Marco Azzolina
(He/Him)
Mature student from Italy, mainly focused on physical computing and interactive installations.
In my practice i like to utilize procedural and generative methods to reveal the beauty hidden in the intricacy of complex systems.
My current work gravitate toward using robotcs and unconventional interfaces to explore the relationship between humans and technology.
Something Other
Something Other is an autonomous, interactive kinetic sculpture centred around a custom-built, articulated robotic arm equipped with proximity sensors. The installation functions without user instructions, interfaces, or predetermined goals, operating purely as an active participant within the shared space by initiating a dialogue based solely on user proximity.
Its perception relies on a basic, non-human framework akin to a crude form of echolocation, while its physical voice is purely electro-mechanical, generated from the spontaneous, procedural movements and internal buzz of its moving components rather than choreographed animations.
Conceived at the convergence of object-oriented ontology, vital materiality, and therolinguistics, the system presents a zoomorphic silhouette with mechanical details. By keeping its cabling and internal hardware completely exposed, it embraces a design language of transparency and technological demystification. Ultimately, the installation acts as an open feedback loop where somewhat complex behaviour organically emerges from simple, reactive parameters.
The experience is meant to be an open ended conversation with something that feels like an independent entity, raising questions about the agency of non-human complex systems, challenging preconceptions and expectations about how we interact with and are interacted upon by technology.
