Blending Pixels is a collective of artists, designers, and technicians that specializes in creating large-scale projects, solutions, and products for exhibitions and developing engaging interactive experiences.
Latest Projects
#IAD
IAD Interactive Art Discovery
Featuring Paolo Finoglio Masterpiece
Project Proposal
IAD – Interactive Art Discovery is an interactive installation project that connects artwork and visitors through Projected-AR and touch-less sensors.
IAD narrates the artwork with an accessible and natural language; it allows the enjoyment in an innovative and engaging way.IAD is in the process of researching and prototyping a reproduction of Paolo Finoglio’s painting “The torture of Olindo and Sofronia,” housed in the Pinacoteca Civica of Conversano, in the province of Bari.
Digitalizing and new Technologies
The digitization of museums and cultural institutions has become a key strategy for enhancing the accessibility and appreciation of cultural heritage. While initiatives by Italy’s Ministry for Cultural Heritage and the European Commission have advanced digital cataloging through platforms like Cultura Italia and Europeana, there is a growing need to move beyond static databases. Emphasis should shift towards leveraging new technologies to foster deeper connections between museums, territories, and visitors, while also rethinking how digital tools can enhance education and communication.
Purpose
IAD does not create a virtual “double” but widens research on the nature of the work, cultural, environmental and historical, technical and constructive, expressive and communicative, whose range can increase and expand in an interdisciplinary way through new interactive modes, different approaches, and users.
Ways and qualities of interaction conceived and designed to make active and subjective reading of art, a participatory use and therefore passionate, from the youngest to the most experienced user.
Developing the metaphor, let’s imagine the digital contribution of IAD as an all-around lens tool through which our perspective vision can delve into the work in detail and as a whole.
In an era in which “technical replicability” reaches its exponential maximum, it is necessary to avoid the easy virtual double, as a flat and deceptive “fake”, building instead a solid structure that perpendicularly deepens and at the same time expands in an embrace all the surroundings of which the work is the fruit, underlies and contains.
Inclusion and openness. Art comes out of the museum.
IAD is accessible and open to all users (visitors, tourists, teachers, students, and children).
IAD allows for a multi-sensory perception of works of art that become “visible” and “ accessible” not only through the eyes but also through an active role of the user who virtually “touches” the work, illuminates it, thus creating the premise of an empathic and engaging experience. IAD allows living the experience of art as a discovery, leaving to the authentic vision of the original its proper role.
IAD allows you to “export” the model from the museum where the work is kept to other contexts such as museums and related realities, galleries, libraries, fairs, exhibitions, thus creating a wider circuit of disclosure also helpful in promoting cultural tourism.
#AI Digital Dance
AI Digital Dance Infinity Room
The Gift of the Gods Exhibition
@ Nanjing Oriental Metropolitan Museum
On July 26th the Oriental Metropolitan Museum, in Nanjing, China and on December 9th in Guangzhou unveiled an exhibition titled “The Gift of the Gods.”
This exhibit presents an extensive array of artifacts from Apulia, Italy including intricately painted ceramics, sculptures, paintings, terracotta pieces and exquisite gold craftsmanship. It draws viewers in with its link between civilizations and modern times.
A Fusion of Innovation and Heritage
Commisioned by Janet Hong from Shenzhen PLD Marketing Planning, this project embarked us on an exploration of the significance of dance in Greek culture. More than performance, dance was an expression deeply woven into the fabric of Greek society, a reflection of the spirit of the time.
At the heart of this initiative lies the Infinity Room by Blending Pixels.
The installation conceived Roberto Santoro crafts an interaction between the past and the present through a clever blend of mirrors, video projection, and computer graphics intertwined with a custom-trained AI generative model.
Choreographed by Vito Cassano and brought to life through the melodies of Kyotolp and Rome in Reverse, the installation encapsulates the essence of ancient Greek dance, interpreted by the Apulian dancers Francesco Lacatena and Grazia Micoli.
It reflects the movement of the spirit, navigating from the past times of Hellenic culture to the contemporary epoch.
An Invitation to Discovery
The AI Digital Dance – Infinity Room is more than an art installation. It is an invitation to explore the enduring legacy of ancient Greek culture, celebrating the universality of dance as a medium that bridges time and space. It prompts a reflection on our shared heritage, evoking a sense of connection that spans continents and centuries.
Credits
Creative Director
Roberto Santoro
Dance Director
Vito Cassano
Music Composer
Kyoto
Rome in Reverse
Dancers
Grazia Miccoli
Francesco Lacatena
#Medimex 2024
Medimex 2024
Projected AI Mapping Show
@Taranto – Castello Aragonese
Infinite loop – AI Endless Exploration is Blending Pixels’ contribution to the Medimex 2024 edition, which focuses on Artificial Intelligence as one of its central themes.
In this Projected AI Experience, we explored and aimed to represent how Artificial Intelligence can inspire new forms of artistic and audiovisual expression, transforming how we create, perceive, and experience images and music.
Experimentation is fundamental: a participatory act in the creation process. Thus, we have tried, mindful of ethical implications, to push the limits of what generative AI models can offer. While these models are very effective for generating images, they must still be more efficient and challenging when creating videos.
It is a frontier with constantly advancing boundaries: what was once considered impossible is now within our reach, opening doors to infinite possibilities. Some of these, as proposed by the generative process, were integrated into our project. However, we had to discard most of them because they were incongruent, deformed, or inconsistent with the assigned instructions.
Shaping the theme of AI represents a necessary step in Blending Pixels’ path of experimentation, a step in a journey that began before AI became mainstream.
#Uniba 100
University of Bari
Opening of the Community Library
On Jan. 15, 2024, the University of Bari will celebrate its first centennial with a show open to the citizenry and graced by the presence of numerous public dignitaries.
Many activities accompanied the evening, including the admirable light shows signed by Pino Loconsole and his team “Luci di scena,” an immersive video-mapping in the courtyard of the Athenaeum created by Blending Pixels, the unveiling of the University’s new logo and the inauguration of the new library.
Technical director – Light Designer Pino Loconsole
#Shenzhen Data Sculpture
Shenzhen Augmented Data Sculpture
Projected-AR Audio-Visual Installation
@ Shenzhen Huaqiang North Road District
Shenzhen Augmented Data Sculpture
Shenzhen Augmented Data Sculpture is a Projected-AR Audio-Visual installation commissioned by PLD Marketing & Planning Co., Ltd.
It was exhibited on 4th December in Huaqiang North Road Commercial District to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the special economic zone of Shenzhen.
The Data Sculpture
The sculpture was conceived by Roberto Santoro and developed by Giuseppe Flora using SideFX Houdini to allow procedural creation and continuous iteration.
The model was generated using the actual data of the last 40 years. It aims to represent Shenzhen’s development through the evolution of architecture and the community’s growth populating it.
Chapter 1. Nature and Culture
The first Chapter is a dialogue between the Sculpture and the context enclosing it. As the tree grows, the zen garden is set. As the tree flourishes, life prosper. As the culture evolves, the environment thrives together with it.
Chapter 2. Success and Celebration
The second Chapter represents the dedication of the people of Shenzhen during the last 40
years and celebrates the successes made unmistakably clear by the data examined.
As every cube representing the population growth lights up, the big cubes representing the building height turn on. The City is building at the famous “Shenzhen Speed” in a perfect sync with the music. After achieving success, it’s time to celebrate. The Sculpture starts dancing with colors.
Chapter 3. The Future
The third chapter celebrates the world’s biggest high-tech electronic market: Shenzhen. It is the heaven of hardware. Advanced high-quality and consumer electronics come from here.
