I_PAD project (Italian Performance Archive in Digital)

The I_PAD project, funded under the PRIN 2022 call, enabled the digitization and long-term preservation of the archival heritage of Giacomo Verde (1956 2020), a videomaker and techno-performer. For the first time, photographs and videos from the 1980s have emerged from an old analog archive, revealing the explosion of creativity of an artist who, over forty years of activity, explored multiple languages from theatre to video to installations shattering genres, as he liked to say. A pioneer of video art and video theatre, he was among the first in Italy to create works in computer graphics, animation, and net art, producing the country s first interactive storytelling performance, Storie Mandaliche (1998 2001). His artistic practice was always aimed at direct, authentic communication and grounded in a strong sense of social and political engagement. Verde explored the intelligent and alternative use of television and, more broadly, of technologies. He combined playfulness and a sense of madness with a radical critique of the official cultural system. The ICT Department of the University of Milan supported the research team in preserving the artist s materials through the innovative digital archiving system ARKIVE.