Category Archives: Compositions

“From Irredentists to Dentists”, and the first Croatian Conference on Light Pollution (pibinko.org News, Jun. 17, 2019)

Compositions

Header image: two globe luminaires silhouetted on the ancient walls of the village of Rab.

From June 14 to June 16 I was invited to give a presentation at the first Croatian conference on light pollution, in the stunning setting of the Rab Island, and namely in the area of Lopar. The event was triggered by the launch of a national law on light pollution, and the interest by various stakeholders to increase awareness on this topic. The invitation I had derived from various pre-existing contacts withing the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, the participation in 2013 to an international measurement campaign on the island of Lastovo, and other interconnections.

The venue of the conference in Lopar. In addition to a majority attendees from Croatia, various delegates were coming from Slovenia, Bosnia, England, and Italy. You may find a partial coverage (in Croatian) on the event from this article on Novi List.

Concerning the talk on BuioMetria Partecipativa, I provided a summary of our experiences since 2008, and our point of view on some of the light pollution issues. Such viewpoint comes from the mediation of numerous contacts with a wide range of subjects active in different roles related to artificial light at night, and light pollution research, as well as an extensive track record of community engagement initiatives, including citizen science campaign, and outreach and education events.

Furthermore, in the presentation we proposed various potential lines of collaboration between Italy, Croatia, and other countries facing the Adriatic sea, also considering the fact that the effects of artificial lighting from Italy are in many cases well detectable from the Eastern coast of the Adriatic, as documented by measurement campaign which I was invited to attend in the past in the context of European projects.

With our presence at the Lopar conference (acknowledging the organizers for their hospitality), Buiometria Partecipativa, a small bottom-up project launched in 2008 in the Farma Valley, one of the lesser known parts of Tuscany, is maintaining its commitment to represent Italy in a European context, on a topic which many people consider a niche. A niche which, however, has every day less motivations to be neglected, given the increasing sensitivity to environmental issues, and the fact that even small actions count, and can be related to strategies on a much wider scale, and with an interdisciplinary approach (which the pibinko.org network is quite comfortable with, anyway)

More initiatives are taking shape summing up the BuioMetria Partecipativa team and the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band , and will be announced soon. The next scheduled “situation” will be Andrea Giacomelli the the third Meet Music, a national workshop on music production in Follonica, on June 25.

For more information: bmp@pibinko.org

Before and after the conference…

Reaching Lopar from Southern Tuscany is a long trip. Given the interesting opportunity of the invitation for a short event, I decided to embed a “survey” campaign on the way, adopting the map(pear)ing approach. For this I needed some starting information, which materialized in the form of a book with the presentation of over 100 musicians from all over the Balkan area (and ranging East to Caucasus), and at some point a map of the country.

The stops were in Trieste (Trst), Rijeka (once Fiume) and Rab (once Arbe). For those of you receiving frequent emails with invitations to go to Croatia for dental care, I can confirm that there are a lot of facilities of this type, at least in the city. I considered that once this area was confronted by irredentists, and now, things evolved and we can find dentists. But let’s give the floor to some shots:

Trieste, the Bora museum.
Trieste, Piazza Unità d’Italia at sunset, and various types of lighting.
History
Trieste, a lighting globe, from below
Trieste, the city of knowledge
Rijeka, by the maritime station
Rijeka: a lot of care for important musical heritage
An Italian grammar for Croatians in 1957. Between “febbre” (fever) and “felice” (happy) we find “federativo” (federative).
The “Korzo” (main street) in Rijeka
The “parallel main street” 1
the parallel main street 2
the parallel main street, 3
Life
Lighting in Croatia considered wrong by Slovenian experts.
The concert by and ABBA cover band which created a score for the final part of the first day of the conference (Friday evening).
Three luminaires…one off and the others with different colour temperature.
A light in an outdoor staircase (on all day long).
LED billboards
Austrian+Hungarian heritage in the harbour of Rijeka.
For Italian forty-fifty-year-old folk who didn’t know, Sandy Marton is Croatian (since I know people called Marton in Veneto, I thought he was Italian).

Presentation of the pibinko.org Network in Brussels (May 22, 2019): How did it go?

