Chiara Masiero Sgrinzatto

MULTIPLICITY

CONCEITO

In our world and across History, a number of cities have acquired a powerful mythological allure which turned them into “eternal cities”. They have become icons of the past, proudness of the present and simulacrum of themselves in the future. Mythical cities have the capacity to bewitch the visitor and impress themselves powerfully in his eyes and heart.
One of the most famous among them is Venice.

When observing Venice, different mythological layers can be identified.
Venice is a myth because of its physical dimension, the water which overcomes land, its little calli, its bridges and gorgeous buildings, which tells about being a natural dual city – one in the air and one reflected in the water – and, at the same time, an harmonic music box. And still, of the fact that it was the will of a Doge to allow it to resist over time as a water city, of its majestic identity, its story of travels and far away markets, its decay and today’s gentrification.

Venice is a myth because of the historical events or situations its people took part into, and the image it could create around the world by building harbors and spreading parts of itself. And finally, it is a Myth because of the narrative it created time by time, or others created about it in Literature, Music, Painting, Theatre, Video Games, Cinema and even Science.

The power of myth cities is so strong that the ones who visited that place start to wear an unconscious new pair of glasses. This is why they can still see Venice when in Amsterdam, Aveiro, Stockholm and hundreds of other places all around the world.

MULTIPLICITY aims to investigate and tell more about how this extraordinary inspiration takes place, how places can influence inhabitants or visitors and how these, on the way round, develop a different view, perception and interaction in other places.

In the game of perspectives, this research considers, a further final layer is added. The Artist dialogues not only with the Observer, but also with the Machine. In an extreme contemporary provocation, the artist asks the AI to open a third eye, to provide an additional glance and interpretation of Venice-the-Myth.

Palavras-chave: Representação urbana, Perceção espacial, Ambientes imersivos, Desenho à mão em 360o, Imagens geradas por IA em 360o.

INSTRUÇÕES DE UTILIZAÇÃO/USUFRUTO

The exhibition space includes a series of printed paper-hand-made triptychs, each of them displayed through mini-domes and proposing the same format: 1. a view from Venice, 2. the correspondent view from a different city (recognised as “other Venice”), 3. the view generated by the AI from the two views.
All analog panoramas are equipped with a QR code which leads to its correspondent content in the virtual world.

Visitors are invited to walk through the mini-domes which are hanging from the ceiling, to stop and carefully observe each of them and their cross-correspondence.
Then, they can join the virtual layer through their smartphones or tablets to complete the experience.

OBJETIVO DE INTERVENÇÃO/COMUNICAÇÃO

MULTIPLICITY aims to involve the public in a challenging experience. The phygital exhibition opens the possibility to look at the content from six different but connected perspectives (three analogic and three virtual ones) and turns Art into Act: visitors are invited to question themselves – as the Artist did before them: “How much the mythic nature of a place is residing in that place or rather in the eye of the viewer? How much do cities like Venice influence our perception of the world and how much does this end up in shaping new places on the myth that impressed our senses so much? How much do artists contribute to create those Myths?”

The exhibition allows to live in first person the immersive environments and it helps to better understand how the inspiration/conceptualization of Myth took place in the case of Venice / the other Venices and how Myth content (e.g. painting, cinema, music, etc) and narratives have retro-influenced the city itself, and the perception its inhabitants and visitors have.

TECNOLOGIAS E TÉCNICAS UTILIZADAS

In MULTIPLICITY the Artist adopts 360° hand-drawn immersive panoramas and generative AI algorithms as key elements to investigate and represent the enigmatic interplay between Myth and reality, with a specific focus on Venice.
This technique helps to combine places, content and narratives, generating a circular, powerful and complex relationship between these elements.

Couples of immersive panoramas which emerge from hand-made equirectangular drawings allow the identification and the correspondence of specific places in the city of Venice and in a series of parallel cities. Real locations are represented by the Artist through on site drawing, post-production process and little adjustments when daily life urban elements can disturb the view.

