Obiettivo, the datapoietic work by Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico, from Spazio Chirale to the Collezione Farnesina

Salvatore Iaconesi, in addition to being one of the most established contemporary artists, is also an engineer, a hacker, a university lecturer in interaction design, a TED Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow, Yale World Fellow, and an Artificial Intelligence expert.

Even though he does not like having his artistic production associated with his engineering background, it is undeniable that his work owes much to the use of technology.

This is the case with the work Obiettivo, made together with Oriana Persico, which represents the first example of a datapoietic object.

Datapoiesis is a neologism that, in the words of its two authors, “indicates a process that uses data and artificial intelligence to create objects and experiences that help human beings to perceive and understand the complex phenomena of our globalised world”.

Obiettivo is a luminous installation whose intensity is modulated by an artificial-intelligence algorithm that analyses planetary data on absolute poverty in the world.

In a play of reflections and lights, inside the transparent panels of Obiettivo the stylised, three-dimensional figure of a homeless person — lying in the act of sleeping — is visible.

The luminous wave, red in colour, recalls a heartbeat, whose frequency and variation depend on the trends measured on absolute poverty. This virtual heart will stop beating only on the day poverty has been defeated.

Obiettivo was entirely produced at the FabLab of Spazio Chirale in Garbatella by the two authors, supported by a technical team from our company who took care of producing the light-interaction control circuitry and the digital fabrication of the structural and mechanical components.

The work, funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo as part of the ORA! programme, was a great success — both with critics and the public — and was exhibited in Ancona, Bologna, Turin and Ivrea before being purchased by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joining the Collezione Farnesina, alongside works by the most important modern artists of our country.

The Collezione Farnesina can be visited free of charge, by prior booking, generally on the last Friday of each month.

In these days, the work has once again returned to our laboratories for some maintenance work needed to remove a series of small damages caused by the long itinerant journey through Italy during its presentation to the public.

Next week, Obiettivo will be placed back in its exhibition venue, just in time for the appointment of Friday 28 February, the opening day of the Collezione Farnesina, which will see the presence of the two authors for a meeting with the public.