ECTOR's mechanics. Through Virtual Reality, we can show you the complete bodies that make up the super-anatomical organism of Balbi's Head. You will be able to listen to them and interact with them.
As Shakespeare said, “we are such stuff as dreams are made”, we tried to give substance to dreams by freeing bodies to float in a space as light as thoughts.
Chamber of Visions #E.C.T.O.R. AV
Experiments of Capture and Phantasmagorical Transmutation of Memories
"Listen, all of you! Don't seek comfort here, you won't find it. This machine feeds on your thoughts, even the darkest ones, it rips them from your mind and turns them into visions, into rag dolls for your children!”
Benoît Delongueuil - "Le Journal de Paris" 1865
“This machine is a circus of atrocities, a display of unparalleled cruelty. It shows no mercy, no compassion."
Oliver Traum - "Frankfurter Zeitung" 1866
In "The Book of Friends," Hofmannsthal wrote: «In the present always hides the unknown that could change everything: a thought that is dizzying yet comforting». Driven by our excitement, we embarked on a search to understand what had been created to explore "the space between an image and its reflection in the mirror”. We delved into various artistic expressions, scientific studies, and philosophical texts.
We started to explore and sift through moments frozen in an imaginative dimension. In this space, the artwork communicates with its creator to capture the moments between action and thought. We believed this investigation was worth sharing.
What we discovered was thrilling and frightening at the same time.
We found a patent number: January 17, 1855 - E.C.T.O.R. 671776, titled “Esperimenti di Captazione e Trasmutazione Onirica delle Ricordanze” (Dream Capturing and Phantasmagorical Transmutation of Memories).
Along with the title, we found notes left by the patent owner, Italian-American Warren Cellito:
“Processing of carnification” – “Inkheart” – “Captivating coils” – “Ludicranzia Oneiric” – “Anomaly figuration” – “Somnoliquami” – “Precise stitches, like fragments of a story whispered by the past. Gracefully”.
Among Mr. Cellito's memories were some notes and a poster with the words:
"Listen, lost humans, I am ECTOR, the dark machine that stands between worlds."
Credits
Artistic direction Valerio Murat
Conception, design and implementation of the installation
Samuel Amenta, Federico Acosta Rios, Eugenio Cecchini, Walter Corneli, Elia Dell'Orco, Fabio Fornaro, Benedetto Gulino, Valerio Murat, Lorenzo Pandolfi, Gianluca Rotondi, Gabriele Teti, Matteo Tomasetti
Texts Giovanni Fontana, Valerio Murat
Voice Giovanni Fontana, Dora Schembri, Stefanie Bechtold
Calligraphic representation of dreams Antonio Poce
3D Model of the Anatomical Head, Axel Ferrari
Performers Federico Acosta Rios, Tobia Bianchini, Emilio Casaburi, Alessio Cattaneo, Eugenio Cecchini, Elia Dell'Orco, Giovanni Fontana, Daniele Grande, Fabio Fornaro, Elisa Igliozzi, Gabriele Teti, Kevin Troci
Technical Manager Stefano Germani.