Difference between revisions of "Alberto Frigo"

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{{Infobox artist
 
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|image = Alberto_frigo_full.jpg|
 
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|caption = Alberto Frigo
 
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'''Alberto Frigo''' (1979) is an artist known for having photographed every object his right hand has used since September 2003. In a 36 year project he has been tracking 36 aspects of his life and surroundings. By 2040 the project will include 1,000,000 photos of all the objects he used, 432,000 of his dreams, 93,312 of the songs he heard, 25,950 of his thoughts, 77,760 of the public places he visited, 3,456 portraits of the people he met, 6,912 collages of the trash he found on the sidewalk, 10,368 shapes of the clouds he observed and much more.
+
 
 +
 
 +
'''Alberto Frigo''' (1979) is an artist known for having photographed every object his right hand has used since September 2003. In a 36 year project he has been tracking 36 aspects of his life and surroundings. By 2040 the project will include [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX01.html ''1,000,000 photos of all the objects he used''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX02.html ''432,000 of his dreams''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX03.html ''93,312 of the songs he heard''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX09.htm ''25,950 of his thoughts''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX13.html ''77,760 of the public places he visited''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX10.htm ''3,456 portraits of the people he met''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX14.html ''38,880 ideas coming to his head''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX11.html ''6,912 collages of the trash he found on the sidewalk''], [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/TX17.html ''10,368 shapes of the clouds he observed''] and much more.
  
 
{{TOC limit|3}}
 
{{TOC limit|3}}
  
 
==Background==
 
==Background==
As young artist Frigo became quickly fascinated with filming his action paintings. Having moved to Canada in 2000 he began using 16 mm cameras to film his everyday life as a homeless in downtown Vancouver. Feeling overwhelmed from all the editing work Frigo sewed all his journals in a poncho and undertook a road trip across the americas. If the purpose of the trip was to get back to pen and paper and avoid the use of technology the result was that upon returning to Canada Frigo began to conceive the idea of a digital system to document his life and the way the surroundings affect it.  
+
As a young artist Frigo quickly became fascinated with filming his action paintings. Having moved to Canada in 2000 he began using 16 mm cameras to film his everyday life as a homeless man in downtown Vancouver. Feeling overwhelmed from all the editing work Frigo sewed all his journals in a poncho and undertook a road trip across the americas. If the purpose of the trip was to get back to pen and paper and avoid the use of technology the result was that upon returning to Canada Frigo began to conceive the idea of a digital system to document his life and the way the surroundings affect it.  
  
 +
Having moved back to Europe in 2002 Frigo was invited to work as a guest artist at the [[Interactive Institute]]. There he developed wearable computers to record life 24/7 but was ultimately inspired by [[Lev Manovich]] reading of [[Dziga Vertov]]'s work and began to document life using different media to record multiple aspects of reality. After a brief collaboration with [[Krzysztof Wodiczko]] Frigo became project leader at M.I.T. Design Lab. He later taught database aesthetics at Sodertorn University where he obtained a PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory.
  
 
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
 
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
 
Alberto Frigo's poncho.jpg|thumb|Alberto Frigo's poncho
 
Alberto Frigo's poncho.jpg|thumb|Alberto Frigo's poncho
 +
Alberto Frigo wearable computer.jpg|Alberto Frigo's wearable
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
Having moved back to Europe in 2002 Frigo was invited to work as guest artist at the [[Interactive Institute]]. There he developed wearable computers to record life 24/7 but was ultimately inspired by [[Lev Manovich]] reading of [[Dziga Vertov]]'s work and began to document life using different media to record multiple aspects of reality. After a brief collaboration with [[Krzysztof Wodiczko]] Frigo became project leader at M.I.T. Design Lab. He later taught database aestethics at Sodertorn University where he obtained a PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory.
+
==Works==
 +
Officially starting in 2004 Frigo has devised 36 methods to document life continuously and until 2040 when he will be 60. His most famous work consists in photographing every object his right hand uses, a method inspired by [[Georges Perec]] and the O.U.L.I.P.O. movement in general. After being awarded at [[Ars Electronica]] in 2006, Frigo's photographic work has been shown in museums and featured in the news around the world.  
 +
 
 +
In 2016 Frigo collaborated with Hasselblad Foundation and [[Peter Weibel]] on the topic of surveillance art. For this purpose he presented a large-scale installation comprising 144 photographic panels. In these panels one month worth of all the objects his right hand has used since 2004 were displayed with each photographic line representing a day and each line of panels a year. By 2040 the installation will be a perfect square of 12 by 12 meters with one million photos of all the objects an individual has used throughout his adult life, namely from the age of 24 to the age of 60.  
  
