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Research residency at PADA Studios in Barreiro, across the Tagus from Lisbon, inside a semi-abandoned industrial park where nature grows back over the remains of production. Focus on superposition as an ontological principle, and on worldbuilding and theory fiction as tools for rooting participatory actions in everyday life.

aaroninker.substack.comFuturepunk!PADA Studios Research residency

Visuals for Modeselektor at Magazzini Generali, Milan, November 2025: a cartoonish set built from the monkey logo — animated transitions, coloured explosions and 3D fluid meshes over a moving moiré background.

aaroninker.substack.comA Night with… MODESELEKTOR!Visuals for the Berlin duo

Third participation in LPM, the international meeting of the audio-visual community, hosted again in the Sahara near M’Hamid El Ghislane, Morocco.

aaroninker.substack.comDesert!Another LPM edition

Tutoring for the third edition of Glitch Lab, a Turin-based residency on new technologies and artistic storytelling, this time on ecofeminism: workshops and field explorations along the Po, the Dora and the Cervo, in collaboration with Spazio Hydro and Fluviale.

aaroninker.substack.comFlow ChartGlitch lab tutoring

Visuals for the Hyperdub night at BASE Milano, with Cooly G, Tim Reaper and Kode9; the palette is drawn from the event flyer.

aaroninker.substack.comHyperdub visuals!

For the second event of “Esseri Reciproci”, representing Spazio Hydro once more, Annalisa Zegna and I were invited to talk about “How can cultural organizations lead towards sustainable coexistence?” at a talk for TOLAB, the educational side of Todays Festival in Turin.

A talk that involved various realities from Italy and Europe developing cultural initiatives in public spaces in close contact with natural ecosystems, with the aim of stimulating a common reflection on sustainability and on reducing the environmental impact of events, festivals and cultural initiatives. A practical and cultural confrontation between sustainable organizational models that aim to transform urban natural areas into places of encounter, participation and artistic experimentation.

Esseri Reciproci combines art, science and activism to investigate the link between urban and natural space and the relationship between community and environment. A path open to different disciplines to rethink new ways of taking care of spaces, living them and bringing them to life by offering new places of expression in dialogue with and respect for the environment.

Guests: Spazio Hydro (Biella), Imbarchino (Turin), Opera Festival (Milo, Sicily), Slow Fest (France)

Annalisa Zegna and I, as visual artists and co-founders of Spazio Hydro, spent a wonderful day in the mountains of the Aosta Valley as guests of the Casa Walser artistic residency.

Remixing our approach to field-work in visual art, we guided the residents through a series of activities aimed at discovering the surroundings, questioning the relationship between human and otherness and expanding the reflection on what is to be considered home beyond the walls of our buildings.

I was invited along with Annalisa Zegna, on behalf of Spazio Hydro, to take part in Esseri Reciproci, a series of events, meetings and workshops curated by Imbarchino del Valentino in collaboration with PAV – Parco Arte Vivente and Spazio Hydro, combining art, science and architecture to investigate the link between urban and natural space and the relationship between community and environment. The theme of environmental disclosure was the focus of this first event, explored through different approaches: artistic practices, scientific disclosure and grassroots activism.

During the event our work Luria was exhibited, and we also took part as speakers in the talk.

Simposio is a collective residency that takes place in the Dolomites:

“Simposio is a collective exercise of imagination and dialogue, a ritual of reconnection and cultural activism to exorcise common fears, meet, re-acquaint ourselves, and learn from each other, from one to the others.”

Four days of talks and workshops, and some walks around the mountains too.

This time I was invited among the speakers to present my work and the connection between Spazio Hydro and Osservatorio sul Torrente.

SAARV was screened during the Celidonia exhibition in Marano Vicentino.

“On the first weekend of July, the indoor and outdoor spaces of the train station in Marano Vicentino (VI) will become the setting for exhibitions, concerts, screenings and video performances with Celidonia, a contemporary art, cinema and music festival, conceived and curated by Casa Capra, Cinema Campana and Ife Collective and included within LoVe! Land of Venice, with the collaboration of Cescot Veneto.

Celidonia is a three-day multidisciplinary review that aims to bring into play themes related to landscapes, starting with the one in which it takes up residence. The review, in fact, takes its name from a wild plant with yellow inflorescences that grows among the ruins of uncultivated places, thickets and rubble.”

Summer started with live visuals for Novara Jazz Festival, working for artists such as Shingai, Theon Cross, Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble and Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp. Here are a couple of pics.