Compositions,

Last Wednesday, after close-of-business on a workshop for research ethics in the Internet sector, I had the possibility of organizing a brief yet intense presentation of the pibinko.org network at Piola Libry, in Brussels, Belgium.

This followed our participation in early April to the final conference of the DITOs project, and various on- and off-line meetings where the pibinko.org network, and especially its Metalliferous Hills Jug Band version, is active on the topic of participatory investigation and community engagement.

More in general, this event was part of our line of Spring situations, which you find gradually announced on pibinko.org/calendar, and then documented more in detail on http://www.pibinko.org/notizie

A moment of the showcase-symposium-tasting event at Piola Libri.
The “experiential geographic information system” set up by pibinko for the event: this included maps of the area of interest at various scales, objects, news, and typical products, all inter-related.
A detail of the items related to the maps

More or less from left to right:

  1. A Tattistampa” business card (hand made)
  2. The Langscape article on ten years of open innovation in the Farma Valley, triggered by the palla a 21 mission to Chicago
  3. A palla a 21 o palla eh! ball
  4. Drum brushes to play with the Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills Jug Band)
  5. Chioccolo built by Edo Giacomelli in the Seventies in Ribolla (Southern Tuscany)
  6. Poster for the geomusical tour of the JBCM in Germany, via Politecnico di MilanoManifesto della tournée geomusicale della Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere in Germania via Politecnico di Milano
  7. Anoter palla a 21/palla eh! ball
  8. A buiometria partecipativa sticker
  9. Giù la testa CD by Etruschi from Lakota
  10. Mechanical parts produced by the BM factory in Torniella
  11. buiometro (sky quality meter)
  12. ruler
  13. book on Monte Cassino
  14. book on Woody Guthrie (from which Dario Canal and Mirio Tozzini produced a musical reading)
  15. shaker
  16. apricot juice by Bartoli Loriano
  17. aubergine cream with chili pepper by Bartoli Loriano
  18. article on the export version of the Farma Valley Winter Fest in Florence
  19. article on the Third Farma Valley Winter Fest
  20. Poster for the event with Politecnico di Milano in the Farma Valley (May 11, 2019)
  21. Farma Valley Community map, version 3

Not in the picture:

  1. A “panforte” (medieval cake from Siena, used to demonstrate an ancient game, andh then gobbled up by the players)
  2. Cavallucci (another medieval biscuit from the Siena area)
  3. Salame with Porcino mushroom, from Boccheggiano
  4. Pecorino cheese from Massa Marittima
  5. Less local pecorino cheese (but produced near our area)
  6. White Léllero (vermentino az. Bartoli Loriano)

It is interesting to note the evolution of the “catalog” from one event to the other (check out here what we presented in Florence at the end of February).

Putting together the map base and the thematic data, plus the personal background of the participants, we were able to draw an interesting picture, ranging from the definition of “Maremma” , to the role of Polish troops during the Monte Cassino operation, to ancient games and state-of-the-art environmental monitoring. We also had a surprise ending with some Sicilian flair.

For the musical part, in the absence of instruments, and not wanting to delve into body percussion, we showed some videos of the Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere, also to promote the imminent tour to Milano and Germany.

Thanks to Piola Libri for hosting the event, and to Alberto B. for suggesting the location.

For more information: info@pibinko.org o 3317539228

PANELFIT Project Workshop

Compositions

On May 22 I was invited as an expert in Brussels for a workshop of the PANELFIT (Participatory Approaches to a New Ethical and Legal Framework for ICT) project.

Should it sound strange that a geomatic hydrologist and drummer is called to work in this type of setting, it may help recalling that since 2000 I have been dealing periodically with personal data protection issues, either by creating and managing user surveys, running citizen science campaigns, and so forth. Summing these experiences, the project team assessed that I could provide useful inputs to their work

Here are some points of interest deriving from the pibinko.org network, which were included in the notes from the working groups

  • Attribution and identity as core values,
  • Citizen-based communities as additional subjects to be considered in parallel with other stakeholders, especially in relation to balancing technological priorities with social priorities.
  • As a peculiar proposal, the need to explicitly account for a relationship between urban and rural areas in the process of shaping research ethics instruments, e.g. by fostering (and sustaining) mobility of experts and legislators to rural areas during their work.

A report with the recommendations of the work will be issued in the coming months.

