Perceptrum - Sounding Canvas: Artist Statement

Perceptrum is the collaborative vision of Dora Motèque and Luciano Ciamarone, a duo whose work explores the profound intersection of sound, image, and human perception. Our name, Perceptrum, is a direct homage to our individual academic journeys, which laid the foundation for our artistic practice. Dora, after graduating in engineering, pursued her passion for scenography and art in Italy, while Luciano, a physicist by training, dedicated himself to music, and currently works as a software engineer. Both were drawn to the relationship between visual and sonic input and human perception, with their respective theses titled, "A Study on the Use of Color in Film Scenography, its Meaning and its Effects on Visual Perception," and "Research and Exploration of Some of the Factors that Most Influence People in their Idea of Musicality and their Approach to Listening." This shared academic past is the very core of our artistic identity.

Our core works, the Sounding Canvases, are a fusion of art, sound, and technology. Visually, each painting is the result of Dora's semiographic research, in which she intricately weaves Persian characters with music notation. This synthesis is a deeply personal metaphor for her own life, the Persian script representing her Iranian origins, and the music notation symbolizing Luciano's influence. This formal procedure serves as a new syntax, paving the way for a new semantics that is defined by holistic, multi-sensory engagement. The paintings are not fully abstract; rather, they are a new language emerging from the entire experience of their fruition.

Beyond their visual language, the geometric shapes on each canvas are designed to be tactile. They differ in roughness and sensation, inviting touch, which is made possible by an invisible layer of capacitive sensors hidden behind the canvas. When touched, the canvases respond with sound, but not in a simple, predictable manner. Instead, advanced AI algorithms govern a dynamic dialogue with the user. Machine learning is employed to track gestures and account for the "history of interactions," meaning that if you touch the same spot, the canvas will not always respond with the same sound. This turns the canvases into true "interlocutors" that respond based on the succession of past interactions. Furthermore, the location of your touch directly commands the localization of the sound, and the entire audio system operates autonomously, reacting solely to your touch.

We refer to our Sounding Canvases as "Social Artworks" because they transcend physical space and connect with others anywhere in the world. Each canvas can communicate with others via the internet, allowing a touch event on one canvas to immediately affect the soundscape of all others. This is best exemplified by a moment captured on our YouTube channel, where Luciano in Barcelona interacts with his mother in Italy, connecting at a distance through the Sounding Canvases. Her touch on a canvas in Italy triggers a sound in Barcelona, which Luciano hears and responds to with his own touch, in turn activating a sound on her canvas. This unique networked system allows us to connect people through the universal and intimate languages of sound and touch, challenging the traditional boundaries of art and opening the door to emotional narratives and new forms of expression.

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