ARTISTS TALKING

My concern is with art as ever-changing communication; a dynamic language varying with its message. During and after my degree at the Florence Fine Arts Academy I exhibited installation and time-based work. I moved to the UK in 1997 and started work at Fabrica in Brighton, on the pioneering project for the Artist Resource, an information service and library for artists.

I became interested in digital media in 1999 while being involved with digital arts organisation BN1 and started a trilogy of generative sound installations dealing with speech and communication, in collaboration with composer Tim Mark Didymus. These were tailor-made for three major digital art events: Arts Electronica in Linz, Austria in 1999, where Mecha Voices explored the juxtaposition of syllabic sounds in different languages; Werkleitz Multimedia Arts Biennale, Germany in 2000, where TM looked at the telephone as a business conduit, silences between communication streams, exchange of identity and the issue of privacy in contemporary society. At the Generative Art 2000 Conference in Milan, Rename-Real Name questioned notions of meaning and semiotic symbols, language and mechanised dialogue.

Closer to home, in May, I carried out a Year of the Artist residency in a primary school near Canterbury, using fashion and interactive video with digital artist Tim Dollimore. The project had a powerful impact on my work, allowing me to shape and enrich my practice within different environments in which I operate.

Artistic intervention in sensory experience, human reaction to different situations on an intellectual, social and behavioural level. These things fascinate me. Transmit is the latest of such projects, with multimedia group Liquidstatic. It is an experimental performance installation exploring bio-technological aspects of audio, tactile and visual experience. By wearing one of ten peripheral optical devices connected to the main device that I wear, participants experience a temporary change in their brainwave frequencies, believed to affect states of mind. Through optical pulsations, and the amplification of brain activity sounds, the device synchronises brainwave patterns. Vivienne Westwood designer, Daniela Corcio made the Transmit costume, recalling 18th century waxworks held at the anatomical museum in Florence. The whole installation examines the fluctuating conscious mind and the effect of synchronising its architecture within a group situation. Transmit was first performed at the 3rd Festival of Experimental and Performance Art in St Petersburg, Russia.

Further websites:
Fabrica: www.fabrica.org.uk
BN1: www.bn1.co.uk
Cinematheque: www.cinematheque.org
Mecha-Voices: http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/sd
TM: www.werkleitz.de/realwork & www.didymus.co.uk
Rename-Real Name: www.shingtactical.com and www.geneartiveart.com
Transmit: www.liquidstatic.org
CYNET Festival: www.body-bytes.de