Books by Salvatore Iaconesi
Proceedings of the Conference "Infografica e Infoestetica" 2017
Il Dato è un'opinione.
REFF. The reinvention of the real through critical practices of remix, mash-up, re-contextualization, reenactment
This book chronicles the intense experience of REFF, the RomaEuropa FakeFactory, told through the... more This book chronicles the intense experience of REFF, the RomaEuropa FakeFactory, told through the contributions and works of the wide network of artists, intellectuals, journalists, teachers, lawyers and activists who participated. The fake competition RomaEuropa FakeFactory was an act of artivism, in favor of free culture and non-proprietary rights for authors.
The REFF experiment is more than its content, designing a new possibility for publishing: the book comes fully integrated with a digital dimension through the use of Augmented Reality in the form of QRCodes and Fiducial Markers. These devices transform the experience of reading, enhancing it with an interactive dimension through the REFF network and global social networks, in a way that is completely uncensored. The software is deposited on paper as hypertext, making it clickable, expandable, commentable and reactive, opening a virtually unlimited space for comparison between authors and readers on issues and debates on the book, dissolving the traditional boundaries that separate them. This book develops a new prototype of infinite potential for the intersection between digital and paper dimensions and, thanks to a special application, is available on the web or via smartphone: it is ubiquitous and crossmedia publishing, a new way to "write on the world”.
The REFF experiment is more than its content, designing a new possibility for publishing: the book comes fully integrated with a digital dimension through the use of Augmented Reality in the form of QRCodes and Fiducial Markers. These devices transform the experience of reading, enhancing it with an interactive dimension through the REFF network and global social networks, in a way that is completely uncensored. The software is deposited on paper as hypertext, making it clickable, expandable, commentable and reactive, opening a virtually unlimited space for comparison between authors and readers on issues and debates on the book, dissolving the traditional boundaries that separate them. This book develops a new prototype of infinite potential for the intersection between digital and paper dimensions and, thanks to a special application, is available on the web or via smartphone: it is ubiquitous and crossmedia publishing, a new way to "write on the world”.
Reff. La reinvenzione del reale attraverso pratiche di remix, mashup, reenactment
REFF is a fake cultural institution enacting real policies for arts, creativity and freedoms of e... more REFF is a fake cultural institution enacting real policies for arts, creativity and freedoms of expression all over the world. REFF was born in Italy in 2008. Since then it continuously operated using fake, remix, reinvention, recontextualization, plagiarism and reenactment as tools for the systematic reinvention of reality. Defining what is real is an act of power. Being able to reinvent reality is an act of freedom. REFF promotes the dissemination and reappropriation of all technologies, theories and practices that can be used to freely and autonomously reinvent reality. To do this, REFF established an international competition on digital arts, a worldwide education program in which ubiquitous technologies are used to create additional layers of reality for critical practices and freedoms, a series of open source software platforms and an Augmented Reality Drug. REFF collaborates with art organizations, student groups, research institutions and all other subjects wishing to promote the freedoms to reinvent their world. REFF has received several official recognitions worldwide: it was hosted in the Cultural Commission of the Italian Senate, and was an official initiative of the European Community's Year of Creativity in 2009.
REFF produced a book, a collaborative effort among FakePress, DeriveApprodi, Art is Open Source and 60 authors, academics, artists, hackers, journalists, lawyers, activists, designers, performers, architects. The book describes through theory and practices the possibilities, technologies, methodologies and opportunity for critical reinvention of reality. Mutating cities, bodies, objects, spaces, ethics and relations for new humans that take their future and imaginaries back into their hands. REFF book is not only a book, but also a platform for expression. All the technologies used throughout the book are released as open source software products, to be used by anyone wishing to easily and accessibly produce cross-media content that can be used on paper, on bodies, objects and spaces.
REFF produced a book, a collaborative effort among FakePress, DeriveApprodi, Art is Open Source and 60 authors, academics, artists, hackers, journalists, lawyers, activists, designers, performers, architects. The book describes through theory and practices the possibilities, technologies, methodologies and opportunity for critical reinvention of reality. Mutating cities, bodies, objects, spaces, ethics and relations for new humans that take their future and imaginaries back into their hands. REFF book is not only a book, but also a platform for expression. All the technologies used throughout the book are released as open source software products, to be used by anyone wishing to easily and accessibly produce cross-media content that can be used on paper, on bodies, objects and spaces.
he book features theorical contributions by Derrick de Kerckhove, Massimo Canevacci, Antonio Caro... more he book features theorical contributions by Derrick de Kerckhove, Massimo Canevacci, Antonio Caronia, Carlo Formenti and Luigi Pagliarini,with extensive interviews in which each one of them expresses his personal point of view on the themes emerging with the existence of Angel_F, a little digital being.