On the VJ side, spring was an interesting start to the year, with live visuals for the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Bob Sinclar, Sven Väth and Black Coffee.

Here is a report of what I did for Jon Hopkins:

The Fluviale public programme, co-curated with Annalisa Zegna and the Spazio Hydro team, had a second season in spring 2022, supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture through the Creative Living Lab III prize.

Fluviale is a series of events established in 2021 which, through talks, workshops and moments of visual and performing arts, investigates the relationship with the river and between human and other entities. In 2022, three new thematic weekends aimed to deepen awareness of the river and its environment.

River as a common
For the first event of 2022 we expanded the theme of the river as a common, focusing on the rights of water bodies. Over this two-day event dedicated to the river as a commons and an entity deserving rights, between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we hosted a workshop on the exploration and study of aquatic environments, a talk and panel discussion open to the public with guests of national relevance, and finally a hike along the banks of the urban stretch of the Cervo torrent. Alongside the workshop activities there was the usual performative side: a performance and a DJ set dedicated to the theme.

River and the feminine
For the second event of 2022 we explored the connection between the river and the feminine sphere with two workshops and a party, in collaboration with Le Parole Fucsia – feminist collective and Il Groviglio – LGBT+ association in Biella. The weekend brought together experiences and research on the relationship between the element of water and the feminine dimension in its complexity and beauty: Water Info Transmission, a practice of movement, sound and hydro-feminist research with Francesca Mariano, and Irresistibile Rinascita, a meeting of reflection and sharing with Silvia Ricetti starting from the experience of menstruation and bodily fluidity. Alongside the workshops, Saturday evening hosted the Queer party.

River as a wild environment
For the third event of 2022 we explored the world of plants and microorganisms living near the river, with a wild herb foraging walk and a bacterial fermentation lab with Nicolò Pagnanelli (Spontaneus lab) and Pietro Ganni (EDGA association). After the walk and the lab we celebrated with a wild tasting open to the public, accompanied by Malamacabre's DJ set.

A short report of the two weeks spent at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto for the Unidee winter residency.

The first round was on the topic Artwork as toolkit, following the “embedded practice” trail set by visiting curator Andy Abbott:

“The ‘Artwork as Toolkit’ lab will begin with the question ‘What are our tools?’ This lab stems from the intersection of two online platforms such as www.arte-util.org and www.dpe.tools presented by Alessandra Saviotti in collaboration with Gemma Medina and Owen Griffiths. Starting from the recent usological turn we will look into a set of tools and exercises developed as part of both platforms – such as the ‘Coefficient of Art’ and ‘A Capitalist Reading of our Usual Breakfast’ – that place art at the outset of the development of a set of tactics to achieve societal change. Analysing the idea of ‘the-artwork-as-toolkit’ the mentors will propose to look at how socially engaged art can be understood as an expanded technology that manifests itself as practices on a 1:1 scale. From our diverse and often specific practices and projects what surplus can we share, preserve, ferment and take forward for the future?”

The second week, in the same wake, explored tools for commoning:

“In the ‘Tools for the Commons’ lab we hope to bring together the experiences of artists and activists creating spaces for the growth of the commons; from the micro level of the individual, personal or subjective, through to the reclaiming or occupation of urban space, and the influencing of planning and policy. Mentors Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio will draw upon their experiences in occupied art and cultural spaces MACAO (Milan) and L’Asilo (Naples) as well as the postcapitalist think-tank the Institute of Radical Imagination. Long-term comrades and collaborators Keir Milburn and Gareth Brown will bring a UK perspective on creative activism including the use of political strategy games, utopian consciousness raising sessions, and the establishment of Public-Common-Partnerships. What tools (or toys) for establishing and developing the commons can we identify, adapt or invent? Which of these are we able and willing to share, and under what terms?”

As a result of the workshops we produced a fair amount of post-it clusters and wall graphs, and a handmade comic about the lovesick despair of a mole in a dystopian future. (All pictures by Nicole Sanchez.)

Some pictures of the outdoor activities I led as a visiting tutor for BEAR – ArtEZ University students during their residency at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto.

The subject of the workshop was the river as a common, as a material and as an entity.

In particular, the process revolved around the topic “Decolonising the gaze to re-enchant reality”: a path from the situationist dérive, through magic, from wander to wonder, storytelling and hyperstition.

Getting lost in a place to suspend our construction of reality, find new perspectives and develop devices or narratives to care for otherness.

The Cervo project room presents a series of researches carried out over the last year by the artists Annalisa Zegna and aaron inker on the Cervo torrent as a central element of the Biella territory, through a reflection on ecology, environment and the relationship between human and non-human. It comprises two parts: an archive and an installation space.

