WHO IS DR FRANCESCO PROTO?
Francesco Proto is a theorist and architect, he is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Visual Culture and Critical Theory at the University of Lincoln, where he teaches and researched “the inhuman strategies of the subject”.
A minimalist music composer, Francesco has a huge interest in popular music and its development from the Middle Ages up to now. Part of his research then focuses on the translation of contemporary experimental music into geometric ratios, and design patterns of repetitions and variations into music.
His research outcomes stems from architecture’s long-term relationship with music, i.e. since Palladio first translated classic harmony into 3D coordinates, as well as the high/low brow artistic conundrum in popular culture.
WHAT IS FRANCESCO PROTO BRINGING TO FREQUENCY 15?
Simulacra and Simulation is a video installation which takes its title from Simulacra and Simulation – the book that made of Baudrillard an academic superstar worldwide – is made up of an original music composition mimicking American rock road songs as showcased and illustrated by a video developed between the School of Architecture and Design and the Department of Media Studies, University of Lincoln.
A positive but critical spin on the popularization of knowledge, the installation combines audio and images to the point where the alleged relationship between academy and audience, sender and receive, is reversed.
The Post-Human Lab: Architecture and the Body
Architecture has for many centuries built a relationship with the human body, thus making of the latter the ideal medium through which the invisible forces of progress meet and implement human needs to set free from natural constraints. From the Renaissance onwards, architecture has become the mirror image of divine order and mundane happiness.
Yet, technological advancements have in the long run shown their side effects. No longer the locus where the perfection of God’s creation is reflected, the body becomes the very site where a dystopic vision of the future of humanity is addressed. Will the body adapt to the growing amount of technology or rather succumb to it?
The exhibition showcases outcomes of the Postgraduate architecture research lab directed and tutored by Dr Francesco Proto and the group’s investigation of post-human’s theory and practice by means of unpredictable design strategies that have already attracted the attention of the scientific world.
Built and thought at the crossroad of architecture, science, medicine and fine art, the works materialize those very processes that technology has ignited and that through technology and scientific advancements are now anticipated.
Joint collaboration between the School of Architecture, the Department of Life Sciences and the School of Fine art at the University of Lincoln. Contributed to by Irene Cheng (in collaboration with Dr Issam Hussain, Senior Lecturer, School of Life Sciences, College of Science). Curated by Anastasia Samara, Jonathan Collins, Jenny Chow, Saunder Fong and Rojan Haghani. Project managed by Kathleen Watt. Photographed by James Grigg. Task Force: Alan Gill, Hardeep Bains and Rich Wen Chee Kong.
Contributors/Artists: Abdullahi Hamza, Anna Downs, Christina Kleanthous, Eva Chan, Irene Cheng, Matt McCreith, Melina Karanastasi, Nazurah Mohd Noor, Sebastian Smith Coordinators/Curators : Irene Cheng, Jonathan Collins, Jenny Chow, Saunder Fong Photographer: James Grigg, Saunder Fong Task Force: Hardeep Bains, Alan Gill Video technicians: Tony Richards, Richard Black.
