Industrial
Equilibrium

Description

Industrial Equilibrium is a work created for the exhibition "GIATA TAM VIVIS" at the church of San Severo al Pendino in Naples.

A very ambitious project born only thanks to the sensitivity and courage of people and sponsors who believed in the project. First of all the Kawasaki company and their Italian distribution, namely the Tiesse group in the person of Dario Daprá who provided the robots, MZ Costruzioni in the persons of Antonio and Gennaro Zito, who financed and built the structure that supports the work, the engineer Walter Pugliese who designed the structure, the Municipality of Naples who financed the winning project of a public tender and obviously Quartiere Latino, an association of which I am a member and with which we presented the project. Special thanks go to Marta Ferrara, curator of the project for her dedication to the cause, to Alessandro Calvanese for assistance throughout the design and construction of the work, to Nicola Piscopo, who in the figure of President of the association firmly and courageously believed in the project. I would also like to thank Ciccio Sepe of Antica Cantina Sepe, the official sponsor of the exhibition, all the students who participated in the installation of the work and Alessandro Franco, my intern.

Thanks to Maestro Paolo Termini for his contribution.

Thanks to Antonio Battiniello for the video documentation.

A further thanks goes to Flavia Fienga for supporting and putting up with me in this epic undertaking!

Below is the critical text by Marta Ferra:

Industrial Equilibrium by Roberto Pugliese presents a dance between two robotic arms, created for industrial purposes and now protagonists of a contemporary drama. In nature, the phenomenon of feedback represents the ability of a system to self-regulate, taking into account the effects resulting from changes in its characteristics. All living organisms are subject to it. Pugliese's work brings this phenomenon into the field of cybernetics through sound; the movements of the arms are extremely harmonious and natural, taking on behavioral characteristics similar to those of two animals courting or dueling. The system thus transforms into a biomechanical organism that lives its own life and reacts to external conditions. Using a microphone and a speaker, generating an acoustic short circuit thanks to the Larsen effect, the artist dynamically adjusts the position of the arms by means of a software he created based on artificial intelligence. This system, which incessantly seeks an impossible balance, produces an acoustic and visual dimension in continuous evolution that accompanies the observer in a synaesthetic experience.