Personality, 2010
PMMA board, microcontrollers, LEDs, wires

Each LED of this panel is connected to a microcontroller (a little computer) that runs a program that regulates its lighting and power off.

The program that all microcontrollers run is the same: 1/4 of the time on, 3/4 of the time off.

In C language

void main(void)
{
int i;
while(1) {
for(i=0;i<100;i++) LED_On();
for(i=0;i<300;i++) LED_Off();
}

The microcontrollers are all identical and are industrially made in the same production lot.

When the program starts running, the lighting is perfectly synchronous.
But, after few seconds, each microcontroller shows differences in the measuring of time and the lightings become asynchronous.

The viewer can reset the microcontrollers by pushing the central button of the panel, making them synchronous… until each one starts to show its own personality again.

Exhibition: Immersi in un mare di luce (Plunged into a sea of light)
Date: September 22nd 2010 – October 30th 2010
Location: Mya Lurgo Gallery Piazza della Riforma 9, Lugano – Switzerland

The Light on Earth Series, 2010
Duratrans print, LED backlight

This series analyses the variations of light (solar, lunar, artificial) that pass on a subject through time.

The images are collages of snapshots taken at regular intervals of time.
Of each picture, only a small, few pixels wide portion is kept and the stripes are composed horizontally, showing a temporal flow from left to right.

The total duration of the shots varies according to the subject, from one hour to an entire day. In some cases, the pictures seem to develop in space, since the perceptual result is the whole reproduction of the subject (e.g. the sun in “One day sky”); but in reality what they document is the changing of lights and shadows.

Download the .pdf behind the collages.

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100 minutes sea

One day sky

One day horizon

150 minutes slate

One hour brickwall

Sunset in my studio

2 hours parquet

Black horizon

Candelight variations

Alessandro Trabucco e Marco Brianza

Exhibition: Immersi in un mare di luce (Plunged into a sea of light)
Date: September 22nd 2010 – October 30th 2010
Location: Mya Lurgo Gallery Piazza della Riforma 9, Lugano – Switzerland

Empire, 2010
Camera, computer, TV tuner, software, Internet connection

Empire is a live image collage inspired by the film ‘Empire’ by Andy Warhol that in 1964 pictured with a static camera the Empire State Building in a 8 hours movie.

The tower, center of this work which started in mid 2010, is the TV tower of the ‘Empire of Media’ Mediaset, the TV network founded by Silvio Berlusconi which expanded into a huge media holding. Mediaset, in addition to television (cable, digital and pay tv), nowadays includes publishing, web, information, advertising, sales and movie production. Connected to Mediaset, and to the Berlusconi family, there are several companies, such as the publishing giant Mondadori, or insurance and banking companies such as Mediolanum, to mention only a few.

In Empire, every 15 minutes a new collage is created over the live picture of the tower, adding actual images of some media diffused by the Mediaset group: TV, magazines, newspapers, books and websites.

The article on ‘Artivism’ by Martina Coletti, D’Ars magazine, June 2010

Each new image of Empire the “Flash of Empire” is automaticaly created every 15 minutes (“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”) by means of a custom software, Emperor, coded by the author in Visual Basic .NET.
This software that runs 24/7 on a small notebook also controls other applications for collecting specific media of the collage.

The live image of the tower is captured by a digital camera, a Canon S5IS at full optical zoom that provides a 8 Mega pixel image. The camera is controlled by PSRemote software using a USB cable.

Live TV is caputred by broadcast aerial signal (most probably coming from the tower) using a USB digital TV tuner (Hauppage Nova TV) and VLC to chose the channel and take the snapshot. The 3 channels selected for the collage are the Mediaset historical channels: Canale Cinque, Italia Uno, and Rete Quattro.

The front page of the newspaper “Il Giornale”, owned by the Berlusconi family since 1979, comes from the newspaper aggregaror Funize. It is grabbed by a script that uses curl

The TgCom Website , the web extension of the main newscast of the TV channel Canale Cinque, is grabbed with a Internet Explorer API.

Weekly and monthly magazines, and books are gathered manually from the different publishers’ sites belonging to the holding and synched to the computer using Dropbox.

Date and time and time are aslo stamped on the image to tag it at the specific moment.

The collage of the flash 10X15 cm at 500dpi is created using .NET graphic APIs.

A low resolution image 600×400 pixels and the corresponding thumbnail of 60×40 pixels are uploaded to www.theitalianempire.com using CURL.

In Empire website homepage you find the latest image created, There is an archive of the previous ‘Flashes of the Empire’ and for each day, there are 96 of them. The 96 images can be viewed all together in the ‘Days’ section.

To support the project you can buy a print of a “Flash of Empire” (delivederd as postcard of 10×15 cm) or of a full day of 96 flashes “Day of Empire” (fine art print of 160×90 cm). Each image, both the postacard and the poster, is unique and printed only once.

