Datameditation: Oriana Persico Revives Lockdown Art Performance After Partner's Death

Oriana Persico and the late Salvatore Iaconesi, known as the duo AOS - Art is Open Source, created Datameditation in 2020 during the pandemic. The work reimagines lockdown as a space for contemplation, using data to foster 'digital empathies' through a web app that pairs participants anonymously to generate sounds and visuals. The project originated at Neuromed in Pozzilli (March 2–8, 2020) and developed in Trento (April–June 2020) during Iaconesi's proton therapy. After Iaconesi's death on July 18, 2022, Persico revived the code with Gianluca del Gobbo, Stefano Colarelli (Educational.city), and the Accademia di Reggio Calabria team (Paola Bommarito, Giacomo Tufano, Carmen Guarino, Debora Pizzimenti). The code was recovered on August 30, 2024, leading to the SENSEABLE summer school (September 2–5, 2024) in Reggio Calabria. The first public reactivation will occur at the Festival Biblico Tech in Vicenza on November 9, 2024, where about thirty participants will datameditate on Love. Datameditation is part of the 'Nuovo Abitare' phase, treating the artwork as a 'totem of knowledge' that includes rituals and social roles. The project also includes three exhibitions where generated data becomes a collective cultural artifact.