Sabba

http://www.artisopensource.net/sabba

-_ sabba _-

Part of the iconology cycle.
We live a social context in which esotherism and mysticism have
lost their essence of catalyzers of the fenomenology of
the iniziatic Knowledge. Reclaiming iconography and
rituality, long lost to religious consumism, assumes the
characteristics of a social and aesthetical protest.

sabba has been a ritual, to all effects, lasting the
whole first 3 days of the "Crack, fumetti dirompenti" event held
at the Forte Prenestino in Rome (Italy) from the 8th to the
11th of June 2006.


-_ communinion with space _-

The first step has been a colonization.
Continuous occupying and changing of the space created solid
roots in the ancient stones of the cells.
Recycled materials found laying around in the Forte Prenestino
were used to build the elements of the installation, thus
creating a strong, physical link running between the
actual space, its embedded memory, and the installation.
Two software artworks were projected on the installation
elements:

fagocitosi,
built by creating a digital ecosystem inhabited by
software automas feeding on the shapes captured and identified
through a webcam, and replicating by visual feedback. Their virtual
ecosystem forcing them to obey the "natural" rules of
balance and behaviour.

timePainter,
a software interpreting reality using shape and motion recognition
and tracking algorythms: a painter of time's evolutions and of the
visual relationships intercurring throughout the objects
moving in our visual space.

During the first two days of the performance the installation space has
been re-thought from scratch several times, with three stable and recurring
visual assets. The adjacent spaces in the corridors
and in the next cells have been progressively infected by the
new parts of the installaion, denoting the spreading of the roots
that we were building with the performance.

At the beginning of the next phase the 3 nearest cells and all the
corridors connecting them were filled with objects and projections
of the images captured in the first part.

All along in the meanwhile, the software installation kept on
living autonomously, feeding itself on the webcam's view of the
space, conceptually charging itself up with the energies of the
passing visitors, of the artists, and of the changing of the light
conditions of the place. By feeding on them.



-_ the ritual _-

The ritual is a Pop reinterpretation of the rituals of the santeria (the
worhiping of the saints), mixed with some wiccan elements and with
several images and symbols coming from he traditions of the vampires.
In the execution of the ritual the various characters and elements
could be seen performing their roles:

the Entity. The ultra-human: a software reacts to vision and sound
found in the space, interpreting with fractal symbols their patterns
of evolutions in harmony and rythm. These were projected in the
space's walls, becoming the voice_through_symbols of the Entity.

the Master of Ceremonies. The Lady conducting the ritual. She executes
and controls the sequence of phases, suggesting with gestures and
movement the evolution of the actions. Her image is constantly fed to
the webcam, giving energy to the software automas that are the
kernel of the Entity's functions.

the Initiates. They are 2, and they serve different roles, operating
on different matters: the first working on image, the second on music.
The first one is the executor of the ritual body painting through which
the Lady is donated to the Entity.
The second one is the executor of the music, that is used as the
conducting Om of the mystical experience.
Both assume the role of executors of the ritual actons, as suggested
by the Lady. The moments when the Lady whispers instructions to the ears
of the Initiates represent the transfer of Knowledge, necessary to
reach the advanced states of initiation and the states of ectasy.

the Novice. he receives the initiation. Which is of two kinds.
On one side
it is a masonic initiation, where the Art to which the future Initiate
will obly to will be selected. In this case it is Music: the first
form of expression of the Novice is, infact, music. He accompanies
the arrival of the Lady and of the two Initiates, he performs in
evolutions reminding of dance, marking the vaious phases of the ritual;
after the second initiation he expresses the power of ecstasy, the
descending of which will mark the ending of the ritual.
On the other side
it is a spiritual initiation. The Novice gets tied and his body
ideally sacrificed to the Entity. The body of the Lady becomes
the mean for the sacrifice.


___ sabba - credits ___

Installation ………………. Diego Vecchi & Lorenzo Guidi & Salvatore Iaconesi [xDxD]
Video e Software Art ……………………….. Salvatore Iaconesi [xDxD]

Iconography ………………. Bruno Antonio Menei Hurtado [VRU]
Music ……………….. Salvatore Iaconesi [xDxD] & Vincenzo Core

Performance design …………. Bruno Antonio Menei Hurtado [VRU] & Nazzarena Ciabattoni
Camera operator ……………. Antonella Ibba
Editing & post-production …………….. Salvatore Iaconesi [xDxD]

Forte Prenestino & Crack, Fumetti dirompenti ………. <a href='http://crack.forteprenestino.net/' class='bod' target='_blank'>http://crack.forteprenestino.net/</a>