At the beginning we wanted to make the installation in the real alley of Ca’ Dario but we found technical problems such as the absence of electricity so we tried to make the ghostly mood believable by constructing the alley in the studio, recreating the environment as realistically as possible with paper, cardboard and other materials. This setting permitted us to have the same unnerving atmosphere and work in an easier way at the same time.
Another strength of our project is the evocative ways we used to recall the deaths of the owners. We identified the essential aspects of each death and showed them by giving just the impression of how the owners died. This preserved the enigmatic and elusive mood of the project.
We didn’t have enough time to develop in depth all the elements concerning each death we had designed. Some of these elements were too mechanical and/or expensive, such as the candles which come out from the wall for Filippo Giordano delle Lanze and the lit engraving on the mirror-window for Nicoletta Ferrari. We chose to prototype the death of Raul Gardini because it was the easiest to do and the most strong in terms of impression, even without the smell of gunpowder we tried to reproduce with some experiments.
We could also improve the meaning of the phone/audioguide by having a different audio when the user picks up the phone. Now, when the user takes the phone the audio is the line-disconnected phone, but we could have had instead the voice of the journalist of the TV report. In this way the relationship between the phone and the TV report could be stronger and the user could be more involved and invited to live the whole experience step by step.
Another part of the installation we didn’t analyze in depth is the time between each action. To recreate the right experience the time between each interaction is very important and allows users to immerse themselves completely in the evocative atmosphere of the installation. We reached a good result in these terms but we could define this better.
Finally, we learnt that each single detail which composes the installation is really important. We understood that in a large scale project like this the most important thing which makes the whole system believable is the quality of the experience given to the user.
Memento | Context | Experience | Process | Prototype | Code | Final considerations | Credits | Downloads