The exhibition took place at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto from 30 October to 31 December.

The first part is an archive in the making and the initial phase of the Osservatorio sul Torrente project, an interdisciplinary research platform focusing on the river as a common and as a central element in the social, political, cultural and economic development of the Biella area. The Osservatorio aims to collect and promote interdisciplinary research and in-depth studies that question the relationship between the inhabitants and the river, and to stimulate new participatory experiences that bring out the less considered or forgotten aspects of the territory, triggering other imaginaries and building a new collective narrative of the relationship with the river.

The installation space includes Luria and Unænthropic devices, works that reflect on the human–otherness relation, that try to suspend reality and reconsider it, that try to convey the sense of vertigo of facing concepts and matters (even materials) that transcend the human scale – perhaps imaginable but not fully understandable – and that can offer a new dimension, perspective or horizon to our being human in a context so complex, chaotic and constantly changing.

cheFare published on its website an essay on what happened this summer at the Profondo workshop, including a mailing list to keep up to date with the next steps of the programme.

A couple of pics from the VJ sets for Brich and Modvlar parties.

Jazz:Re:Found is a second family, a wonderful festival and a great place to work. This year I was also invited to a round table on the future development of the area where it takes place.

Representing Hydro, I went to Mandatoriccio, on the Ionian coast of Calabria, where the Castello dell'Arso stands. I was invited by Fiuminarso to attend Contropendenze Festival and to take part in a round table with associations and cultural centres on co-design, cultural activity and the development of peripheral territories.

For the second year in a row I took part in UFOria, a visual and performing arts residency held between the Mastronauta cultural centre in Omegna and Fluviale festival in Biella. The residency aims to (re)discover the spaces of everyday life, reconnecting the less known or forgotten specificities of a territory with the people who inhabit it.

At the heart of the 2021 residency was the exchange between the collectives Migma and Parini Secondo. The work developed from sampling, a practice shared by both collectives, as a tool for research and creation.

A week in Ancona with Scuola Open Source for their workshop XYZ Orbite. The goal was to co-design a network of regenerated spaces for cultural purposes.

Together with Hydro we organised a workshop to explore the relationship between the citizens of Biella and the Cervo river, which flows through the city. We asked cheFare, a cultural association from Milan, to help us, and so Profondo was born: a workshop to reflect on the meaning of some words related to ecology and climate change. Together with Federico Nejrotti we took the participants to put their feet in the water and reflect on their relationship with the environment, nature and “the otherness”.

The day before, to prepare ourselves, we hosted the presentation of two books: “La rivolta del verde” by Lucilla Barchetta, and the Italian translation of “The Mushroom at the End of the World” by Anna Tsing, with a commentary by Dario Bassani.

A couple of VJ sets this summer for Club Nation’s Nuove Forme events: event-specific visuals in the Giardini della Triennale, Milan, for Vladimir Ivkovic and John Talabot.

A special concert at the Borgogna Museum in Vercelli, an experiment in synaesthesia by an unprecedented trio: me on the visual side, Luca Sigurtà, electronic composer, and Sergio Sorrentino, guitarist. A good way to be back on stage!

Together with Annalisa Zegna, a couple of days of talks and presentations about our work, our research process and creative ecology approach, and more generally about the human–otherness relation.

A presentation on “art as field research on a territory” and a studio visit for the participants of Re:earth, a residential week for musicians and visual artists that aims “to translate the sounds of nature in a musical code capable of making the listeners participate, through an experiential journey within a musical world created by the artists themselves. The project starts from the need to involve the artistic musical world with the concept of common good of the natural world. From here starts the idea of ‘giving voice’ to the Earth taking into account the changes that are taking place.”

Then a talk with Kabul Magazine: Redesigning the male: the ecoqueer challenge to the manthropocene. Starting from “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” by Ursula K. Le Guin (1986), in which the author questions the dominant narrative that sees the weapon as the most important artifact produced by humans and crucial to their evolution, giving importance instead to the carrier bag, the container, an instrument that literally contains, preserves, takes care. The relationship between the two symbols allows us to reflect on the foundations of the Anthropocene, investigated in this meeting from the point of view of the responsibility of the male subject, summarized in the term “Malehood”.

“What do we mean by a re-discussion of hegemonic masculinity? How are ‘models of masculinity’ constructed? How can this re-discussion help in the environmental crisis we are experiencing? What does ecofeminism mean? And, finally, how do male-centric imaginaries act within the world of gaming?”