Sneak Peek

The work Sneak Peek is an interactive installation conceived by the artist Carlo Caloro as a fleeting interpretation of a near future in which technology meets nature by mimicking it. The title, “Sneak Peak”, suggests the act of obtaining a brief preview, a quick look at what will happen later in time. Not lacking in irony, the work presents itself as an animated object that blends with nature, causing the slow destruction of both itself and the natural elements that are part of it. The kinetic sculpture consists of a slender wooden table structure upon which is set a scale equipped with sensors that activate motors turning in the undergrowth below. The active participation of the public is simultaneously both an integral part and the engine itself of the work: visitors are invited to place all the plastic objects they are carrying or wearing upon the scale calibrated by the artist that is part of a technological system equipped with sensors. Each time something is set on the scale pan to be weighed, the sensors that are connected by wires to the motors below, activate the motors. The motors are furnished with toothed discs and at each input from the scale, respond by causing the discs to rotate among the vegetation, like buzzing hornets hidden among the leaves. Their action is calibrated on the basis of the weight of the plastic objects: the greater the weight, the greater the operating time of the motors. At each activation, the running of the motors causes an inevitable wear and tear on the installation itself, as the toothed wheels consume the legs of the table, at the same time slowing down and compromising the growth of the flowers, plants and brush found at the foot of the installation. This play of action and reaction leads the viewers to carefully consider the size of their plastic objects, visually translating it into movement and energy of consumption. The artist thereby sets himself up as the main observer of the dynamics of a complex and richly paradoxical system that constructs ecosystems whose precarious balance coexists with possible future threats. Poised between technological conquest and environmental losses, the work stands as an ulterior interlocutor and instrument of observation, effectively offering the public the opportunity to intervene (and reflect) on the multiple agents involved in the composition of the work, comprising the gaze of, or rather the peek taken by the visitors themselves.