Exhibition display for photographic project by Danilo Correale, part of the exhibition "Broken Nature"
The Unsleep is a photographic tale at the edge of sci-fi and reality, partially adapted from the eponymous 1962 novel by Meir and Diane Gillion. From a portrayal of the telecommunications workers employed in the outsourced service industries, the project articulates the invisible domain of time-zones over geographical territories. The employees in this spaceless time often become characters in contemporary Indian and Filipino fictional literature, their lives dominated by artificial light and darkness, with long shifts in front of screens, performing tedious tasks and phone calls where regional accents are normalized to better suit customers located at the opposite end of the globe.
The project we created for Danilo Correale is an archive created on the occasion of this first public presentation. It is a mechanism composed of materials, shapes and technologies that come from the world of logistics. Materials used in automatic robotic packaging and distribution systems present in every corner of the globe
In a certain sense they are a representation that comes very close to the meaning of this film, a globalized capitalism that connects goods and people through a technological infrastructure.
The display is therefore a mechanism made of industrial and high-performance materials. The main structure that contains the archive was made of Polyethylene, a elastic material with high resistance to wear and very stable. This was worked through a CNC machine thus creating excavations and tracks that house the extractable elements made of aluminium.
The exhibition design wants to emphasize this working condition and represent the photographic documentation through a device composed by materials from industry; such as polyethylene and aluminum. The device is an archive/machine, a mechanical storage and photo display system operated by the exhibition visitors.
The project was part of the exhibition: I See That I See What You Don’t See presents a layered, multidimensional image of the relationship that humans, animals and landscapes maintain with darkness. In the Netherlands — one of the most illuminated countries in the world — it is seldom dark, which influences the well-being and behaviour of all living organisms.
In the form of a kaleidoscopic landscape composed by a forest, a panorama, and a forum I See That I See What You Don’t See takes the visitor into a world where designers, artists and researchers investigate the meaning of overexposure and darkness. Design has made a significant contribution to the disturbance of the natural balance but may also be used to restore our relationship with darkness.
Photo taken during the processing of the polyethylene panel with a numerically controlled machine
Alessandro Mason
Danilo Correale
Angela Rui, Martina Otero Verzier