Opera magazine

We told it many times: Florence is one of the most visited cities in Italy; It has a huge “artistic density”. On one side this high concentration of art and artworks leaves the people inebriated, speechless; on the other side that concentration unleashes the will of not being annihilated, swallowed up. People want to interact with that beauty and greatness, want to leave - literally as well - a sign, a keepsake of their presence; people want to appropriate that beauty somehow. If that need to leave a keepsake - to tell: Yes! I am here! - is as old as mankind, to leave a mark on monuments is an antisocial and childish behaviour, which offends and hurts what we want to interact with, a beauty which belongs to the whole human race. The civil society has the right and duty to protect the artworks and to stigmatize the offender. The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore’s immense monumental heritage has to be protected as well. We realized that the pillars of the protection of the artworks are prevention and awareness. Then we tried to figure out a way to save that need of leaving a mark, that need to tell Yes! I am here! - Autography was born. What is Autography? The Autography App is loaded on tablets available within the Campanile di Giotto. Autography allows the visitors to create digital graffiti choosing between different tools (pen, marker, paintbrush, spray and pencil), colours and virtual surfaces. Autography wants to transform the acts of vandalism in the “real” - analogical - world into a digital testimony and keepsake. The “made in Autography“ graffiti will never face removal, but they will be part of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore's digital archive. Autography sensitizes the visitor against the acts of vandalism, and it allows him to vent his impulse to leave a mark: yet a digital one. That mark becomes part of a new story: the “made in Autography“ graffiti will never face removal, but they will be part of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore's digital archive.

Opera magazine

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From vandalism to testimony: with Autography it is all a matter of semantics...