2016-07-19



Fondazione Prada’s “Belligerent Eyes” installation

Italian fashion label Prada’s artistic foundation is exploring modern cinema and image production through an interdisciplinary research project.

“Belligerent Eyes: 5K Confinement,” staged at Fondazione Prada’s Ca’ Corner della Regina in Venice, is split into six modules, each of which will see a new collaborator take on the topic, with bi-weekly panel discussions. After exploring topics such as the depiction of battlefields on screen and telecommunication transmission, Belligerent Eyes has moved onto censorship, establishing an online portal for public participation.

Fondazione Prada did not respond before press deadline.

Visual dissection

Belligerent Eyes seeks to predict the new face of professional image production. With the goal of innovating the field rather than trying to overtake efforts of collegiate film programs, the project acts as a collective scientific body.

The physical display at Ca’ Corner della Regina is meant to simultaneously mimic the riot gear used by police and seen in television broadcasts as well as what is used in transport. Within the walls adorned in artificial fabrics is HD technology.


Fondazione Prada’s Ca’ Corner della Regina

Among those who have been called upon by Fondazione Prada to act as the academics and practitioners in the project is Stacy Martin, French actress and Miu Miu muse.

“Censorship Design,” opened July 15, is being led by “professor” Display.XXX, a design firm based in Milan that specializes in code, data visualization and sound design.

For this project, Display.XXX designed an online platform. For a month, consumers will be able to explore content that is disseminated by a chatbot.

This artificial intelligence uses an algorithm to display media in real-time.

“Belligerent Eyes”, currently hosted at @fondazioneprada in Venice, presents “Censorship Design”, a platform designed, developed and managed by @display.3x, which works as a month-long collective effort seeking new parameters and an update of communicational and visual restrictions. Through a chat-bot, contents are imported in realtime by a custom AI censoring algorithm, displaying itself in an infinte loop of hyper-medial elements.  Visitors will experience the flow changes in realtime, exploring contents and features of this new media.  In order to take part, just download telegram and send your username to submissions@belligerenteyes.com To find out more, visit belligerenteyes.com

A video posted by Fondazione Prada (@fondazioneprada) on
Jul 15, 2016 at 10:20am PDT

On the Belligerent Eyes platform, consumers can explore the hyper-medial elements. Images and videos float through the frame, giving the visitor the opportunity to give them a closer look.

Censorship Design looks beyond film, investigating the manner in which policing certain types of imagery has established visual trends. It also looks at the ways in which censorship has been used to extend media and language.

After Censorship Design wraps on Aug. 28, the final stage in Belligerent Eyes will take place.

“New Never” is a broadcast experiment to be revealed during the Venice Film Festival.

Cinematic appeal

Prada has a lengthy relationship with film.

In 2013, the brand premiered Wes Anderson’s “Castello Cavalcanti” short film at the Rome Film Festival and on its Web site that grants supremacy to the director’s style rather than overt branding.

The film features actors Jason Schwartzman and Giada Colagrande and was part of the brand’s “Prada Classics” series that promotes art, architecture and film. Partnering with films is a way for luxury brands to articulate their aesthetic in another medium and gain interest among cinema aficionados (see story).

Fashion should not be treated as a series of products, but as the presentation of a lifestyle, according to an Armani executive.

At the Condé Nast International Luxury Conference Armani global communications director Claudio Calò spoke of how the brand has leveraged the power of cinema to elevate its brand beyond products. Fashion and cinema have had a dialogic relationship for decades, and by leveraging cinematic tools, fashion brands can give themselves and their products a fuller lifestyle (see story).

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