In the run up to the Media Art Festival at the Rome Maxxi, 250 students from 11 schools were involved in seven labs.
Today, we learn about the four labs that were held by artists as part of Project ENLIGHT – European Light Expression Network, financed by the European Commission as part of the Europa Creativa Programme, while other three involve Project “Carbon Footprint through Digital Art. New Educational Models for Teaching Science,” financed by the Ministry of Education, University and Research, and developed by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome.
RICREAZIONE TERMICA
Matteo Nasini, IIS Amaldi, IIS Pertini, Genzano (Rome)
After studying about the carbon footprint phenomenon, the students worked with an artist on a video that depicts carbon dioxide in a visual manner. In this way, the phenomenon is revealed both aesthetically and ephemerally with the aim of raising audience awareness through a commonly used media format.
Carbon dioxide was filmed with a thermal video camera in various natural and fictional contexts, written and acted by the students, during their workshop meetings.
BLACK FLOWER [sound installation]
Mariagrazia Pontorno, IIS Da Vinci, LS Avogadro – Rome
The work is a sound installation created with two neo-classic parabolas hosted by the Sapienza University Museum of Physics. Two speakers have been placed on their focal points to sound a musical piece entitled Black Flower, composed by students in the classes that participated in the labs on the carbon footprint held by the artist with the supervision of Physicist Massimo Margotti.
The song lyrics were composed with key words on the carbon footprint, revealing the fluid relationship between scientific, artistic and everyday issues.
METRONIMIA, FIGURE DI UN SISTEMA COMPLESSO
Elena Bellantoni, IIS De Chirico (Rome), IPS Pantaleoni (Frascati)
Together with the students, the artist developed a video installation based on complex physical systems and to a certain extent on the climactic change caused by the carbon footprint. The work is entitled “Metronimia, figure di un sistema complesso,” a poetic interpretation of a new dynamics between physical and scientific nature.
In Physics, a complex system is one in which single parts are involved in local interactions that cause overall changes in the main structure. Science can reveal local changes, but cannot predict the future state of an entire system. As Edgar Morin said: “in complex systems, unpredictability and paradox are always present and some things will forever remain unknown.”