Emanuele Cidonelli
engineering participation
Emanuele Cidonelliengineering participation

A non-exhaustive account of an exhausting journey…

  1. Emanuele Cidonelli
    Hello.
    I’m Emanuele.
    I was born in Gela, Sicily.
    Here’s how I got here.
  2. Photo placeholder: Gela. Sicily. Just landed. No briefing. No user manual.
    Gela. Sicily. Just landed. No briefing. No user manual.
  3. A childhood computer
    Island life. Beaches, food, ancient history—and a mafia war. Some places shape you before you know it.
  4. Photo placeholder: I write funny poems for bored children. The audience is small, but highly demanding.
    I write funny poems for bored children. The audience is small, but highly demanding.
  5. Photo placeholder: I write funny poems for bored children. The audience is small, but highly demanding.
    My first act in on the world stage. Literrally.
  6. Photo placeholder: No Windows. No mouse. No friendly folders. C:\> dir — apparently, you have to ask nic
    Dad's computer. Olivetti. No Windows. No mouse. No friendly folders. C:\> dir — apparently, you have to ask nicely.
  7. Photo placeholder: Friends, teenage complexes, and rock ’n’ roll.
    High school. Foreign Languages, Technologies, School trips, and an amazing squad.Loved every bit.
  8. Photo placeholder: Friends, teenage complexes, and rock ’n’ roll.
    Rocking the teen age. Friends, bands, nintendos. Making history.
  9. A childhood game console
    I start making films. Reality clearly needs editing.
  10. Photo placeholder: January 1, 2002. Italy gets the euro. My mother sends me to buy bread with a new coin
    My mother sends me to buy bread with a new coin. We’re in Europe now, whatever that means.
  11. Photo placeholder: January 1, 2002. Italy gets the euro. My mother sends me to buy bread with a new coin
    Family got big. A lot bigger.
  12. Rome, where Emanuele moved to study film
    I leave the island for Rome to study film at Sapienza. Nobody understands why. Neither do I. I discover the real carbonara, urban life and Bill Viola.
  13. On a film set
    Rome. I start working in the film industry. The credits get longer. So do the days.
  14. Photo placeholder: Erasmus in Paris. The whole world in one city. Animation is the real art.
    Paris. Erasmus. Island's boy discovers the world in one city.
  15. Photo placeholder: Vienna, and human rights work by pure chance. It turns out digital artists can commun
    Vienna. Human rights work finds me,a lmost by accident. It turns out a digital artist can be useful beyond the arts.
  16. Photo placeholder: I earn an MA in Theatre, Cinema and Digital Arts. Happy and confused: a graduate dive
    I earn an MA in Theatre, Cinema and Digital Arts. Qualified, happy and still unsure what to call myself.
  17. Community arts work in Cambodia
    Cambodia. Art can help communities tell difficult stories. I learn to feel sad for a past I never lived.
  18. Photo placeholder: Vietnam, Thailand, Albania, Kosovo, London, Nepal… getting lost, in the hope of findi
    Vietnam, Thailand, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, London... I travel and work with multimedia projects, getting lost often enough to learn from it.
  19. Photo placeholder: At UCLA’s REMAP programme, I get one chance to prove it all makes sense: non-linear s
    Working and living in Nepal. Unlearning everything to learn it again.
  20. Photo placeholder: At UCLA’s REMAP programme, I get one chance to prove it all makes sense: non-linear s
    Los Angeles, UCLA. I get one chance to show how the pieces might fit together.
  21. Community recovery work
    I work in countries affected by conflict. Film, digital tools and anthropology become ways to help communities shape their own recovery. Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen...
  22. Community recovery work
    .. but Ethiopia is my new home, and Africa is the ocean to explore.
  23. UNESCO and cultural policy work in Paris
    Back to Paris, to join UNESCO. I take the oath and suit up.
  24. Photo placeholder: Nick Cave is real, and he plays concerts in Paris.
    Nick Cave is real, and plays in Paris.
  25. Photo placeholder: Culture, technology and development finally make sense together. I’m not a divergent.
    Travelling the world to meet 100+ artists and talk with them about their role in future society. Probably my tailor-made PhD.
  26. Humanitarian coordination work in Niger
    Niger. In the desert, among displaced communities, the river, giraffes and Tuareg blues, simple explanations rarely survive contact with reality. “Only rich countries have conflict.” The field has other ideas.
  27. Leaving the UN’
    “You know, Mial, all this time we spent on the road, something happened. Something I’ll have to think about for a long time.". I need to quit. I will travel for one year and...
  28. Photo placeholder: …Thank you, COVID.
    … nevermind. Thank you, COVID. Stuck on the island. Making up for 15 years of absence.
  29. Wife
    Unexpected destinations. Met my wife. So much for the itinerary.
  30. Training in shcools
    Walking back on my footprints. Training students from my former schools on digital technologies and creativity. And sharing with them stories from the outside world.
  31. A quiet lakeside home
    Wild Rosalia. An off-grid house by the lake. I start work on my first big independent project…
  32. Work in Sierra Leone
    Sierra Leone. Listening before acting is finally a discipline. I help make room for it.
  33. Photo placeholder: And then my second one. Longer-term.
    My second big indepedent project. Longer-term.
  34. Photo placeholder: From films to data, from policy to AI. The labels change; the questions stay. Diverge
    From films to data, from policy to AI, everything finally makes sense together. I’m not a divergent. I’m contemporary.
    (Or possibly both.)
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