What is Sensibilities?

Sensibilities is a transmedia interactive installation that explores the ambiguity and multidimensionality of perception. The work is composed of the following elements:

• four videos, interconnected through various types of cross-references: Vision, Untitled. Hands on Canvas, Can You Hear Me? and Fading.

• additional elements establishing transversal relationships with the videos, as well as between them

The concept: Sensibilities and transmedia storytelling

The title Matrix is closely associated with the well-known science-fiction film directed by the Wachowski Brothers in 1999. However, the fictional world of Matrix has been developed in a set of other works as well: the two sequels Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (both from 2003), a series of nine animated short films, two trade paperback volumes and three video games. This kind of storytelling, based on the systematic dispersion of fictional elements across multiple media, is called “transmedia storytelling”.

My recent artistic research has been devoted to finding possible ways of incorporating some concepts of transmedia storytelling into my multimedia works. The first outcome of this research is the transmedia interactive installation Sensibilities.

The narrative connotation of transmedia storytelling, as well as its rooting in the industry of entertainment, keep it quite distant from the world of contemporary art and music — which I belong to. Yet, some core ideas of transmedia can lead to interesting reflections on structure and semantics. One of such ideas is the complementarity and mutual enhancement of the different media, as each medium should bring its own unique contribution to the structuring of the whole work. I adopted this approach in Sensibilities through different strategies, which include the dissemination of clues, the creation of transversal relationships between media, and the deliberate omission of elements: for example, the sound of steps is absent in the video Can You Hear Me?, while it is heard in the real space of the installation.

The multisensory world of Sensibilities does not address to passive users, but rather to sentient human beings, acting as creators of associations and meaning.

tech rider