Greetings from the Anthropocene
Multimedia Project, 2014-15, San Marino/UK
in collaboration with Miles Whittaker
This reserach project investigates and documents the landscape of the new geological era in which the Earth recently entered named Anthropocene by the geologist and Nobel Prize Paul J. Crutzen. The planet Earth of the Anthropocene is a planet modified and transformed irreversibly by humanity. Not only the landscape is visibly changed but also the climate, the natural environment and its delicate ecosystems have been altered. In this era of uncertainty humanity lives in fear of unexpected catastrophes, often attributed to human action. The fate of millions of species is in danger and many could disappear soon. During the development of this research, the artist photographed and filmed the subtle but significant changes she witnesses in the environment which surrounds her, but also wile traveling to Gibraltar, across Spain, Italy, England, Thailand and India. The photographs and video footage are edited on the music of Miles Whittaker in a series of videos, each one on a specific topic concerning the mutation of the natural environment: polluting chemicals, extinction of species, climate change, global warming, intensive agriculture, desertification, chemical trails, consumerism, but also renewable resources, the third landscape and the awe for nature as a possible way to avoid more catastrophes and extinction. The outcome is a live media performance constituted by a video live set by Viola Conti and a live electronic music set composed and performed by the British musician Miles Whittaker
viola conticurriculum pdfis a multimedia artist born in San Marino in 1982 working between San Marino and the UK. Weaving a constant dialogue between sound and image, Viola Conti explores the complexity of contemporary landscape, the mutation of the natural environment and the connections between post industrial landscapes and electronic music. In her work, the artist describes the landscape of the Anthropocene through absence and subtractions, giving a personal, poetic slant to the act of documentation. The emphasis of her practice is on creating multimedia installations and live media performances where the music and the moving images not merely coexist, but cooperate in creating an ambience and an immersive experience for the spectator. She graduated in 2009 in the MA Scenography [Dance] at Trinity Laban, London, with a dissertation entitled “Listening to a Landscape - Investigating Relationship between Visual Art and Music”. The final project was conceived as a multimedia immersive installation with music composed by the British electronic musician Miles Whittaker, with whom she currently collaborates.