The story, narratively created from the real events of the various phases of the Angel_F performance, shows the point of view of a digital being on the contemporary world, between mutating identities, new forms of relation and emotion, privacy, intellectual property and new forms of expression, hacking actions and new daily practices.
A metaphor for our own lives as they change with the arrival of networks, digital technologies and the possibilities to communicate, collaborate and express ourselves.
The book is completed through an extended webography/bibliography of those digital and net artworks, scientific experiments and theoretical researches that have inspired the performance and, thus, the story of little Angel_F. Among them: Luca Bertini, Theo Jansen, Stelarc, Eduardo Kac, John Holland, Roberta Breitmore, Gazira Babeli, Ken Rinaldo, Darko Maver, Jodi.org, Andrew Venell, Joan Leandre, les Liens Invisibles, Orson Welles and many others.
The story, narratively created from the real events of the various phases of the Angel_F performance, shows the point of view of a digital being on the contemporary world, between mutating identities, new forms of relation and emotion, privacy, intellectual property and new forms of expression, hacking actions and new daily practices.
A metaphor for our own lives as they change with the arrival of networks, digital technologies and the possibilities to communicate, collaborate and express ourselves.
The book is completed through an extended webography/bibliography of those digital and net artworks, scientific experiments and theoretical researches that have inspired the performance and, thus, the story of little Angel_F. Among them: Luca Bertini, Theo Jansen, Stelarc, Eduardo Kac, John Holland, Roberta Breitmore, Gazira Babeli, Ken Rinaldo, Darko Maver, Jodi.org, Andrew Venell, Joan Leandre, les Liens Invisibles, Orson Welles and many others.
Papers by Salvatore Iaconesi
It is possible to capture and electronically recoginize discrete, or fragmented elements, such as... more It is possible to capture and electronically recoginize discrete, or fragmented elements, such as leaves, from nature. Once captured these elements can then be enhanced through layers of additional data. An example of such a tool is one we created called Leaf++. Leaf++ is designed as an ubiquitous, augmented reality, information tool. It functions as a naturally-informed, new "eye" that can be used to look at the natural landscape of our cities, and to see and understand a landscape that is beyond the mere sight and must be understood as a way to reconnect the fragmenting caused by the urbanization of the formerly contiguous landscape. This realm may be referred to as the Third Landscape. 1 Using contemporary toolsets it is possible to re-engage this space. introdUction The Third Landscape-an undecided fragment of the Planetary Garden-indicates the sum of the spaces in which man gave up to nature in the evolution of the landscape. It regards urban and rural forgotten places, spaces for transit, industrial wastelands, swamps, moors, bogs, but also the sides of roads, rivers and train tracks. The whole of these forgotten places are reserves. De facto reserves are: unaccessible places, mountain tops, uncultivated places, deserts; Institutional reserves are: national parks, regional parks, "natural reserves. " 2 Gilles Clément's "Planetary Garden" is one of the most suggestive answers to the mutating definition of urban
Different people and cultures associate different emotional states to different parts and spaces ... more Different people and cultures associate different emotional states to different parts and spaces of cities. These vary according to individuals, their cultures and also to the time of day, day of week, season, special occasions and more. Recurring patterns may occur in correspondence of the places in which people work, study, entertain themselves, consume, relate, wait or just take a break. What can we learn from these patterns? Trying to find possible answers to this question passes through the possibility to visualize and represent the configurations of emotional expressions in urban spaces, across time, geography, theme, cultures and other dimensions. We have developed ways in which it is possible to harvest people's geo-located (or geo-locatable) emotional expressions from major social networks and to visualize them according to a variety of different modalities. In this paper we will present a series of these types of visualizations, and the ways in which they can be used to gain better understandings of these emotional patterns as they arise, from points of view which derive from anthropology, urbanism, sociology, politics and also arts and poetics. The paper will focus on the ways in which the data is harvested from different social networks, then categorized and annotated with meta-data describing the emotional states, the languages in which people express themselves, the geographic locations, the themes expressed. A methodology for representing this information across a variety of domains (time, space, emotion, theme) will then be presented in detail. A reflection on possible usage cases for anthropology, urbanism, policy-making, arts and design will end the contribution, as well as the description of series of open issues and the indication of possible nextsteps for research.
