We engaged in conversation with Mattia Carretti, creative director and co-founder, along with Luca Camellini, of fuse*, an art studio established in Campogalliano, near Modena, in 2007 and internationally recognized for its artistic contribution to experimentation and innovation. Talking about a series of recent projects and works from 2020 to the present, we reflected on the research contributions formulated by fuse* in support of an alliance between techno-science and arts.
fuse*, “Onirica ()”, 2023, installation view at Fondazione Alberto Peruzzo, Padua (IT), ph. Ugo Carmeni Studio, courtesy of fuse*
Sara Buoso: Fuse* has internationally distinguished itself for addressing an artistic research foregrounding the style of experimentation and innovation. Which identity and what vision distinguish fuse*?
Mattia Carretti: fuse* has existed since 2007-2008. Since its founding, Luca Camellini and I, we don’t deny, have encountered some difficulties in positioning ourselves. This may be because we come from scientific backgrounds (in chemistry), or perhaps because we don’t like labels, but it was at that moment that we reflected on the other side of the coin: our training led us to experiment with hybrid and transversal practices and languages, maintaining intuition and spontaneity as principles as human beings. This inevitably brought us closer to art and creativity. We felt that intertwining these languages could have allowed us to create or narrate experiences in ways that resonate well with who we are: we are curious, and, like all human beings, we have different identities. In our projects, all these identities resonate differently, spanning science, architecture, engineering, technology and communication. As we progressed, some readers began to interpret fuse*’s projects in artistic terms and only since then have we grasped the potential of this positioning. We deal with theatre and multimedia installations in our own way, experimenting both in terms of performativity and more recently in a completely physical context, presenting analogue works created through computational processes that draw elements from science to suggest a new perception of reality.
fuse*, “Onirica ()”, 2023, installation view at INOTA Festival, Várpalota (HU), courtesy of fuse*
fuse* is a pioneer of nuclear, generative, interactive and immersive art. Your artistic research method is also innovative…
Since 2007-2008, some things have remained constant, others have evolved. However, there are two major moments in our practice. Myself as artistic director I am indebt of my background which has led me to apply scientific research methods to creative research and practices: there are many affinities. The idea of formulating a hypothesis, testing and verifying its functions, eventually making mistakes, starting over and creating again: this is the process we pursue until we find the right albeit complex equilibrium between elements, a harmonization. This is a method that, with its constants, emerges primarily in the preliminary research phase of prototyping, exploring possibilities and identifying the narrative of our work wherein originality and innovation emerge. Then, when we enter a production phase, we switch to a more waterfall-like, more structured and planned approach and this allow us to achieve the highest possible levels of quality. Specifically, we’ve codified what we mean by quality: quality means adhering to the principles of precision, elegance and significance. Elegance is a fundamental element: it’s the ability to choose among elements and eliminate the superfluous; elegance means maintaining a narrative coherence so that those who interact with the work can achieve a specific sensation, an emotional state, or perceive a specific information. Removing and harmonizing are complex exercises. Finally, by significance, we mean how every project should be an opportunity for growth – evolution, mistakes, improvements – for us as human beings. These are transversal elements that we wanted to implement from the beginning.
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fuse*, “Sál”, 2025, installation view at National Taichung Theatre, Taichung (TW). ph. Matteo Torsani, courtesy of fuse*
From a conceptual and creative standpoint, how do your projects emerge?
There are two possible ways projects arise. One stems from a story you want to tell, a personal experience that I feel has changed me in some way and that I want to share with the audience. This intention is often integrated with parallel R&D projects, projects that don’t necessarily have a narrative purpose but often involve technologies we believe have an unexplored expressive potential. When there’s a meaningful story to tell, these two things complement each other. Or the story can come from outside. For example, in the case of Onirica (), 2023, we learned about the Dream Bank at the University of Bologna while we were researching LLMs and AI techniques, and we felt these tools were perfect to tell a story about the world of dreams and oneiric experiences. In the case of the live performance, Sál, 2021, I was interested in exploring the theme of impermanence, focusing on the stages of accompanying people in the final stages of their lives. Addressing the theme of impermanence is risky in the Western world because it touches on something very profound. As Guidoalberto Bormolini, priest and monk of a community dedicated to accompanying the dying in Tuscany, suggests, to address accompaniment is both a taboo and a mission, because when facing death, there is still a fear of revealing one’s own fragilities and weaknesses. The theme of impermanence also leads us to reflect on the possibility of valuing time as limited, and this prompted a series of reflections that were important to us, which we wanted to communicate to people so they could connect with this profound reality. At the same time, Luca was exploring the theme of black holes in collaboration with a team of astrophysicists at KU Leuven in Belgium, and so we thought that the image of the black hole – evolving and intertwined- could have been a perfect metaphor for describing the relationship with something unknown, the edge of the event horizon beyond us where we don’t know exactly what happens, forcing us to question how we relate to this impermanence. The theme of accompaniment inspired the choreography and narrative of Sál: as well as determining the interactive process, it represents the highest example of complexity ever achieved by fuse* in terms of harmonization. For both of these projects, we wanted to sustain a sense of curiosity and wonder to the spectators as a key to effectively open unexplored channels of communication, regardless people’s background or culture.
fuse*, “Trust,” 2022, installation view at Artechouse, New York City (US), ph. Max Rykov, courtesy of fuse*
What is your attitude toward technology?
