An investigation into the seven digital deadly sins

Italian artist Max Magaldi, with the multimedia installation Vainglory, a Studio Studio Studio production presented on December 4 and 5 at the Petrella Theater in Longiano (Forlì-Cesena), has started an investigation on the seven digital deadly sins entitled theVices. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, slot: the vices are put in relation with the contemporary world, in a mise en scène that takes to extremes the irrepressible and obsessive need to express oneself that has become one of the distinctive features of our time.

A provocation that overturns the perspective

Vainglory is an action that provokes the viewer, aimed to generate a reflection on the abuse of technological and social networks that characterizes our lives. In the spaces of the Italian theater of Longiano, subverted by the artist's intervention that overturned the traditional perspective, the audience is invited to go on stage and observe the stalls and balconies invaded by 150 devices, taking the place of the spectators.

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A sound and visual sculpture to cross

Each device broadcasts a different audiovisual content extrapolated from social networks; Magaldi uses the device-generated content to model a sound and visual sculpture that the audience can walk through going down to the stalls. The images and sounds chosen by the artist investigate the dark and bright sides of technology, drawing on an imagery of ironic overtones that stand between the surreal and the hyperreal, and expressions close to the universe of memes.

The audience becomes a compulsive creator of content

Like an orchestra, Vainglory performs fragments of a contemporary piece always in balance between widespread creativity and the background buzz of our lives, representing the process of art democratization and the transformation of the public from a passive element to a compulsive creator of content.

An exhibited egotism that suffocates creativity

The assonance of the title theVices and these actual prostheses that are now the devices populating our daily lives, clearly summarizes the warning of the artist, it denounces a social condition that affects each of us: the constant need to create new, original, and attractive content for winning few seconds of an increasingly insubstantial celebrity. The reversal proposed by Magaldi with Vainglory makes the motion of pride evident, the misplaced boast of this exhibited egocentrism that generates a noise that suffocates even creativity, while remaining far from the stage.

Responsible – and sustainable – use of devices

Vainglory is a project in partnership with Chimpy, PC4Change and Shift,, companies that have been committed for years to the reduction of the environmental impact in the electronics industry. A thoughtful decision, that completes the sense of Magaldi’s work, placing emphasis on the evermore pressing need to consider environmental sustainability in the diffusion of devices.

The installation also aims to promote the responsible use of electronic devices, raise awareness on the reuse and recycling of materials, and implement a circular economic system able to increase the durability of products and minimize waste and the consequent environmental impact.