Salvatore Iaconesi, Luca Simeone, Cary Hendrickson, Oriana Persico, "Connective environmental education: augmented-reality enhanced landscapes as distributed learning ecosystems
“A Third Augmented Landscape” is a performative presentation and scientific paper discussing the ... more “A Third Augmented Landscape” is a performative presentation and scientific paper discussing the outcomes of a research project carried out by FakePress Publishing and Università di Roma “La Sapienza”: the creation of an open source augmented reality (AR) system for leaves. This AR system, called LEAF++, is based on a combined series of computer vision techniques that allow smartphones and personal computers equipped with a webcam to recognize leaves and other parts of plants and to show educational content and interactive experiences. This possibility is used in the critical interpretation of Gilles Clément’s definition of the “Third Landscape”: the sum of spaces in which human being gave up to nature in the evolution of the landscape [1-2]. LEAF++ is used as a new eye on urban spaces which is able to identify the Third Landscape and turn it into a place for information, expression and interaction
This is the draft version of the experiment in scientific narrative for e-flux in occasion of the... more This is the draft version of the experiment in scientific narrative for e-flux in occasion of the Post Internet Cities conference in Lisbon. Read the final version here: http://www.e-flux.com/architecture/post-internet-cities/140722/constrained-cities/
What is the space for transgression in the smart city? Given the analysis of the current trends and developments in the worldwide discussion about the future of cities, the this question seems progressively harder to address. While being extremely useful and effective, BigData, sensors, algorithms, bottom-up initiatives, services and systems, artificial intelligences, robotics, domotics and systems and designs for health, education, security create service, data, knowledge and relation bubbles whose effect is to reduce imperfection, unexpectedness, unpredictability, surprise, weirdness, chance. But these modalities are necessary for innovation, inclusion, coexistence , evolution. Data create spaces: physically and perceptively, through algorithms and their effects on the interfaces (whether on an App or at a physical space) which we use and which mediate our access to them. And, in some cases, even the possibility to perceive them, to recognize them as spaces which are existing, meant for us. A review, an algorithmic suggestion, a $$$$ price range for a restaurant, computational recommendations for real estate, healthcare services, entertainment, education, work may cause certain people to be completely excluded from certain parts of the city. To not perceiving them. To not desiring to go in those places. To erasing them from their perceptive map of the city. This can work according to several different logics: from financial ones, to aesthetic ones, to racial, migratory, gender ones, and more. In this contribution, we will interweave narrative techniques and solid, evidence based research, to describe a few custom-made case studies which explore this concept: the Constrained Cities. Love The pain was unbearable. It was like millions of blood sharp needles poking your skin from the inside, freezing cold, filling all of your neural bandwidth with pain, obstructing any other sensation. But still, I had to go on, I had to see him.
What is the space for transgression in the smart city? Given the analysis of the current trends and developments in the worldwide discussion about the future of cities, the this question seems progressively harder to address. While being extremely useful and effective, BigData, sensors, algorithms, bottom-up initiatives, services and systems, artificial intelligences, robotics, domotics and systems and designs for health, education, security create service, data, knowledge and relation bubbles whose effect is to reduce imperfection, unexpectedness, unpredictability, surprise, weirdness, chance. But these modalities are necessary for innovation, inclusion, coexistence , evolution. Data create spaces: physically and perceptively, through algorithms and their effects on the interfaces (whether on an App or at a physical space) which we use and which mediate our access to them. And, in some cases, even the possibility to perceive them, to recognize them as spaces which are existing, meant for us. A review, an algorithmic suggestion, a $$$$ price range for a restaurant, computational recommendations for real estate, healthcare services, entertainment, education, work may cause certain people to be completely excluded from certain parts of the city. To not perceiving them. To not desiring to go in those places. To erasing them from their perceptive map of the city. This can work according to several different logics: from financial ones, to aesthetic ones, to racial, migratory, gender ones, and more. In this contribution, we will interweave narrative techniques and solid, evidence based research, to describe a few custom-made case studies which explore this concept: the Constrained Cities. Love The pain was unbearable. It was like millions of blood sharp needles poking your skin from the inside, freezing cold, filling all of your neural bandwidth with pain, obstructing any other sensation. But still, I had to go on, I had to see him.