 
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
 
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
Alberto Frigo wearable computer.jpg|Alberto Frigo's wearable
+
Alberto Frigo Hasselblad Foundation.jpg|Frigo's Square
 +
Alberto Frigo's cube.jpg|Frigo's Cube
 +
Alberto Frigo's Circle cropped.jpg|Frigo's Circle
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
==Frigo's Square==
+
In 2018 Frigo conceived the idea of a giant 7.6 meters iron cube. Since there are 432 months in 36 years and 36 are his works the sculpture is made of 15.552 pixels. Each pixel then corresponds to a month's production of one his 36 works visitors can retrieve by recreating the pattern on the screen. The sculpture was ultimately realized on Mount Novegno, 100 kilometers of Venice and 1000 meters above the sea level.
Officially starting in 2004 Frigo has devised 36 methods to document life continuosly and until 2040 when he will be 60. His most famous work consists in photographing every object his right hand uses, a method inspisred by [[Georges Perec]] and the O.U.L.I.P.O. movement in general.
 
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
 
Alberto Frigo Hasselblad Foundation.jpg|Alberto Frigo at Hasselblad Foundation
 
</gallery>
 
  
In 2016 Frigo collaborated with Hasselblad Foundation and [[Peter Weibel]] on the topic of surveillance art. For the purpose he presented a large scale installation comprising of 144 photographic panels. In these panels one month worth of all the objects his right hand has used since 2004 were diplayed with each photographic line representing a day and each line of panels a year. By 2040 the installation will be a perfect square of 12 by 12 meters with one million photos of all the objects an individual has used throughout his adult life, namely from the age of 24 to the age of 60.
+
==Sculpture Garden==
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
 
Alberto Frigo Photo Panel detail.jpg|Alberto Frigo's right hand photo panel detail
 
</gallery>
 
  
==Frigo's Cube==
+
SInce 2024 Frigo conceived the idea of [https://www.artemeso.it ''ARTE MESO''], a 2.5 kilometers long sculpture garden reflecting on the role of humanity in the rewilding process that the alps, where his cube is located. Inspired by the life of hunter-gatherers, Frigo began to conceive artworks that function as a place for a new culture as part of a wilderness taking over decaying agricultural settlements. In this sense the term "meso" reflect on being both in the middle of a mountain but also in a sort new mesolithic area in which society might shift back to a more ecological type of living.
In 2018 Frigo conceived the idea of a giant 25 feet iron cube. Since there are 432 months in 36 years and 36 are his works the sculpture is made of 15.552 pixels. Each pixel then corresponds to a month production of one his 36 works. The sculpture was ulimately realized on Mount Novegno, 100 kilometers of Venice and 1000 meters above the sea level.  
 
  
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
+
By now [https://www.artemeso.it ''ARTE MESO''] comprises of a  34,2 meters circle resembling a hunter-gatherer encampment where insights on hunter-gathers are provided, a 8 meters high Taoist graffiti, a 50 meters long green cathedral and the stylized reconstruction of Henry David Thoreau's and Theodore Kaczynski's cabin. In what he defines as "cultural rewilding" his cube stands as a milestone in what hunter-gatherers were good at: cultivate nothing but themselves, an exercise of mindfulness Frigo relates to [[Jacques Ellul]]'s and [[Michel Foucault]]'s idea of a technology of the self in contrast with the technology of progress compromising life on earth.
Alberto Frigo's cube.jpg|Alberto Frigo's cube as seen from the outside
+
 
