LOVOTIC – Y · Charlotte Gainsbourg in conversation with Massimo Torrigiani
EPISODE 3 — SEASON I · Soundwalk Collective · LOVOTIC-X
On Saturday 23 April 2022, FOROF and Soundwalk Collective presented LOVOTIC – Y, the third Episode of the LOVOTIC-X programme, featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg in conversation with Massimo Torrigiani. The dialogue explored the future of gender and sexuality, starting from the questions raised by the audiovisual installation LOVOTIC, which inhabits the spaces of FOROF.
Suggested photo: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Massimo Torrigiani in conversation in the FOROF spaces.
LOVOTIC and new grammars of desire
With LOVOTIC, a multisensory and multidisciplinary site-specific project, Soundwalk Collective investigates the possibility that emotional, sexual and even loving relationships may emerge between humans and robots. Within this framework, LOVOTIC – Y offered an open reflection on new forms of desire, on the languages we use to describe them, and on the categories that still attempt to contain them.
Taking as a starting point the neologism “LOVOTIC”, discussed by Paul B. Preciado in the text written for the project — a term that fuses the sphere of love with that of the biological, the technological, the symbolic and the robotic — the conversation intertwined theory, experience and imagination.
Suggested photo: detail of the LOVOTIC installation in the background, with the audience seated around the speakers.
Dialogue with the audience
Structured as a questions & answers session, the event actively involved the audience, inviting participants to take a stance on topics such as gender fluidity, non-binary identities, interspecies relations and possible forms of intimacy between humans and artificial intelligence.
Through questions, personal accounts and direct exchanges with the speakers, the conversation traced a path of transformation and awareness, offering tools to read the present and imagine futures in which traditional categories of gender and sexuality appear increasingly porous and in motion.
Suggested photo: close-up of the dialogue between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Massimo Torrigiani, with audience in the background.
The LOVOTIC-X programme
LOVOTIC-X, curated by Soundwalk Collective, is a monthly programme that, through talks, performances and happenings, explores the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence in the context of sexuality, identity and gender, between present time and speculative futures. Each Episode features artists and authors who have directly contributed to the making of LOVOTIC or whose research strongly resonates with that of the Collective.
Suggested photo: wide view of the space with the LOVOTIC installation and the audience gathered for the Episode.
Conviviality
In keeping with FOROF’s approach, the Episode concluded with a food and wine experience curated by Rimessa Roscioli, conceived in dialogue with the themes raised during the conversation and extended into a shared convivial moment with the audience.
Suggested photo: informal end-of-evening moment with guests and audience in the FOROF spaces.