Installation: green, red, violet lasers; rotating mirrors, variable dimensions

The Sun and the Moon dominate the sky day and night, moving from East to West with periodic trajectories that man identified since the ancient times. The prediction of the revolution movement of celestial bodies was a sign that human knowledge could measure and understand the universe we are living in.
The theories of ancient Greeks Ipparco and Tolomeo, which considered the earth at the center of the universe, didn’t survive the Copernican and Galilean confutations in 16th Century, which proved that it is the Earth that revolves around the Sun. This change of perspective, called the ‘Copernican revolution’, didn’t just change the ‘celestial spheres’, but also the culture of the time, affirming the scientific method which constituted the base of modern science and contemporary civilization.
In ‘Revolution’, Marco Brianza projects with two lasers on the internal walls of the church the trajectories of the Sun and the Moon as they appeared in Como on June 16th 2010, the day of the opening of the exhibition. The modern observer will be able to distinguish the different meanings of the lunar orbit and the solar ecliptic, perhaps being at a loss for a moment thinking to the modern theories on the expanding universe…

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Exhibition: Misure Celesti (Celestial measures)
Date: June 17th – 27th 2010
Location: ex San Francesco Church, Viale Spallino 1, Como – Italy

Light Sympathy, 2010
Installation: terracotta oil lamp, camera, computer, LED lights, variable dimensions.

The installation suggests a link between the latest lighting technologies (LED and ZigBee), on show alongside the Light+Building fair, and the ones used at the dawn of artificial light (oil lamps) of which the archeological museum, site of the installation, keeps the memory. Starting from the light of an ancient Roman oil lamp – that burns olive oil – from the museum’s exhibits, the work captures the flickering of the flame and reproduces it in real-time, amplified using the latest LED sources. The light is visible through the Gothic windows of the historical building, and creates a link of syn-patheia (feeling – and vibrating – together) between the light of the past and the one of the present. The process that transforms the ‘analogical’ light of the oil lamp to the ‘digital’ one of the LED lamp is carried out using a video camera and a computer. A custom created software code in Processing analyzes the image parameters of the movement of the flame and transmits them to the LED lamp through a wireless network.

Video courtesy of Frankfurter Allgemeine

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Exhibition: Luces – Light Art from Italy
Date: April 9th 2009 – April 16th 2010
Location: Luminale 2010 Archeological Museum, Karmelitergasse 1, Frankfurt am Main

Un grande vuoto
Sesto San Giovanni, 2009
Digital video, color, mute, 3:12 min.

Things pass in the world leaving a different level of persistence, filtering out what is fast changing, we feel a big emptiness.

This movie is made by 5760 still pictures taken from 0 to 24 on 22nd October 2009. The pictures, shot at 15 seconds intervals, are averaged in groups of 40, so that each movie frame represents a 10 minutes interval. The movie is running at 30fps and 10 minutes are passing in approximately in 1 second.

For my averaging technique I was inspired by the long exposure photos of Atta Kim that I have seen at the “ON AIR” exhibition at Venice Biennale 2009.

Shoots were taken using a Canon S5-IS controlled by GB Timelapse software. The movie was created by a custom sketch made with Processing.

The longest day: replay, 2009
Interactive installation: LED lights, Arduino microcontroller, computer, target surface of barium sulphate.

Created for Feedback Festival – Interacto ergo sum “The longest day: Replay” is an interactive installation that connects the observer to the different intensities and colors of sunlight.

On the 21st June Marco Brianza has recorded with a luxmeter and a color meter the intensity and the hue of the sunlight during the whole day. Using a special LED lamp controlled by a computer, the spectator can select and reproduce the light of a specific moment of the longest day of the year, projecting it on a white cube that becomes base for the sole light.

The title of the installation relates to the four photographic works by Jan Dibbest “The shortest day”. This work by Marco Brianza can be considered a photograph of the light and its reproduction; for Dibbets himself: “A photograph does not reproduce an image. It records variations of light”. In a traditional photograph it is only represented a proportion of the original light, in this case the reproduction wants to be absolute.

Exhibition: Feedback Festival
Date: June 25th 2009 – June 29th 2009
Location: Teatro Niccolini, San Casciano in Val di Pesa – Italy

xyz+
Lugano, 2009
Video installation: digital video, laser light, room vertex, variable dimensions.

Exhibition: Il credente e il mutante
Date: April 23rd 2009 – June 26th 2009
Location: Mya Lurgo Gallery Piazza Riforma 9, Lugano – Switzerland

Ashtayama – Song of Hours, 2009
Scenography: generative videos, LED lights, halogen lights.

Amelia Cuni (dhrupad singing) and Werner Durand (live mixing drones/electronics) work since 10 years on the Ashtayama performance.

I created specific light and videos for their show at O’ space.