</gallery>
 
  
The 36 resulting patterns of the sculpture (9 on each wall) encrypts the formula behind each work (by moving two empty pixels on a line of 8 one is to obtain all the letters of the alphabets). Similarly each of the 15.552 pixels stores the work's number and the month number (by moving two white pixels on a line of five one is to obtain all the numbers). Visitors to the sculpture can recreate the pattern of each pixel and retrieve a month production. The scultpure can be also accessed virtually [https://www.2004-2040.com/00000/33000/wall1.html ''on the project website''].
+
==Related==
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
+
*Erkki Kurenniemi's Virtual persona
Alberto Frigo's cube inside.jpg|Alberto Frigo's cube has seen from the inside
+
*Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Chronofile
</gallery>
+
*Tehching Hsieh's One Year Performance
 +
*Vivian Maier's Archive
  
===Frigo's Circle===
+
==Links==
Upon completing his cube and halfway into his life project, in 2024 Frigo began to work on the idea of a memory theater in which every architectural element corresponds to one of his 36 life-works. Inspired by the circular camps of hunter-gatherers he began to work on a 50 meters circle in a hurricane devastated forest in his native highland. In this circle visitors are able to reconstruct the theater using virtual reality.
+
* [https://www.2004-2040.com/ Website]
  
<gallery mode=packed heights=180px>
+
==Press==
Alberto Frigo's memory theater.jpg|Alberto Frigo's memory theater
+
*Alberto Frigo Encodes His Life As Iron Pixels, Designboom, 2024
Alberto Frigo's Lebanrat.jpg|Alberto Frigo's circle
+
*Francesco Amorosino, La fotografia nell'era dell'ipercontrollo, Casa Editrice Emuse, 2024
</gallery>
+
*Peter Hall & Patricio Dávila, Critical Visualization, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022
 +
*David Jones, Visual Culture and the Forensic: Culture, Memory, Ethics, Routledge Edition, 2022
 +
*Henriette Lind, S-v-i-m-l-e-n-d-e-, Politiken, 2022
 +
*Andrea Mennicken & Robert Salais, The New Politics of Numbers, Springer Int., 2021
 +
*Thorben Mämecke, Das quantifizierte Selbst, Transcript Edition, 2021
 +
*Paul Goodwin, Something Doesn’t Add Up, Profile Books Ltd, 2021
 +
*Svea Braeunert, Sarah Tuck & Louise Wolthers, (W)archives, Sternberg Press, 2021
 +
*Florian Mehnert, Datismus Versus Freihet, BvD-News, 2020
 +
*Margaux Dussert, Par amour du trolling ou par quête de sens, L'ADN, 2019
 +
*Toft Tanya, Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art, Chicago University Press, 2019
 +
*Sigtryggur Ari, Aldrei úr augnsýn, DV, 2018
 +
*Desjardins, Images partagées et autres selfies, Mowwgli, 2017
 +
*Samantha Deman, Special Mobile Art, Arts Hebdo Media, 2017
 +
*Mark Hoogendoorn & Burkhardt Funk, Machine Learning for the Quantified Self, Springer Int., 2017
 +
*Susan Flynn, Antonia Mackay , Spaces of Surveillance, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
 +
*Aude Launay, Watched! Surveillance, Art and Photography, Zero Deux, 2017
 +
*Deborah Lupton, The Quantified Self, Polity Press, 2016
 +
*Tamar Sharon & Dorien Zandbergen, From data fetishism to quantifying selves, New Media & Society, 2016
 +
*David Jones, Installation Art and the Practices of Archivalism, Routledge Edition, 2016
 +
*Rune Gade, Overvågningens vaesen, Information, 2016
 +
*Birgit Richard, Hamster-Hipster-Handy, Kerber Edition, 2015
 +
*Die Welt, Wie das Handy unseren Lebenswandel bestimmt, 2015
 +
*Abel van Gijlswijk, Alberto maakt 36 jaar lang foto’s van alles wat hij met zijn rechterhand doet, Vice Magazine, 2014
 +
*Sherry Turkle, Alone Together, Best Books, 2011
 +
*Rob Kitchin & Martin Dodge, Code/space: Software and Everyday Life, MIT Press, 2011
 +
*Outi Remes & Pam Skelton, Conspiracy Dwellings, Scholars Publishing, 2010
 +
*Dominique Moulon, Art Contemporain et Nouveaux Médias, Sentier d'Art Edition, 2010
 +
*Hannes Leopoldseder & Gerfried Stocker, CyberArts 2006, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006
  
==Thought==
 
Conceptually Frigo aims to generate a DNA code, a hieroglyphic of a human life threatened with extinction. In this respect he relates to [[Marshall McLuhan]]'s notion that marginal media artists build arks of their time. For instance his cube is partially inspired by the pre-biblical arks that were in fact cubic. Frigo then goes beyond the Foucauldian notion of technology of the self; he is conceiving a more generative type of technology as formulated by [[Jacques Ellul]] and the kabbalistic humanities predating the enlightenment. 
 
