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Augmented Rome

Priscilla Pallante

2018 - Ongoing

Rome, Latium, Italy

Listening to Rome is realising of being overwhelmed by a disabling acoustic bulimia, that causes distress to the concept of silence and makes unstable the boundaries between harmony and noise pollution. Therefore, "Augmented Rome" is the grotesque portrait of a city full of contradictions, an ode to Rome and to her inappropriate beauty. An augmented, amplified Rome, which reveals herself through the Invisible, through the “empty” space occupied by sound waves.

The sound becomes the mean to describe a place, through the images generated by the physical contact between the acoustic vibrations of the sounds recorded through the city and a liquid, in order to shelve and erase a visual architecture, well-established in the collective memory by decades of photographic production; in order to rebuild the visible, where the sound/visual data are used to build up some hypothetical and possible scenarios (if humans could see sound waves), which become stereoscopic images in order to make possible an immersive experience of them.

What happens to the outside is the reflection of what happens in the inside: we don't just cross the city, but it's also the city that crosses us, effecting the shapes of our internal liquids. In this way, this work is also a reflection on the relationship between the city and its inhabitants.

This work was born in 2018 and went on 'till November 2019, before the pandemic situation. Therefor, the most touristic places where the recorded files were collected, completely changed with the crisis.

Due to that, "Augmented Rome" could be considered as an audio-visual document of how the city sounded and looked like in a time that now could be hard to remember.

Due to the fact that we all are in transition, this work will be left open and unfinished.

AUDIO: https://vimeo.com/303968128

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  • 4. Pantheon, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • 4. Pantheon, Rome. 3D print.

    All the 3D printed objects were realized after a classification and a systematization of visual data on Rome's architectures.

  • 4. Pantheon, stereoscopic view.

    Hypothetical augmented reality (which is actually a static image, where it's not possible to meander around) based on sound data, built up in the artist's studio as a huge installation and then photographed twice, to recreate a tridimensional experience of the utopic landscape.

  • 1. San Pietro, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • 6. Piazza del Popolo. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • 1. San Pietro, Rome. 3D print.

    All the 3D printed objects were realized after a classification and a systematization of visual data on Rome's architectures.

  • 1. San Pietro, stereoscopic view.

    Hypothetical augmented reality (which is actually a static image, where it's not possible to meander around) based on sound data, built up in the artist's studio as a huge installation and then photographed twice, to recreate a tridimensional experience of the utopic landscape.

  • 1. San Pietro, Rome. Cymatic image #2

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • Installation view, "Augmented Rome" part 2/2, Curva Pura gallery, Rome 2019. Photo: Roberto Apa.

    Stereoscopic images, VR viewers, 3D print, digital manipulated bird eye view of the city, neon, led, headphones, sound.

  • 9. Colosseo, stereoscopic view.

    Hypothetical augmented reality (which is actually a static image, where it's not possible to meander around) based on sound data, built up in the artist's studio as a huge installation and then photographed twice, to recreate a tridimensional experience of the utopic landscape.

  • 1. Colosseo, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • “Augmented Rome, part 2/2”, installation view, detail, Curva Pura, Roma 2019. Photo: Roberto Apa.

    Detail of one of the Stereoscopic image in one of the colums of the installation. The tridimensional image is not reproducible through the photographic medium, therefore it's necessary to use both of your eyes to experience "Augmented Rome".

  • 9. Colosseo, Rome. 3D print.

    All the 3D printed objects were realized after a classification and a systematization of visual data on Rome's architectures.

  • 2. Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • 3. Ponte Sisto, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

  • 8. Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Cymatic image #1

    All the cymatic images are the photographic results of how a liquid reacts to the vibrations generated by a woofer, connected to an amplifier where all the sounds recorded through the city are playing.

Augmented Rome

Priscilla Pallante

2018 - Ongoing

Rome, Latium, Italy

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