The AI is responsible for drawing the “invisible” third layer, where the interpretation of the Myth is given by the machine to be then combined with the one by the Artist.
To do that, the AI generation process is enhanced with the hand-made sketches with data about Venice and the other Venices around the world. The prompt takes into consideration both the description of the hand-made panorama representing Venice and the correspondent one concerning the other locations.

Three hand-made mini-domes are realized by the Artist using embroidery tambourine instruments and the origami technique. Similarly to cities, these little immersive environments are set up little by little and with extreme care to assure a perfect cut, functioning views and beautiful perspectives. Mini-domes are then used to install the immersive panoramas produced by hand and by the AI and to provide a strong immersive feeling. Visitors are invited to walk through the hanging domes, finding the possible points of connection between the three paper environments.

The installation also opens a second layer, unlocking the other three views. All panoramas are available in the virtual dimension, can be reached through a QR code and explored by users with their smartphones or tablets. Virtual environments enable us to see what cannot be caught through human naked eyes, and have the potential to reveal places and details in a different way compared to how physical senses perceive them.

REFERÊNCIAS E INFLUÊNCIAS ESTÉTICAS

The various ways in which Venice has been represented, perceived, told, and imagined throughout History by authors, painters, photographers, designers or film directors contributed to shape the aesthetics and mythic allure of this city, but it also influenced the aesthetic and inspiration of MULTIPLICITY.

In particular, painters such as the Venetian Vedutisti – Canaletto, Guardi, Bellotto, Marieschi, among others, whose work constituted a new typology of paintings – the “Venezie”, or the ones who depicted the life of the Serenissima Republic (Longhi, Bella, Paoletti, among others), have changed the way we perceived that city afterwards. Famous artists visited and sketched the city during their Grand Tour (Ruskin, Turner, Sargent, Hodgkin), authors such as Ruskin, Hemingway, Brodskji, James, Eco and Calvino told and reimagined how the city could look like.
And, of course, Venice has been already captured in 360º by Biasin in his painted panorama and by the Lumiére brothers in their early 360º cinematic experiments.

Panoramas propose Venice architectural allure, on the basis of studies the Artist did concerning the built environment, both the monumental (G. Romanelli, L. Puppi) and the minor buildings (E.R. Trincanato, C. Balestrieri) and in general the peculiar elements of the Venetian architecture (G. Foscari and R. Kolhaas), the Venice that no longer exists (A. Zorzi), and the projects by prominent architects such as Palladio, Piranesi, Le Corbusier and Gehry among others, that have imagined and could have shaped the city in a different way.

Notable works regarding the relationship between Venice and the other Venices, are provided by the work of Guido Moltedo. The author lists and reflects on the replicas, imitations and clones built all over the world. Other researchers investigate the unique morphology of the Venetian campi and their variations (S. Psarra), or the parallelism between Venice and Manhattan (T. Stoppani, R. Kohlhaas). Finally, important references come from the anthropological and historical analysis by R. C. Davis and Garry R. Marvin, and the latest reflections on the present and future of the city by S. Settis and A. Vettese.

The creative inspiration is also derived from other artists who utilized immersive content, encompassing a diverse range of media, including analog panoramic paintings and paper creations such as Ulrike Heidenreich, 59Productions with its large immersive displays or David Hockney. MULTIPLICITY experimental narratives and immersive installations also produced by generative AI, have been inspired by the work of Sensorium Studio.

Diário Digital de Bordo: https://www.chiaramasierosgrinzatto.com/category/ddb/

Chiara Masiero Sgrinzatto

possui uma licenciatura em Arquitetura e uma especialização em Artes Visuais pela Universidade IUAV de Veneza. É estudante de doutoramento em Media-Arte Digital na UAlg/UAb, e a sua pesquisa foca-se em imagens imersivas, combinando arte com tecnologia, para refletir e explorar perceções espaciais. Com mais de uma década de experiência na indústria XR, criou conteúdos pioneiros em 360o para instituições em todo o mundo e presta consultoria para desenvolvedores de hardware e software de VR.