floppy philosophers such as Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler and Gilles Deleuze. How is your theoretical research connected with your artistic practice? The theoretical research can lead to the artistic practice and to the development of technical instruments. For instance, Nigredo [created in 2013 together with the artist and engineer Marije Baalman] has stem from the idea of configuration. I have tried to find a performative way to explore that philosophical notion and then I have developed the installation and the needed technical instruments. But the opposite is also true, many times a work or a piece of technology I develop prompts theoretical questions. In Nigredo, how does the machine complete itself with the human body? In Nigredo, the technical system provides the means for the body to access a heightened level of self-perception which is not possible to achieve in everyday life. The machine, on the other hand, extends itself through the human body by recording the sounds of the internal organs of the visitor’s body, the heart beating, the blood flowing, the lungs breathing. These elements become a primary and vital source for the functioning of the machine. The machine processes these sounds and feed them back to the visitor’s body using transducers directly connected to the bones and skull. In other words, without the visitor’s body nothing would happen, the transducers would not emit any sound. To enable the feedback process the machine needs a human body from which to capture sounds. The installation would not work with a dead body, because that would not produce bioacustic sounds, unlike other installations that work anyway, even just with a dog in front of them... Additionally, a dog would not be able to integrate into the system of Nigredo, because the machine is composed of a chair whose seatback sends vibrations to the spine. Everything in Nigredo is set up in a specific way in order to reach a specific goal. What I want is not to create a definitive situation but rather to initiate a process. This is a practical application of the concept of configuration that I mentioned before. And what about Ominous? How does the human-machine configuration happen in this project? In Ominous, the idea of configuration was not completely formed in my mind. Ominous is one of the first works in which I have used the Xth Sense. It seems that in Ominous the conceptual focus is on the body as a musical instrument... Yes, absolutely. Ominous is one of a series of live performances I created, which eventually led me to the Ph.D research I’m conducting now. Indeed, I have created the Xth Sense to investigate the potential of the body as an expressive source of sound.
Let us step back... How did you arrive at the Xth Sense? I invented the Xth Sense to use the body as a musical instrument. In fact, my first performance with this technology, Music for flesh II, was a (quasi) traditional concert... but soon I realized that the Xth Sense had much more potentialities to explore. After performing Music for flesh II at least seventy times, I decided to create something different: Hypo Chrysos. I was interested in the notion of musicianship, or better, the lack of it, and found inspiration in the work of John Cage, Stelarc and Yann Marussich. Hypo Chrysos is an audiovisual performance based on the Xth Sense. Is it the only artwork in which you use visuals? I have made live visuals for five years and then I have specialized in performative works with sound. I am interested in visual media as expressive vehicles too, but I use different media only when strictly necessary. I hate when lots of media are used in an artwork without an actual need for them, although this is a common habit these days. Therefore, I use sounds as the main medium, sometimes I employ visuals, and since Nigredo I have been using also light, which is actually the essence of video. Are you working on any new artwork now? Nigredo is extremely complex and I will keep developing it until I will have explored all its potential. I try not to alter the fundamental nature of a work. For instance, I created Music for flesh II in 2011 and I performed it at CTM the other day: I have changed two or three things in four years, but I want to keep it as it is, even if now I do not really like it too much... But if I changed it, it would become another artwork! Nigredo is a difficult work to exhibit. First, it is technically complex and, secondly, it is a risky choice for a curator. Not everyone wants to take the risk because it is an intense psychological and physical experience for the public. Usually, when visitors leave the installation they stay silent for a couple of minutes. But all the visitors I have met so far have thanked me, because it is an experience that exceeds the everyday. The instinctive question they ask is: «Is my body capable of doing that?» So, when will it be possible to experience Nigredo in the near future? I have presented Nigredo only twice, at the New Media Art and Video Festival TRANSITIO_MX in Mexico and at the Cynetart Festival in Germany [and it won the first prize in both festivals N.d.R.]. I am not interested in performing my work anywhere, but only in those places where I can be sure that artistic experimentation is appreciated. The next exhibition of Nigredo is planned at Musikprotokoll, a festival organized by the Austrian national radio. (http://musikprotokoll.orf.at/). Marco Donnarumma, Nigredo, 2013. A visitor experiencing Nigredo at Cynetart Festival, Dresden (DE). Picture courtesy of David Pinzer.