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Projection introduced by ALMARE in dialogue with Rodolfo Sacchettini

The film consists of a single voice narration over a sequence of dark backgrounds with Italian and English subtitles. Backgrounds and titles are entirely shot from movable type prints. No other image is present in the film.
The screenplay is written in a language that mixes old and contemporary Italian, and integrates excerpts from literature, poetry and essays.

The plot 
Set in a fictional society, Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U. is an audio-diary that follows the adventures of researcher Dorothea as she extracts (and resells) sounds from the past. 
Thanks to a technology called ECHO, it is possible to analyse the sound waves that have been engraved on every surface over the centuries. ECHO reveals the audio traces imprinted in matter, allowing any sound to be recovered. Dorothea Ïesj receives a scholarship financed by the war industry and the powerful university association “Societas Paleoacusticæ Universalis”, better known as S.P.U., to analyse sound artefacts related to military actions, which she then smuggles with a group of colleagues.

Preface
The trilogy is inspired by pseudo-scientific theories developed in the 19th century, at the same time as the Growing development of recording technologies. These included archaeoacoustics, which suggested the possibility of tracing acoustic phenomena of the past that remained “engraved” in matter. Extracting sounds is currently impossible, but plausible: this hypothesis prompts reflection on its consequences in terms of social control and monitoring. 

Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U. investigates the link between data capitalism, technology, and value creation, reflecting on the use of archaeological artefacts, archives, and memory as instruments of power and control. The narrative structure of Life Chronicles develops from certain premises that are already current in our socio-economic system, such as the use of voice data, non-consensual recordings, and voiceprints. Self-tracing is already a reality, and our recordings are already part of the archaeological realm, as they begin sliding towards gradual obsolescence just as they happen.


The medium: between audio and video
Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U. is an audio narrative, with subtitles in Italian and English in video format, and therefore stands at the frontier of radio, film, and literature, in a hybrid genre that has a long artistic and cinematic tradition in videos without images. The script is written in a dystopian language that mixes ancient and contemporary Italian. It originates from the exchange of emails and messages between the members of ALMARE, and openly quotes and alters extracts from essays, novels, film scripts, and video games.

a project by ALMARE
curated by Radio Papesse
promoted in collaboration with Timespan

Produced thanks to the support of the Italian Council – a program to promote Italian art by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.