A GIFT FOR YOU! is a special project by Pier Giorgio De Pinto.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. (George Orwell)
The project I thought for CACT Centro d’Arte Contemporanea Ticino in Switzerland I trust will celebrate this first months of 2010 with a big, provocative bang. A gift for all visitors, both real (everyone who comes along in the flesh to the various openings and events at the CACT) and virtual (everyone who visits the website or downloads the image of the flag).

I have been using and experimenting with models of communication with digital content for a long time. In recent years, the field has achieved some major breakthroughs, developing applications that increasingly involve users (inter)actively. Art, for its part, can and must set its civic and provocative vocation to work to help disseminate universal messages and concepts, also through applications that were not originally intended for the art world.

I thought about a social, supportive participatory action on the part of everyone. A sincere mirror reflecting a Europe where we live, with all its pros and cons. A Europe that talks about itself as it reaches the end of its first post-millennium decade. It is actually when a crisis hits rock bottom that he sometimes also manages to overcome his differences, to sideline the many facets of discrimination and express solidarity, because he needs to win back his dignity and ensure that his presence is respected and not just “tolerated”, especially when he lives in a foreign country.

The graphic design I have devised for CACT encompasses a code of the kind known as a QR code tag. A QR (Quick Response) code is a sort of 2D barcode whose digital content is read by scanning the code’s image, i.e. by pointing your cellphone camera at the image (in this case of the flag) and taking a picture. You can read the code with the aid of simple, lightweight application that you can download onto your cellphone free of charge. There are dozens of these applications available on the web: I have listed the relevant links with the project.

Already very common in the Far East, this technology is now also becoming popular in Europe. Lots of people are now familiar with the QR codes they use to tag graphics, links and events. For those who are not familiar with the technology just yet, the various events organised by CACT will provide an excellent opportunity to try it out. This means that the digital content I have created can be “photographed”, however big it is, from a flag several metres long to brochures only a few centimetres big, and downloaded onto a cellphone. The tribute constitutes a tangible and not only a virtual sign of participation in the events CACT, an ultra-lightweight animation in the common “.gif” format, which you can store on your cellphone or send by mms or e-mail, or exchange via a Bluetooth or infrared link with anyone in your vicinity. You can also just take the hyperlink, which will come up after you have captured the code, and key it into any browser on a PC or Mac computer (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera etc…) and view the animation that is shown on your computer, then store it or send it off again by e-mail. For example, you can upload it as a message to send and share on your profile on any of the main social networks and blogs (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, WordPress, Blogger etc…).

As you will see a few lines are really all it takes to explain how to receive digital content by “photographing” the flag. You can insert the information necessary for getting the “gift” anywhere you like: on the CACT website, or printed and even photocopied on ordinary paper it is still usable. The symbol chosen for the project is much more than a logo: although it takes the form of an attractive, colourful animation, the digital content downloaded expresses a dire warning to all the humans living on this planet. More than a gift, then, this is a piece of advice to take seriously if we don’t want the word “tolerance” to be relegated to the status of one of the many ways of discriminating, rather than of tackling the whole question sincerely. Viewers of the short animation will watch ten topical moments of a meeting between two human beings who are the mirror image of the same figure. The two meet, talk, disagree and try to shut each other out; then one of the two plays the card of dialogue and that is the moment when the other one stops, listens, accepts, gets himself back under control and realises the other’s value: he accepts the other and feels solidarity with him, like a reflection that returns its own image.

A kiss of brotherhood seals a finale that we all hope will become the general practice between peoples, not just in Europe, but all over the world.

Some months ago, I came across a fine quotation by Zygmunt Bauman in an Italian newspaper, concerning this very question of diversity and tolerance.

[...] The question is not one of being tolerant towards people who are different, not any more. Tolerance is actually very often just another side of discrimination. The challenge we have to face today comprises progressing from that attitude of tolerance to a higher level: an attitude of solidarity. [...] (From Quel diverso che ci fa paura. Perché la tolleranza non basta più (The difference that scares us. Why tolerance is not enough any more), Zygmunt Bauman, La Repubblica, 16 November 2009).

So I decided to accompany the digital animation with a provocative quote from Baumann, who warns us Europeans to explore the possibility of dialogue: it’s up to us to accept the challenge.

The time has come to understand that differences are a source of inestimable wealth.

How to receive the digital content of the Prix QuARTier des Bains banner/flag.

There are plenty of websites and applications that can be downloaded free of charge onto your cellphone so that you can read the QR Code I have created for CACT.

I have downloaded and use Quickmark Reader for a Nokia E51, but there are comparable downloadable applications for any cellphone. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a smartphone: all you need is a cellphone with a camera (which does not have to be high resolution). Some applications can be downloaded directly by linking up with your cellphone, while others can only be downloaded to a PC and then have to be transferred to your cellphone (via bluetooth or cable link or by e-mail).

Here is a list of websites where you can download the readers or create your own new QR Codes.

Only from PC/MAC

QuickMark

http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/memlogin/login.asp

It’s the best reader.In order to download the reader, you are required to register for an account before you get access to the download.

Directly from your mobile

NeoReader

Users looking to download the NeoReader must access the following URL on their mobile phones browser http://get.neoreader.com/ - after doing so, NeoReader will automatically detect your mobile phones manufacturer. Next, follow the quick and easy installation instructions.

A list of the best QR-Code Readers available to download on the web

Mobile Barcodes

http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

Once you have downloaded the program to your cellphone:

-Go to the program’s icon and open the program.

-You’ll see that it automatically switches your cellphone’s camera on, which will show you a sort of frame so that you can centre the QR code.

-Aim the camera at the image of the banner or the logo.

-It will only take the program one second to recognise the code, then your cellphone screen will read “A GIFT FOR YOU!”, followed by a link.

At this stage, you can choose:

-To click on the link to download the animation immediately and store it on your cellphone or send it to whomever you like (it only weighs a few Kb).

-To copy the link into a browser on your computer and see the animation open up. Then you can decide whether to store it and send it to anyone else.

Easy, isn’t it?

Send this message of solidarity on to as many people as you can!

The time has come to understand that differences are a source of inestimable wealth.

Pier Giorgio De Pinto

April 1st 2010 <