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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Footprint
Mario Sasso,
Nicola Sani
The electronic movie “Footprint” represents an ideal voyage through images from the earth, as seen from the satellite and the signs of contemporary art. Images and music are interlinked to form one entity. The “First Space Museum” is born out of the metropolitan landscapes seen from high above, from the deserts of Northern Africa, that undergo a metamorphosis—through the combination of computer graphics and computer animation—into the statements of contemporary painting. To give some examples: the complicated networks and grids of urban streets give shape to the figures of Capogrossi, animate the geometry of Mondrian and the drippings of Pollock, and give rise to Jasper Johns' Pop Art numbers. The deserts of northern Africa develop into the works of Burri and the figures of Licini, while the sea—tightly stretched like a canvas—is submitted to Fontana's lacerations. The essential quality of contemporary painting is reversed into the simplicity of electronic images.
The music is made ideal to melt with the image so as to constitute a global formof audio-visual communication made real with the most advanced technologies available. The musical composition utilises sounds of very different origins. Infact, we find sounds created by the computer through numerical synthesis (both additive and FM), and sounds created through sampling techniques. Thus it was also possible to realise the idea of a voyage through the sonic cultures that arepart of the European-Mediterranean area, being almost an echo of the images inthe original sounds of the place visited.
Technically, the recordings of the satellite images (made by Telespazio and ESA) were realised with a Rostrum camera, while the graphics rendering and animation were implemented on a Paint Box Harry. The film was realised at SBP spa. in Rome, with the collaboration of Gianni Blumthaler (supervision), Corrado Vecchi (rostrum camera), Claudio de Grazia and Alessandra Guidoni (Paint Box), and Maurizio Millefiorini (post-production). The music was realised with digital synthesis and real-time sound processing systems. The central part includes a computer-processed sound recording of the Olympus satellite in orbit, recorded on audio tape. The digital sound systems programming was supervised by Luca Spagnoletti. Mixing and digital recording were done at Wonderland Studios in Romeby Piero Schiavoni.
“Footprint” was produced by RAISAT for the start of live broadcasts on the TV satellite. (Nicola Sani / Mario Sasso)
Technical background:
„Footprint“, 1990, 3'34''
Hw: Rostrum Camera, Paintbox Harry-Quantel
Digital Post-Production
The music is made ideal to melt with the image so as to constitute a global formof audio-visual communication made real with the most advanced technologies available. The musical composition utilises sounds of very different origins. Infact, we find sounds created by the computer through numerical synthesis (both additive and FM), and sounds created through sampling techniques. Thus it was also possible to realise the idea of a voyage through the sonic cultures that arepart of the European-Mediterranean area, being almost an echo of the images inthe original sounds of the place visited.
Technically, the recordings of the satellite images (made by Telespazio and ESA) were realised with a Rostrum camera, while the graphics rendering and animation were implemented on a Paint Box Harry. The film was realised at SBP spa. in Rome, with the collaboration of Gianni Blumthaler (supervision), Corrado Vecchi (rostrum camera), Claudio de Grazia and Alessandra Guidoni (Paint Box), and Maurizio Millefiorini (post-production). The music was realised with digital synthesis and real-time sound processing systems. The central part includes a computer-processed sound recording of the Olympus satellite in orbit, recorded on audio tape. The digital sound systems programming was supervised by Luca Spagnoletti. Mixing and digital recording were done at Wonderland Studios in Romeby Piero Schiavoni.
“Footprint” was produced by RAISAT for the start of live broadcasts on the TV satellite. (Nicola Sani / Mario Sasso)
Technical background:
„Footprint“, 1990, 3'34''
Hw: Rostrum Camera, Paintbox Harry-Quantel
Digital Post-Production
Mario Sasso was born in 1934 in Staffolo (Italy). After finishing his early artistic training under the guidance of the painters Archetti and Bosi, he transferred himself to Torino in 1953–54, where he followed courses in graphic art at the School of Art. In 1958 he settled in Rome, where he is still working as a graphics designer with the Italian State Broadcasting Corporation RAI.
Sasso ranks among the most important painters and video artists in Italy and makes an extensive use of the new technologies to realize his projects. He has realized most of the important TV statements and presentations of the past 20 years. At present, he is also responsible for the graphics design of RAISAT satellite channel.
As a painter he had many personal and group exhibitions. In May 1990, he exhibited “ON/OFF” in New York, a series of new pictures based on a technique combining traditional painting with photographyand electronic images, using small liquid crystal screens inserted into the paintings.
Nicola Sani was born 1961 in Ferrara (Italy). He got in touch with music very early and made his first experiences in musical improvisation under the teaching of Mauro Cova in Rome. Later on he studied composition with Domenico Guaccero, Antonio Scarlato, Guido Baggani, and electronic music with Giorgio Nottoli. He also took courses with Karlheinz Stockhausen and David Keane. He is author and performer of numerous compositions that combine electronics, digital and traditional instruments and performed at the most important festivals of contemporary and electronic music in Italy and abroad. He had various commissions from WDR Cologne and RAI and from RAISAT for videoworks.
From 1986 to 1988 he was responsible for the music section of the “Festival Arte Elettronica” in Camerino, Italy. From 1984 to 1989 he was General Manager of the S.I.M., Società Informatica Musicale, one of the most important Italian centers for the research and application of the new technologies to music.
Presently, Nicola Sani is responsible for the sound-image and music programs of RAISAT.
Sasso ranks among the most important painters and video artists in Italy and makes an extensive use of the new technologies to realize his projects. He has realized most of the important TV statements and presentations of the past 20 years. At present, he is also responsible for the graphics design of RAISAT satellite channel.
As a painter he had many personal and group exhibitions. In May 1990, he exhibited “ON/OFF” in New York, a series of new pictures based on a technique combining traditional painting with photographyand electronic images, using small liquid crystal screens inserted into the paintings.
Nicola Sani was born 1961 in Ferrara (Italy). He got in touch with music very early and made his first experiences in musical improvisation under the teaching of Mauro Cova in Rome. Later on he studied composition with Domenico Guaccero, Antonio Scarlato, Guido Baggani, and electronic music with Giorgio Nottoli. He also took courses with Karlheinz Stockhausen and David Keane. He is author and performer of numerous compositions that combine electronics, digital and traditional instruments and performed at the most important festivals of contemporary and electronic music in Italy and abroad. He had various commissions from WDR Cologne and RAI and from RAISAT for videoworks.
From 1986 to 1988 he was responsible for the music section of the “Festival Arte Elettronica” in Camerino, Italy. From 1984 to 1989 he was General Manager of the S.I.M., Società Informatica Musicale, one of the most important Italian centers for the research and application of the new technologies to music.
Presently, Nicola Sani is responsible for the sound-image and music programs of RAISAT.