  
In his own words Frigo defines is project as a bricolage, a lifeboat preparing to depart the ship of modern civilization. For this Frigo relates his project to [[Peter Lamborn Wilson]]'s concept of T.A.Z. (Temporary Autonomous Zone) in the face of the megamachine of power as formulated by [[Lewis Mumford]]. In the writings Frigo executes as part of his project he relates this lifeboat as not only a medium to a more ecological and egalitarian living as that of hunter-gathers but as in itself a practice to become a hunter-gatherer as he himself claims to have become conducting his project.
 
  
==Links==
 
* [https://www.2004-2040.com/ Website]
 
  
[[Series:Conceptual art]] [[Series:Net art]] [[Series:Performance art]] [[Series:Experimental film]] [[Series:Land art]]
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[[Series:Conceptual art]] [[Series:Net art]] [[Series:Performance art]] [[Series:Experimental film]] [[Series:Land art]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Frigo, Alberto}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frigo, Alberto}}
 

Latest revision as of 08:45, 16 October 2025


Alberto Frigo
Born July 21, 1979(1979-07-21)
Asiago, Italy


Alberto Frigo (1979) is an artist known for having photographed every object his right hand has used since September 2003. In a 36 year project he has been tracking 36 aspects of his life and surroundings. By 2040 the project will include 1,000,000 photos of all the objects he used, 432,000 of his dreams, 93,312 of the songs he heard, 25,950 of his thoughts, 77,760 of the public places he visited, 3,456 portraits of the people he met, 38,880 ideas coming to his head, 6,912 collages of the trash he found on the sidewalk, 10,368 shapes of the clouds he observed and much more.

Background[edit]

As a young artist Frigo quickly became fascinated with filming his action paintings. Having moved to Canada in 2000 he began using 16 mm cameras to film his everyday life as a homeless man in downtown Vancouver. Feeling overwhelmed from all the editing work Frigo sewed all his journals in a poncho and undertook a road trip across the americas. If the purpose of the trip was to get back to pen and paper and avoid the use of technology the result was that upon returning to Canada Frigo began to conceive the idea of a digital system to document his life and the way the surroundings affect it.

Having moved back to Europe in 2002 Frigo was invited to work as a guest artist at the Interactive Institute. There he developed wearable computers to record life 24/7 but was ultimately inspired by Lev Manovich reading of Dziga Vertov's work and began to document life using different media to record multiple aspects of reality. After a brief collaboration with Krzysztof Wodiczko Frigo became project leader at M.I.T. Design Lab. He later taught database aesthetics at Sodertorn University where he obtained a PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory.

Works[edit]

Officially starting in 2004 Frigo has devised 36 methods to document life continuously and until 2040 when he will be 60. His most famous work consists in photographing every object his right hand uses, a method inspired by Georges Perec and the O.U.L.I.P.O. movement in general. After being awarded at Ars Electronica in 2006, Frigo's photographic work has been shown in museums and featured in the news around the world.

In 2016 Frigo collaborated with Hasselblad Foundation and Peter Weibel on the topic of surveillance art. For this purpose he presented a large-scale installation comprising 144 photographic panels. In these panels one month worth of all the objects his right hand has used since 2004 were displayed with each photographic line representing a day and each line of panels a year. By 2040 the installation will be a perfect square of 12 by 12 meters with one million photos of all the objects an individual has used throughout his adult life, namely from the age of 24 to the age of 60.

In 2018 Frigo conceived the idea of a giant 7.6 meters iron cube. Since there are 432 months in 36 years and 36 are his works the sculpture is made of 15.552 pixels. Each pixel then corresponds to a month's production of one his 36 works visitors can retrieve by recreating the pattern on the screen. The sculpture was ultimately realized on Mount Novegno, 100 kilometers of Venice and 1000 meters above the sea level.

