City of/for Insanity

This project comes from the profound relationship I have from the district of Rome where I was raised, in which is placed one of the biggest asylum in Europe, Manicomio Santa Maria della Pietà, now dismissed. The idea comes from the need of paying homage to the history of this structure, and to narrate itself without remaining in the shadows of its decay. I have decided to collaborate with Fabrizio Pizzi, a sound designer, as well as one my best friends whom I spent days, in my childwood, playing in that park. He helped me developing the sonic aspect of this installation by creating a composition entirely dedicated to the space, that would have consequently been played in the park in order to generate a kind of narrative through it. I proposed to transform all the recordings and shootings we have, not in just a documentary, but in- stead into 3D projection multi-channel installation. I designed a 3D model of the 18th pavilion of the asylum, which is the biggest of the sanitary complex, aimed to be the screen for the projections of different shots taken in the park. In order to recreate an immersive audio and video experience I decided to place directional speak- ers above the 3D model. Direction- al speakers enable us to focus a beam of sound to a specific point in the environment and to address the public with precise acoustic content at precise position. So as the viewer is walking around the 3D model, get hit by different sound recordings of the asylum. The idea was to recreate the experience that the viewer would have as if he was physically wondering inside the complex, and get his attention with the sound composition when- ever passes close to the buildings.