I thank the PANELFIT project (HORIZON 2020, N. 788039) for this opportunity. For more information info@pibinko.org

Outlined in green boxes, the items which I proposed based on the pibinko.org experiences (open the image to full size to read better).
This was the summary from the three different working groups. “Legislator mobility” and the “rural-cities” relationship are in among the instruments proposed by pibinko.org and acknowledged by the working group.

pibinko.org in Brussels, April 2019 (EIE WG and DITOs Final event)

branobags, Compositions,
In case you missed us in Brussels, find us in Tatti, Southern Tuscany, next Saturday

Before we dive in the report, we would like to remind you that the next opportunity to experience all the stories explained below (except Belgian chocolates) will be on Saturday, April 13, in Tatti, Southern Tuscany, from 6PM to 8PM. Here we will be presenting the first version of the Tatti community map, as a part of the series of meetups with the pibinko.org network on Maremma map(pear)ing (see blog announcement). Now on we go, with Edoardo Bennato singing “a blues about trains..“

Between April 1 and April 4 I had the opportunity of representing the pibinko.org network in Brussels, Belgium, in two events related to citizen science and, more in general, to community engagement in scientific and research activities (or the engagement of scientists and researchers in community activities?).

This is a field in which I have been increasingly working since 2008 (we may mention as first steps things like the outreach video on free/open source geographic information with Tuscan hamlet residents acting, or the m(‘)appare Milano campaign), and which I started elaborating even earlier. In fact, since I was working at CRS4, in Sardinia (1997-2002). As an example, in 2000 I launched a survey about geographic information system skills in the island, obtaining over 120 replies and triggering on these various technology transfer actions toward the local communities.

Un momento dello workshop “EIE”.

On Tuesday, April 2, I was at the workshop of the “Empowerment, Inclusiveness, and Equity” working group of ECSA (European Citizen Science Association). Say what? This is a group, composed partly by researchers, and partly by practitioners, dealing in various forms with projects where experts on a given topic need to cooperate with folks who are “less expert”. The group works on identifying problems and solutions in order for these processes to be inclusive, equitable, and empowering.

In the workshop we elaborated further in some issues discussed a couple of months ago in Paris. I also had the opportunity of getting to know more experts, and to present the overall pibinko.org activities to the participants. I then proposed the Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere (JBCM, or Metalliferous Hills Jug Band) as a “context” to facilitate empowerment, inclusiveness and equity in various projects, extending what we have been doing over the past year in Italy, and which we can further develop in the coming months with PORGEP2019.

The following day the audience grew, with the setup of a stand in the marketplace at the final event of the Do-it-together Science (DITOs) European project, in the stunning venue of the Brussels Natural Science Museum. For this event I prepared yet another installation of the pibinko.org network travelling micro-museum, I shared with a part of the circa 150 attendees the geomusical approach on which we are working with JBCM, and I played a couple of songs, with a guitar kindly provided by the museum (since I could not carry mine on the plane).

The pibinko.org network travelling micro-museum, Brussels April 2019 edition.

On both days the issues in the spotlight were related to the pibinko.org Spring series of events. Among these, a special focus was on the Brescia national conference on interdisciplinary protection and promotion of the night sky on May 16, and -two weeks later- the geomusical tour by the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band in Germany, via Politecnico di Milano, which you too can support.

For more information: info@pibinko.org or +393317539228

Si ringraziano il progetto DITOs e i responsabili del gruppo di lavoro “EIE” dell’ECSA per l’invito e per il supporto economico sulle spese di viaggio.


It’s in Florence: returning soon (the Farma Valley Community Map)

Compositions, Maps

TO BE TRANSLATED

Nell’immagine in evidenza sopra, Mario Straccali, con valido supporto morale, completa la campitura artigianale dello scotch di carta usato per spiegare che se la bacheca su cui da un paio di anni spicca la mappa di comunita’ della Val di Farma (anche citata in un rapporto della Banca Mondiale) e’ vuota, c’e’ un motivo utile.

L’evento di presentazione della mappa, nel 2017, dopo tre anni di aperitivi…pardon…lavoro.

La mappa, con una copia stagionata da dieci mesi di esposizione agli elementi naturali, e’ stata infatti staccata per essere riesposta nel micromuseo della Val di Farma & friends che troverete tra venerdi’ 22 e domenica 24 febbraio presso l’Hotel Lombardi di Firenze (in particolare ci sara’ una visita guidata fra le 18 e le 20 di sabato 24).