Sculpture Garden[edit]

SInce 2024 Frigo conceived the idea of ARTE MESO, a 2.5 kilometers long sculpture garden reflecting on the role of humanity in the rewilding process that the alps, where his cube is located. Inspired by the life of hunter-gatherers, Frigo began to conceive artworks that function as a place for a new culture as part of a wilderness taking over decaying agricultural settlements. In this sense the term "meso" reflect on being both in the middle of a mountain but also in a sort new mesolithic area in which society might shift back to a more ecological type of living.

By now ARTE MESO comprises of a 34,2 meters circle resembling a hunter-gatherer encampment where insights on hunter-gathers are provided, a 8 meters high Taoist graffiti, a 50 meters long green cathedral and the stylized reconstruction of Henry David Thoreau's and Theodore Kaczynski's cabin. In what he defines as "cultural rewilding" his cube stands as a milestone in what hunter-gatherers were good at: cultivate nothing but themselves, an exercise of mindfulness Frigo relates to Jacques Ellul's and Michel Foucault's idea of a technology of the self in contrast with the technology of progress compromising life on earth.


Related[edit]

  • Erkki Kurenniemi's Virtual persona
  • Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Chronofile
  • Tehching Hsieh's One Year Performance
  • Vivian Maier's Archive

Links[edit]

Press[edit]

  • Alberto Frigo Encodes His Life As Iron Pixels, Designboom, 2024
  • Francesco Amorosino, La fotografia nell'era dell'ipercontrollo, Casa Editrice Emuse, 2024
  • Peter Hall & Patricio Dávila, Critical Visualization, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022
  • David Jones, Visual Culture and the Forensic: Culture, Memory, Ethics, Routledge Edition, 2022
  • Henriette Lind, S-v-i-m-l-e-n-d-e-, Politiken, 2022
  • Andrea Mennicken & Robert Salais, The New Politics of Numbers, Springer Int., 2021
  • Thorben Mämecke, Das quantifizierte Selbst, Transcript Edition, 2021
  • Paul Goodwin, Something Doesn’t Add Up, Profile Books Ltd, 2021
  • Svea Braeunert, Sarah Tuck & Louise Wolthers, (W)archives, Sternberg Press, 2021
  • Florian Mehnert, Datismus Versus Freihet, BvD-News, 2020
  • Margaux Dussert, Par amour du trolling ou par quête de sens, L'ADN, 2019
  • Toft Tanya, Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art, Chicago University Press, 2019
  • Sigtryggur Ari, Aldrei úr augnsýn, DV, 2018
  • Desjardins, Images partagées et autres selfies, Mowwgli, 2017
  • Samantha Deman, Special Mobile Art, Arts Hebdo Media, 2017
  • Mark Hoogendoorn & Burkhardt Funk, Machine Learning for the Quantified Self, Springer Int., 2017
  • Susan Flynn, Antonia Mackay , Spaces of Surveillance, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
  • Aude Launay, Watched! Surveillance, Art and Photography, Zero Deux, 2017
  • Deborah Lupton, The Quantified Self, Polity Press, 2016
  • Tamar Sharon & Dorien Zandbergen, From data fetishism to quantifying selves, New Media & Society, 2016
  • David Jones, Installation Art and the Practices of Archivalism, Routledge Edition, 2016
  • Rune Gade, Overvågningens vaesen, Information, 2016
  • Birgit Richard, Hamster-Hipster-Handy, Kerber Edition, 2015
  • Die Welt, Wie das Handy unseren Lebenswandel bestimmt, 2015
  • Abel van Gijlswijk, Alberto maakt 36 jaar lang foto’s van alles wat hij met zijn rechterhand doet, Vice Magazine, 2014
  • Sherry Turkle, Alone Together, Best Books, 2011
  • Rob Kitchin & Martin Dodge, Code/space: Software and Everyday Life, MIT Press, 2011
  • Outi Remes & Pam Skelton, Conspiracy Dwellings, Scholars Publishing, 2010
  • Dominique Moulon, Art Contemporain et Nouveaux Médias, Sentier d'Art Edition, 2010
  • Hannes Leopoldseder & Gerfried Stocker, CyberArts 2006, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006