Synesthesia - exhibiting visual languages in the digital age and the aesthetic exploration of technology

The first conceptualization of this thesis was born while carrying out the curricular internship at the Quattrolinee studio. This company is the main organizer of the Graphic Days® festival, which started in 2016 with the aim of supporting the cultural value of visual communication and providing new artistic stimuli by assembling in Turin the most eminent artists of the international and local scene in the design sector. This experimental research aims at exploring new possibilities for the former Festival, now arrived at its sixth edition, focusing in particular on new expressive modes offered by the visual-generative art. The idea is to widen Graphic Days® ‘s artistic offer, in order to increase its audience and at the same time push forward the boundaries of Quattrolinee’s knowledge about visual-generative art. This bachelor thesis project seeks to explore, study and analyze the expressive possibilities through new languages. The objective is pursued by mixing different techniques, particularly by focusing on the interaction between the machine language and the user's direct interaction. The thesis is structured as follows: a first theoretical section is followed by a second practical one. First, there is an introductory part that investigates the origin and the development of media visual art. Subsequently, an in-depth analysis follows, in which the world’s main companies and studios of "Media communication" are presented starting from the Italian ones, in particular with the Studio Azzurro’s forerunners, up to the global contemporary key players. This theoretical section ends with a review of the main innovations and ongoing experiments in this field and hypothesizes on how they are likely to evolve in the near future and how they could revolutionize the world of museums and exhibitions. The research carried out in the former section of the thesis lays the theoretical foundations for the following one. This second section, it describes a totally immersive and multisensory exhibition space that has been designed purposely with the aim of narrating new visual and expressive languages. This described exhibition space is part of the sixth edition of the Graphic Days® festival. The exhibition consists of four environments each with different characteristics of immersion and interaction. The exhibition space of the first section consists of a large room with a mirrored floor in which the user is enchanted and captured by the new expressive languages projected on the wall and at the same time he is accompanied by a captivating sound that allows to better enjoy the experience. The second space, although smaller, allows the public a direct interaction with an audio-visual system through the aid of a MIDI console. Thanks to this device, even the less experienced users will have the ability to create and modify complex generative visuals. The third section aims to reinterpret the body as a means of communication. Thanks to depth and motion sensors, which are able to detect a person's movements, users can craft unique visuals in a spontaneous and intuitive way and at the same time explore the three fundamental aspects of graphic design: color, shape, and lettering. In the last room, it is possible to print and display the graphics created by the public in the previous section, in order to create collective compositions.