This article describes their biopolitical implications for design from psychological, cultural, l... more This article describes their biopolitical implications for design from psychological, cultural, legal, functional and aesthetic/perceptive ways, in the framework of Hyperconnectivity: the condition according to which person-to-person, person-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication progressively shift to networked and digital means.
A definition is given for the terms of "interface biopolitics" and "data biopolitics", as well as evidence supporting these definitions and a description of the technological, theoretical and practice-based innovations bringing them into meaningful existence.
Interfaces, algorithms, artificial intelligences of various types, the tendency in quantified self and the concept of "information bubbles" will be examined in terms of interface and data biopolitics, from the point of view of design, and for their implications in terms of freedoms, transparency, justice and accessibility to human rights.
A working hypothesis is described for technologically relevant design practices and education processes, in order to confront with these issues in critical, ethical and inclusive ways.
A definition is given for the terms of "interface biopolitics" and "data biopolitics", as well as evidence supporting these definitions and a description of the technological, theoretical and practice-based innovations bringing them into meaningful existence.
Interfaces, algorithms, artificial intelligences of various types, the tendency in quantified self and the concept of "information bubbles" will be examined in terms of interface and data biopolitics, from the point of view of design, and for their implications in terms of freedoms, transparency, justice and accessibility to human rights.
A working hypothesis is described for technologically relevant design practices and education processes, in order to confront with these issues in critical, ethical and inclusive ways.
La Cura, An Open Source Cure for Cancer
Big Data, 2013
When I was diagnosed with brain cancer, I opened up my medical records to the Web, asking for hel... more When I was diagnosed with brain cancer, I opened up my medical records to the Web, asking for help. The response was incredible: a global source of crowd-generated information about how to cure my own cancer. This work explores the many issues involved in handling such a peculiar form of information (including privacy, preserving the complexity of the human being, the reliability of responses, and more) and the outcomes of the overall process. "[Critique] does not aim to make possible metaphysics which becomes, in the end, science; its aim is to look as more as possible beyond and beside at the infinite work of freedom." -M. Foucault, "What is Illuminism" "Maybe today the most important objective is not to understand what we are, but to refuse it. We must imagine and build what we could be, to drop that political double bind which is constituted by the simultaneous individualization and totalitarianization of the structures of modern powers. The conclusion might be that the political, ethical, social and philosophical issue today is not to liberate individuals from the State and its institutions, but to free ourselves from the State and from the individualization which is bound to the State. We must promote new ways for subjectivity through the refusal of that kind of individuality which has been imposed to us for so many centuries." -M. Foucault, "Why Study Power: The Question of the Subject" (1).
Maps of Babel. Urban sensing through text analysis on user generated content
Urban design and planning literature stresses the role of and need for meaningful urban public sp... more Urban design and planning literature stresses the role of and need for meaningful urban public spaces for the experience of public life and social interaction. How to determine relationships between specific public places, their physical characteristics and the patterns of social activities they support, in order to promote meaningful innovation in terms of urban design and planning? How can we discover denizens' perceptions that are affecting their urban experience? From what observations can we deduce what makes denizens ...
These vary according to individuals, their cultures and also to the time of day, day of week, sea... more These vary according to individuals, their cultures and also to the time of day, day of week, season, special occasions and more.
NeoRealismo Virtuale (NeRVi) is an innovative approach through which digital ubiquitous technolog... more NeoRealismo Virtuale (NeRVi) is an innovative approach through which digital ubiquitous technologies are used to create, access and visualize additional layers to the ordinary reality, creating stratified continums in which digital content is interconnected interactively with the physical world. Mobile devices, wearable technologies, interactive architectures, Spimes and wide tagging techniques are used for this purpose, creating environments that describe new forms of urban scenarios that encompass the possibility to represent augmented information and communication practices, creating innovative opportunities for relation and interaction. The city becomes a layered reality, creating connections among quantitative information sources, interpretative layers, emotional and relational domains: traversing urban spaces can in turn, become a form of writing, reading and relating/interacting with both humans and information systems. NeoRealismo Virtuale (a mobile application using the sam...
IncautiousPorn Presentation
2014 18th International Conference on Information Visualisation, 2014
These vary according to individuals, their cultures and also to the time of day, day of week, sea... more These vary according to individuals, their cultures and also to the time of day, day of week, season, special occasions and more.
Re-thinking public space and citizenship through ubiquitous publishing and technologies
One minute with... Salvatore laconesi
Remixing the dots: disegno memetico ed evoluzione culturale