UWS | Ciro Potenza

I often consider what led me to the path I am on. Perhaps it was when I was a child that I became fascinated by the artwork and design of my father's vinyl collection. It led me to find out about the artist Storm Thorgerson - he filled my imagination with images that made me think about ideas and creativity. After studying photography, my first consideration of being part of New Media Art started with an immersive audio/visual experience, 'Afterlife', presented by the electronic music duo Tale of Us. This experience had a profound effect on my ambitions and direction. It led me to study experimental, psychedelic and Avant-Garde artists like Jud Yalkutt, Scott Bartlett, Bruce Conner, and Stan Brakhage. Like most people, if not all, I have had difficulties in these years affected by the Covid pandemic; however, I am resilient and used the downtime to plan. I used the freedom of time from work to refine new skills I learned at university and undertake videography and photography projects, including recording the world situation. In these challenging times, I found videography to express my art in a way photography couldn't. As my practice developed, I found the need to document people's experiences in music events. This need led me to capture those using camera movements, light, rhythm, sound and editing. Although I used digital techniques, I wanted to maintain the mood and feel of the work of experimental artists of the Psychedelic and Avant-Garde movements discovered in my research. For this work, I decided to take an approach based on a concept that I call "ephemeral participation". As an artist, I immerse myself in the audience. There is no stage; every attendee is an artist. I experiment with capturing the audience experience with moving images and post-production techniques. I combine experimental ideas with new technology using action cameras as an extension of my body. I use abstraction to depict the audience's expression of their sentiments and intentions. The outcome is an organic psychedelic moment, a reflection of ephemerality. I want to document the body's impermanence and the transient atmosphere of live events. My work shares the same ground as documentary photography, but instead of focusing on the artists on stage, it focuses on the audience and participation. To successfully document the transiency of the audience, the artist must participate and be part of the performance. To be just an observer would inevitably alter the outcome. Music events continue to generate new creative practices, and formal documentation leaves audience participation undetected and therefore lost. The audience is essential and complementary to the artist on stage; it is part of the performance. I found in my practice as a New Media artist I am drawn to this constructed approach. In essence, I want to depict the invisible ecstatic moment. I seek these in my life, in my imagination and here in my work.