It may surprise you, but we are very critical of technology. This issue came up a lot during the Onirica () process. We wanted to apply AI because artificial intelligence simulates a purely human experience like that of dreaming. But our goal wasn’t to celebrate the creative possibilities of AI; we were instead interested in understanding its potential, risks and limitations. Indeed, considering the aesthetic biases of these technologies was striking: we initially encountered difficulties in creating an image of a human being that could have been as interesting as imperfect, because all the prompts are trained on internet biases and standards, thus we decided to hack the system, hybridizing it with other techniques. Since 2007-2008, we’ve been experimenting with generative systems. We’re interested in producing a work that could amaze with its elusiveness and unpredictability. After all, this is a beautiful metaphor for life. We’re interested in understanding how technology impacts the way we relate to ourselves, the others and the world. Technology is an interesting mirror for better understanding ourselves as human beings. Artificial intelligence is a technological innovation that extends a capacity that has always been thought to be uniquely human: the ability to think. This is interesting, but at the same time, it’s a limitation: what happens when we delegate thinking to a machine? This aspect carries with it a significant risk, that of numbness, and we would like to allow people to think about these issues. Interesting is what happened during the residency project carried out for Dinamo Camp in Tuscany, a program that uses recreational therapy to give young people with various types of illnesses and disabilities, often serious ones, the opportunity to experience a week of summer camp, engaging in activities usually off-limits for them. Fuse* was invited for a residency program that involved creating works together with these young people in a gallery spaces and we created a workshop where participants were asked to bring a dream by recording it with their own voices, and then together creating a sort of dream machine using a camera that allowed us to transform any object brought by them into scenes, gestures and images. We designed this experience thinking about inclusivity and it was incredibly powerful. But even more interesting was the comment I later received in the form of a letter from a volunteer who shared an extremely interesting perspective on AI: the importance of having applied a statistical system like AI, usually trained on normality, to a context often considered outside the norm. Throughout the history of evolution, there have always been people who began to think in extraordinary ways. This was the case for Galileo Galilei. So, the risk of delegating thought to machines lies precisely in this: the risk of losing humanity’s diverse, divergent, and evolutionary thinking. Fuse* uses technology not to celebrate progress, but to tell a story, and in this sense, our attitude is critical.
fuse*, “Multiverse”, 2019, installation view at Artechouse, Washington DC (US), courtesy of fuse*
Talking about interactivity and immersion brings us to the topic of artistic perception and experience. Did Covid represent a watershed moment in your projects?
2020 was supposed to be the year with the highest number of dates. We were supposed to present the live performance, Dökk, 2017, which had already been a success and received significant acclaim since 2019. Unfortunately, we know well how things went. But despite the suspension of those events in plan and in addition to strengthening the studio’s synergistic spirit, during those years we dedicated ourselves to producing the project Van Gogh in Me, 2022, a generative and immersive audio-visual performance. But above all, Covid brought us back to thinking about the theme of impermanence: such an extremely negative event opened up new possibilities, forcing us to consider high-performance formulas, installations, physical works and to invest in all those lines of research in different directions that then led to Onirica () and a series of projects we probably would not have undertaken had it not been for this switch. The theme of accompaniment for the work Sál, 2021, also emerged during Covid; the theme had become relevant, something we have all related to at one time or another. During Covid, the project Trust, 2020, was also born, touching on an equally relevant theme: trust. Trust is a concept that enormously influences our daily lives, and during that period, we were questioning trust in science, trust in other people for the sake of the collective good, and trust in the future. In this sense, we also mean, if you like, the social purpose of our projects.
fuse*, “Dökk”, 2023, installation view at Mutek MX c/o Teatro de la Ciudad, Mexico City (MX), ph. David Barajas, courtesy of fuse*
Would you like to tell us about your ongoing research and future projects?
In the next exhibit, we’ll present our new Mimicry project. In this case, we were engaged in an R&D project, creating an imaginary world of figures – these hybrid monsters between plants and insects – and we had begun to explore the theme of mimicry in our own way. At the time, I was talking to Renato Bruni, director of the Botanical Garden of Parma, and I asked him if he would collaborate to deepen and focus the scientific narrative on mimicry and focusing on a monster’s metaphor. As always happens, a new world opened up, an area of research that, thanks also to the contribution of Mariagrazia Portera, researcher at the University of Florence, led us to explore the themes of feminism and ecophilosophy, questioning how the aesthetics of insects influence the way we relate to them, including in ecological terms. So, starting with an R&D project focused on mimicry, we involved scientists, and this became our method. Thus, through these alliances between techno-sciences and the arts, whether dealing with the theme of impermanence, accompaniment, black holes, or mimicry, fuse* aims to suggest a series of visual metaphors, supported by both a research and a process that enriches us as human beings.
Info:
She is interested in the visual, verbal and textual aspects of the Modern Contemporary Arts. From historical-artistic studies at the Cà Foscari University, Venice, she has specialized in teaching and curatorial practice at the IED, Rome, and Christie’s London. The field of her research activity focuses on the theme of Light from the 1950s to current times, ontologically considering artistic, phenomenological and visual innovation aspects.
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