Technogenica 2022
We evolve technology. Technology evolves us.
Technogenica is a short movie animation where humanoids, technology and uncontaminated nature collaborate in a performative and theatrical act.
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Technology and digital media are becoming more and more woven into the fabric of everyday life and we are evolving alongside; and the process is mutualistic.
The title Technogenica comes from ‘Technogenesis’, a thesis by Bernard Stiegler and N. Katherine Hayles clinically defined as a process of “adaptation, the fit between organisms and their environments (humans and technologies) undergoing coordinated transformations.”
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Humans have always been interconnected with their environment and co-evolved with it. This process is common in nature, examples are coral and coral reefs, birds and bird’s nests, plants and oxygen. We’re part of nature, and so is everything we make and use. Likewise, technology is part of nature.
In the last 500 years, technology has always been an essential tool in connecting and shaping the future. To reinforce the dialogue between past and future, the artist has designed a hybrid scenography combining contemporary theatre elements and robotics with ancient ruins inspired by the Unesco site of Palmyra.
The artist created light and photography of the piece by studying the work of visionary painters from the past such as Vermeer, Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin and even Tiziano, Antonello da Messina.
Lo Schiavo created the vocals of the song with a virtual female vocalist modelled on the voice of a real professional soprano singer. This is one of the first examples created with this technology and the computer-generated vocals reinforce the symbiotic human-technology relationship.
For the last scene, the artist has acquired an Intracytoplasmic sperm injection video shot by a camera from a microscope lens (In Vitro Fertilization). IVF is the most effective form of assisted reproductive technology to date.
The original orchestral music was composed by Arnaud Hug, an international award-winning music composer that creates music for films, theatre shows and advertisements. He has worked for Netflix, Nike, Adidas, BMW and many more.