Diteggiatura
[Fingerpicking]
film
18 min, 2021

in collaboration with Andrea Morbio, Silvia Costa
and Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli





"Your feet are bound with white cloths, and your hands are bound behind your back. A mask covers your face, and you are placed on a stage, alone."

Diteggiatura is a film based on a text, performed by actress and director Silvia Costa and written by an artificial neural network.

The Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli is one of the most ancient and famous puppet companies in the world. The Company's Atelier in Milan houses more than three thousand puppets. Each has a face, a body and specific characteristics, which makes it unique.

Diteggiatura recounts, in a reverse chronology, a year spent in the Atelier of the Colla Company, following the rituals of a community called upon to accompany the life of anthropomorphic objects.

Essay
Imitation Games. Golems, puppets and writing machines, 2021.

a film by Riccardo Giacconi
in collaboration with Andrea Morbio
with Silvia Costa and Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli
texts written by the artificial neural network Megatron 11b
sound Attila Faravelli, Massimiliano Borghesi
color grading Gianandrea Sasso
poster Giulia Marzin
produced by Manuela Buono – Slingshot Films
in association with Lo Schermo dell’Arte
as part of Artists’ Film Italia Recovery Fund
with the support of Fondo per l’Audiovisivo del Friuli Venezia Giulia






Screenings: Millennium Film Journal screening, SVA, New York; GoShort film festival, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (2023), Rotterdam International Film Festival; New York Film Festival (Currents section); Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel; Imagine Science Film Festival, New York; GAMeC, Bergamo; Linea d'Ombra festival, Salerno (2022), 78. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia (Giornate degli Autori), Venezia, Italy; Lo schermo dell'arte, Firenze, Italy; Filmmaker Festival, Milano, Italy (2021).

























Installation views, Spazio Leonardo, Milan




Composed of arrays of plastic pixels, the four curtains function as visual catalogues of Doppelgänger, masks, costumes, and puppets. Each curtain acts as the storyboard of a narrative written by an automatic text generator – a machine built to write as a human being. The AI-generated stories, departing from brief inputs from the essay "On the Marionette Theatre" by Kleist, come to life on the curtains in cartoon-like form, through abstract and geometric patterns, or are transcribed directly through a specifically designed font.






Exhibitions: Storyboard, Spazio Leonardo, Milano; Artissima Art Fair (Main section, UNA Galleria), Torino (2022).