Per ulteriori informazioni sulla manifestazione, potete leggere la presentazione dell’evento, scrivere a info@pibinko.org oppure chiamare il 3317539228

All-focus

Operational perspectives on protection and promotion of the night sky after the Capraia International Symposium – a report on the March 13, 2019 Workshop in Florence, Italy

Compositions

For more information: bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228

One of the views from the Osservatorio Ximeniano

On March 13, 2019, in the stunning set of the Osservatorio Ximeniano in Florence (the first astronomical observatory in the city, founded in 1756), a workshop was organized by the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council, the Department of Biology from the University of Pisa, and the BuioMetria Partecipativa project from the pibinko.org network. The topic of the workshop was the definition of common operational perspectives on protection and promotion of night skies, following the international symposium held on the island of Capraia (Tuscany) in September, 2018 (a report on the symposium is available).

The workshop was primarily intended as a follow-up for attendees of the Capraia event, together with other subjects collaborating with the organizers, in order to further consolidate a national interdisciplinary working group active in monitoring, outreach and promotion of dark-sky areas. In addition to direct collaborators of the organizing institutions, the event saw the participation of Regional Enviromental Protection Agencies from Veneto, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna, and Liguria, plus other experts from Regione Emilia-Romagna.

Each participant had the possibility of giving a presentation in the first part of the workshop. Key talks were proposed by:

Andrea Giacomelli, MS in Environmental Engineering and PhD, animating since 2008 BuioMetria Partecipativa as the flagship project in a framework of various initiatives for protection and promotion of lesser known resources in the fields of culture, environment, and open innovation (supported by the pibinko.org network):

Luciano Massetti, MS in electronic engineering and senior technologist at CNR IBIMET, with a strong track record in environmental monitoring and education, active since 2014 on activities concerning artificial light at night:

.

Andrea Bertolo, MS in Physics, managing the light pollution section of the Veneto Regional Environmental Protection Agency, presenting their regional network for night sky quality measurements, used both for monitoring and scientific research.

.

Elena Maggi, MS in Biology, researcher with the Dept. of Biology at the University of Pisa, active since 2015 on projects concerning the effects of artificial light at night on marine micro-organisms.

.

.

Luca Delucchi, MS in Geography, and author of the BuioMetria Partecipativa web map in 2008, since then a researcher at the Edmund Mach Foundation in Trento, specialized in geographic information systems and remote sensing.

.

The afternoon part of the workshop was dedicated to brainstorming and outlining key activies. During the coming few weeks the working group, in collaboration with some subject who could not physically be in Florence, but expressed their interest in participating in this effort, will proceed to define a set of joint actions on the topic of promotion and protection of the night sky.


The working group at the end of their day at the Osservatorio Ximeniano, not counting a couple of participants who needed to leave earlier (and Federico Giussani, the author of the shots in this report, also specialized in nightscape photography).

We thank Fondazione Osservatorio Ximeniano for hosting the workshop (and you can check out some indoor details of the anciente observatory dome from the image above).


For more information: bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228

International Open Data Day in Tatti, Tuscany: how did it go?

Compositions, Maps

Dopo l’annuncio dell’evento sul sito pibinko.org e il rilancio de Il Tirreno ed. Grosseto, vediamo qualche fase saliente della giornata del 2 marzo 2019 a Tatti, frazione di Massa Marittima (GR), per la nona edizione dello International Open Data Day. Tranne le prime due (di pibinko), le foto sono di Valeria Trumpy dell’Agricampeggio Ixtlan.

Gabrio Giannini and Auro Luti at work in the “Barrino”…
…with a pool of experts to back them up.

The action then moved over to the “Circolino”…
where Pietro Crivelli gave us some “musipainting”…
Vladimiro Durastanti (Pacha Mama farm) did some honeygraphy
Guido Bendinelli (Ixtlan Agricamping), who also learned to digitze points with QGIS, who did some saffronmatics
The engineers Lombardelli and Giacomelli (we need engineers with names ending in -elli ) played as engineers…
and more or less everybody interacted with each other….

with a reverse angle, parts of the Metalliferous HIlls Jug Band, and a 12-string guitar kindly provided by Oliver Gangemi…and, as a grand finale:
This is a draft version of the points of interest recorded as of March 2, 2019 (not all names are displayed). On the top right, in blue, part of the Farma creek catchment.

