by influenza
Working Note:
This
work sets out to create a web project based upon data which allows a reflection
on the representation and the exchange of information within a metropolis.
This departs from the premise that a city, the size of Sao Paulo for example,
can only be partially experienced, in a fragmented and multiple fashion.
It may belong to one or more nuclei with such experiences building distinct
narratives (and distinct urban meanings).
A megacity in Latin America is a place where opposites live together: the
big corporation skyscrapers, the “favelas”; there is the constant construction
of new elements side by side with elements of the past; the vertical movement,
the limits; the empty spaces, the excess; the collapse of urban scene... all these factors together create a mosaic that each citizen puts
together in his own way.
All images are of the city of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and have been combined,
based on key-words which seek to conceptualize certain elements present
in the urban environment, which in turn are related to a particular way
of “seeing” the city. These do not focus on an objective classification,
a topology of space or images to which they are related. The map of the
homepage is deconstructed and reconstructed in a different way by the
user based on key words initially located in the map of urban Sao Paulo
which gradually create new graphic (and urban) "stains" in a “non-territory.” The aim is to create a whole where the relations between verbal and visual
texts of the city are not understood in a fashion that is either static
or automated.
The
build/rebuild movement of the piece allows the construction of a whole based on the
Deleuze’s marble substance, "le pli" where new paths for urban representation
can be tracked.
Enter: from marble to pixels
Raquel Rennó was born in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently she is developing a Phd’s thesis in Media and Urban context for the Communication and Semiotics Programme at the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC) with the support of CNPQ Institution. Her master thesis ”From marble to glass - aesthetics approaches of the city” received the Intercom Award. Raquel has published many articles about the urban scene and its shopping spaces. She has delivered many lectures for the Municipal body of the City of São Paulo.
Rafael Marchetti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to São Paulo, Brazil in 1996. He is bachelor of fine arts and has studied Programming since 1989, and Design and Webdesign since 1996. In 2004 he lectured on new media interfaces in the Multimedia Communication Department at the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC). His awards include the 3rd Cultural Prize Sérgio Motta for experimental work in new media and the 1st Sculpture Award of the 3rd Salon, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Rafael’s projects have been reviewed in File Script, Bravo magazine, Rhizome Digest, Vigil of planetary net art Tropico Eletronic Magazine and in The Book After The Book by Giselle Beiguelman http://www.desvirtual.com/giselle/
In 2001 Rafael Marchetti started the web-based and new media art duo Influenza with Raquel Rennó. They are currently developing a project as part of an artistic residency at the Cypres Institute (Marseille, France) with the support of The Brazilian Ministry of Culture and Cyprès - Pratiques Artistiques et Sciences Cognitives.