Ashtayama – Song of Hours
Date: April 9th 2009
Location: O’, Via Pastrengo 12, Milan – Italy

Primitivi Futuri, 2008
Installation: Print, red laser, profile spotlight, variable dimensions.

Together with Nicoletta Frigerio (graphics) and Attila Faravelli (sounds) we created an installation inspired by the moon.

Gianluca Bucci created this video of the installation.

More Photos

Primitivi Futuri
Date: December 15th 2008 – January 21st 2009
Location: Neo Geo Arte, Via del Lauro 3/5, Milan – Italy

This message will self-destruct
Milan, 2008
Digital video, color, sound, 5:15 min.

A digital message is by its nature replicable, without alterations, unlimited times; in this binary form it is, however, not understandable by humans.
To understand the message, man needs it to be interpreted and sent to senses under the physical form of light and sound.
Everything that is physical is meant to deteriorate and become incomprehensible; but what is not perishable because digitally transmitted, will it maintain its original meaning after human interpretation?
The interpretation of a message that is far in time and space from the original source will gradually dissolve the initial meaning, no matter how perfect is its physical technical reproduction.

Exhibition: Milano in Digitale, III edition
Date: November 13th – 23rd 2008
Location: Fabbrica del Vapore, Via Procaccini 4, Milan – Italy

The base scene of the video is montage from the movie Mission: Impossible where a secret mission is assigned. We know that the message is supposed to be for the secret agent only, and to be viewed only once, because it will self-destruct.

The video was made by filming progressively the screen of the device that recorded the scene before.
This process increasingly dissolves the message on the physical layer as metaphor of what happens on the layer of meaning.

This selection of devices and media is done to obtain a fast degradation and get a short final video.
Following the different formats of the recordings:

Original Video was:

• Video: 1920*1080 24fps – AVC
• Audio: 48.000 KHz DTS 5.1

Sony Vaio Laptop played:

• Video: 1280*720 24 fps – WMV 8000 kb/s
• Audio: 44.100 KHz – WMA 192 kb/s, stereo

Canon S5-IS recorded:

• Video: 640*480  30 fps – Motion JPEG
• Audio: 44.100 KHz – PCM – 1411 kb/s, stereo

Samung NV24HD recorded:

• Video: 320*240 30 fps – H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
• Audio: 48.000 KHz  – mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC -128 kb/s , stereo

Canon G2 recorded:

• Video: 320*240 15 fps – Motion JPEG
• Audio: 11.024Hz  KHz – PCM – 88 kb/s, mono

SonyEricsson K750i recorded:

• Video: 128*96 10 fps -  ITU H.263 (3GPP)
• Audio: 8.000 KHz AMR Narrowband

Blue@360°
Milan, 2008
Installation: blue laser, rotating mirror, variable dimensions.

Exhibition: Pierre Restany, un ricordo
Date: May 20th 2008 – May 26th 2008
Location: Studio D’ARS Via Sant’Agnese 12/8, Milan – Italy

Herschel’s Dream
Milan, 2008
Installation: video and UV light projection on painting.

The video and lights were projected on the painting “Costellazioni” by LeoNilde Carabba on the notes of with a soundtrack by Marcela Pavia‘s composition.

Simulated video of the work (UV and fosforescent light missing)

Exhibition: Costellazioni e cieli stellati (Constellations and starry skies)
Date: April 15th 2008 – April 21st 2008
Location: Studio D’ARS Via Sant’Agnese 12/8, Milan – Italy

La Ricerca del Daimon
Milan, 2008
Installation: UV light, white light, laser beams on and around painting.

This work was born in collaboration with painter LeoNilde Carabba

Leonilde’s painting are generally visible in 3 forms depending on light:
white light, wood light (UV), and dark (because of phosphorescent pigments).

Exhibition: Costellazioni e cieli stellati (Constellations and starry skies)
Date: April 15th 2008 – April 21st 2008
Location: Studio D’ARS Via Sant’Agnese 12/8, Milan – Italy

xyz (to fdm)
Geneva, 2007
Installation: three red laser levelers, variable dimensions.

7 2 7
Geneva, 2007
Digital video, color, mute, 4 min. looped.

The view is the one I had from my living room in Geneva.
Most Swiss urban architecture is made of large windows and regular lines: the visual effect at night is like a big matrix in which each pixel is controlled by the life flowing in each home.
You can see this effect happening from 7 PM to 7AM in 4 minutes.

Exhibition: T-Minus 2008
Date: November 25th 2008
Location: Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main St., Dumbo, NY – U.S.A.

Making of:
The video was made as image sequence shot with a Canon G2 Digital camera controlled by a PC running Canon RemoteCapture software. Pictures were taken every 30 seconds with a result of 1440 Photos. The images where resampled and cropped to 1280×720 and the overylay time was added using XnView. The movie at 6fps was created using Apple QuickTime Pro.