fuse*

Fuse (stylised as fuse*) is a multidisciplinary art studio based in Modena, Italy.

fuse* was founded in 2007 by Luca Camellini and Mattia Carretti^[1] in Campogalliano, a small town north of Modena, Italy. Friends since childhood, they started mixing their different skills and interests to technically support external organizations and companies after graduating from their respective colleges. Camellini graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and has pursued his passion for computer programming and graphical simulations, whilst Carretti graduated with a degree in Chemistry and later in Business Administration from the Polytechnic University of Milan.^[2] Their passion for digital arts, technology and science brought them to merge the three through immersive art installation and artworks. Sound design has always been one of the main pillars of the studio, and in 2009 sound designer Riccardo Bazzoni also joined fuse*. Snow Fall^[3] was the first artistic project realized in 2009 in Modena, which consisted of an interactive installation that processed images of the audience captured by video cameras in real time, displaying the silhouettes of the audience surrounded by snowflakes.^[4] This first version was created with infrared cameras while the successive iterations of the work, exhibited in Manchester, UK (2015) and Washington DC, US (2019),^[5][6] employed new and more modern hardware and software.

In 2011, the studio began to experiment with live performances based on the real-time interaction between sound, movement and light. N 4.0, an art piece which is projected onto a variety of architectural backgrounds, was first presented in 2011 for the Celeste Prize art competition, in which the piece won the award for Live Media/Performance.^[7][8] Continuing to experiment with live performances, fuse* started developing a trilogy composed of Ljòs (Light in Icelandic),^[9] Dökk (Darkness)^[10] and Sál (Soul) in 2014. Ljòs and Dökk are currently on tour and have been presented at international festivals such as Mutek - Montreal (CA),^[11] Kikk - Namur (BE),^[12] Digilogue - Istanbul (TR)^[13] and RomaEuropa -  Rome (IT).^[14] Sál, the third chapter, is still in production.^[15]

Over the years, the studio has developed more and more immersive artistic experiences that have traveled all around the world and have been exhibited, among others, in Prague (CZ),^[16] Beijing (CN),^[17] Milan (IT),^[18] Barcelona (ES),^[19] Helsinki (FI)^[20] and Atlanta (US).^[21]

Multiverse premiered in 2017 in Parma, Italy with a monumental installation consisting of a vertical projection and two mirroring surfaces 7.5 meters high.^[22] The work builds on the multiverse theory of Lee Smolin and won awards such as the Art and Science Innovation Award from Tsinghua University and the National Museum of China.^[23] In 2020, the studio started diving into the concept of trust and developed Treu, a piece examining the relationship between economics, politics, and trust, presented at the Pochen Symposium of 2020.^[24][25] The concept has been further developed for the studio's second solo show at Artechouse NYC, titled Trust (2022): Exploring the Theme from Different Timelines, the installation also includes a sentiment analysis of 750,000 tweets containing the word “trust” uploaded during the pandemic.^[26][27][28]

That same year, the studio released Artificial Botany, an ongoing project exploring botanical illustrations through machine learning algorithms: premiered at Cosmo Caixa in Barcelona (ES),^[19] it has later been adapted for shows in Venice (IT)^[29][30][31] and Utrecht (NL).^[32] In particular, the project has also been adapted for the spaces of Unipol's Cultura Bologna,^[33] using illustrations from the herbarium guides of Ulisse Aldrovandi provided by the University Library of Bologna, the Botanical Garden of Bologna and Alma Mater Studiorum.^[34][35]

In July of 2022, fuse* created Luna Somnium, a site-specific installation for the Festival of Vision and Digital Transition held in the Gazometro of Rome.^[36] The piece consisted of a sphere suspended within the cylindrical metal structure of the Gazometro, with projections of the moon displayed upon it.^[37] The piece is said to be inspired by Johannes Kepler, who gazed upon the moon and saw a new side of it, just as viewers do as they walk around the Gazometro.^[38]

The studio also collaborated with Nederlands Kamerkoor, combining the choir's music with the visuals of their live media performance Van Gogh in Me, generated from paintings of Vincent van Gogh and Gustav Klimt. The piece premiered in the Konzerthaus in Vienna,^[39] and later was on exhibit at the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam.^[40]

In 2023, Onirica (), a new audiovisual, immersive installation, premiered at INOTA Festival in Veszprém (HU). For this particular artwork, the studio collaborated with two dream banks: the first from the Laboratory of Psychophysiology of Dream and Sleep of the University of Bologna, and the second from the psychology department of the University of California Santa Cruz, created by psychologists G. W. Domhoff and A. Schneider.^[41] Onirica () collects 28,748 dreams from these two banks and translates them into an audiovisual experience through a Large Language Model (LLM) and a custom pipeline that included a text-to-image diffusion model.

Since 2016, fuse* has been actively involved in the organisation of NODE,^[42][43] an international festival for digital arts and live-media held in Modena.

• Sál, 2025^[15]
• Onirica (), 2023^{[44][45][46][47][48][49]}
• Luna Somnium, 2022^[36][38][37]
• Trust, 2022^[26][28][27]
• Van Gogh in Me, 2022^[39][40]
• Fragile, 2022^[50]
• Multiverse.dome, 2021^[51]
• Treu, 2020^[24][25]
• Falin Mynd, 2020^[52]
• Mimesis, 2020^[53][54]
• Artificial Botany, 2020^[33]
• Everything in Existence, 2019^[55]
• Multiverse, 2018^[56]
• Dökk, 2017^[10]
• Amygdala, 2016^[57][58]
• Clepsydra, 2016^[59]
• Ljós, 2014^[9]
• N 4.0, 2011^[7]
• Snow Fall, 2009^[3]