ART TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION LIGHT A CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST FILIPPO SCIASCIA

Today we are very excited to speak with highly experimental artist Filippo Sciascia, (b. 1972) from Palma Di Montechiaro, in Sicily. The artist studied at the art academy in Florence, Italy where he grew up, also partially in New York, and finally since 1998 he’s been living in Bali, Indonesia. He’s exhibited all over Southeast Asia, Europe, and America and his works cross the boundaries between art and science, and move towards the ethereal spheres of universality. His practice represents a thorough examination of the societal relations between art, technology and nature. We are absolutely fascinated by his use of materials and creative process as you will read below.

Your greatest inspirations or influences?

• I examine light as a primary artistic medium in my works across painting and sculpture, video, and installations. As in the project called “Lux Lumina” I deal with light regarding the human condition; therefore, the information of his future and the relationship of technology blending into the evolution of life itself.

• I am interested in questioning science concerning the Biology of nature itself and the influence in society to the present day.

• Highlighting the circadian rhythm, which is a physiological process of regulating the daylight and the absence of it during the night, which affects humans, plants, animals, all originated from cyanobacteria.

• Therefore extracting melatonin powder, natural leaf paste, or bauxite to create pigments originated from the natural process of photosynthesis.

• The conceptual choice of using such materials that provide the understanding of nature to the creation of these works lead to creation = human creativity = art, in my exhibition, I arrange together painting or sculpture in a way to form a narrative equation.

Tell us about your creative process, and has the pandemic changed the way you work?

The materials used in my art practice are chosen based on these understandings, and their properties have energetic quality when applied in the artwork, showing the value of light/energy throughout the work and thought, reconstructing through creativity the properties of natural organisms ( the ecosystem ), single organism (we human beings), and the social species (humanity).

Therefore the use of materials obtained from chemistry can provide the artwork with a different energetic density.

For instance, when using a real light energy source into the painting or sculpture in the form of electricity to recreate representations of phylogenetics system or data visualization by transferring information (data) into a visual context, such as a drawing or a map. These visual diagrams/charts illustrate various studies of evolutionary relationships among biological species, individuals, or analytical research of any kind.

The results of these data studies can show us our behavior and how it changes through evolution and adaptation, a meaningful subject to understand today's society and a field of research that stimulates art practice. Other materials implemented in the artworks are melatonin powder mixed into the paint to emphasize the importance of natural light and its absence.

Our body produces Melatonin in the pineal gland at the center of our brain during the night. It regulates our circadian rhythm or body clock.

The use of aluminum originated from bauxite, which is a red clay rock consisting mainly of hydrated alumina, we have used this ore to create various objects since prehistoric times; today, we can transform the bauxite into aluminum. Other materials applied in the paintings are fossilized resins, which are hearth deposits of the ancient ecosystem, using paint made out of out Volcanic sand, which originates from the lava flow, and other organic pigments plant-based containing chlorophyll to recall the process of photosynthesis, the process that enables plants to capture sunlight energy.

All these materials related to science and natural biological structure are the foundations on which we humans stand. The result expands the significance of paintings, sculptures, installations, and extending the layers of art perception.

Has the pandemic changed the way you work?

Is not the pandemic specifically that can change the work I believe, but obviously, everything that makes up or surrounds our existence is at least subconsciously affecting our life. Perhaps I see the pandemic as a natural phenomenon, what it tells me is that historically there are many events in our history where humanity had to face such situation that will affect a large part of the population, what is new” is that to be living during these events it is more….

How do you see the art world changing as we move forward?

Art always changes just like our world and the society we live in, perhaps because is a reflection of it, I see the growing technologies of new media like machine learning a.i. and the likes as very influential on our societies, they are already influencing our daily lives, integrating strongly with the creative process.

Upcoming projects or things you are excited to be working on.

I think and work every day on my vision of how art can explain or manifest in our present, an upcoming project is for me more about selecting a portion of my artwork can present an introduction to the themes that make my art. Currently, I am preparing a show that will take place in Singapore and another one that will be in Senegal.