Kudos to Sergio Cappelletti, and all those who contributed to the success of this initiative.


M’illumino di meno 2019 is also in San Vincenzo (Tuscany) with BuioMetria Partecipativa

Compositions

M’illumino di meno is a format created in 2005 by the famous radio show Caterpillar, aired by RAI Radio 2 to raise awareness on environmental sustainability, inviting activists, institutions and businesses to organize events on the same day (the Friday between end of February and early Marchh) to engage citizens with presentations, performances and other activities..

In this context On Friday, March 1st. 2019 the Municipality of San Vincenzo, Tuscany, will host in their premises of “La Torre”, the tower facing the marina (Piazza d’Italia 7) a presentation by the BuioMetria Partecipativa (i.e. participatory night sky quality monitoring) project. This was started in 2008 in Southern Tuscany as an environmental outreach and a citizen science initiative for the protection and promotion of night sky, and the mitigation of light pollution.

This is not the first time for BuioMetria Partecipativa in San Vincenzo: our first event was in September 2017, followed by two more in 2018. The March 2019 presentation, however, will be a substantially revamped event. This is due to new interesting developments for the project, deriving from new national and international connections in the areas of research and community engagement. Also, we will be considering the topic of circular economy, which this year has been suggested as a key subject from the M’illumino di meno team.

Federico Giussani (L) and Andrea Giacomelli (R) during a night sky brightness measurement demonstrations with a sky quality meter (renamed “buiometro” for the Italian audience).

On Friday, March 1st in San Vincenzo the speakers/performers will be: Andrea Giacomelli, MS and PhD, creator and coordinator of the BMP project, Federico Giussani, professional nightscape photographer, and Simone Sandrucci, lead guitar for Etruschi from Lakota, and active with Giacomelli in the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band project, doing scientific and cultural outreach merged with rock blues music.

Simone Sandrucci, one of the lead musicians for the BuioMetria Partecipativa soundtrack with Etruschi from Lakota and the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band.

The March 1st event is following an interesting micro-exhibition held in Florence last week, where BuioMetria Partecipativa had various opportunities for visibility in relation to TourismA (a national fair on cultural and archaeological tourism). Furthermore, the Friday presentation is a precursor to an event which will be held in Tatti, a hamlet in the area of Massa Marittima (not too far from San Vincenzo, but inland), where the same team will be holding an event within the ninth International Open Day.

All these activities fall in the framework of a series of initiatives for the protection and promotion of lesser known assets in the fields of culture, environment and open innovation, developed by the pibinko.org network since 2007, with a base in Southern Tuscany, and interesting relations outside of the region (please check out http://www.pibinko.org)

For more information and contacts: bmp@pibinko.org or +39 331 7539 228

The catalog of the pibinko.org travelling micro-museum, Hotel Lombardi versio, Florence.

Compositions,

To be translated

Questa e’ la parte sostanziale dell’allestimento del micromuseo itinerante di pibinko.org per il 23/2/2019 all’Hotel Lombardi di Firenze (vedi articolo).

Il catalogo completo e’ disponibile su ordinazione, in edizione sia digitale che cartacea, al costo di Euro 750 (comprensivi di tutti gli oneri fiscali) piu’ eventuali spese di spedizione.

NOTA 5/3/2019 – per questioni di tempo non ci e’ al momento possibile inserire link di approfondimento sui singoli articoli. Alcuni di questi sono gia’ documentati sul sito pibinko.org e potete ritrovarli tramite ricerca per parole chiave. Per altri andremo a creare voci specifiche nelle prossime settimane.

Se avete domande o commenti potete comunque scrivere a info@pibinko.org e saremo lieti di rispondere.

  1. Olio extravergine di oliva az. agricola Ixtlan, Tatti (GR), 2018
  2. Manufatti da tornitura elettronica B.M. di Torniella (GR), 2018
  3. Portatabacco Caffe’ Ricasoli (GR), 2018
  4. Chioccolo prodotto da Edo Giacomelli, circa 1980, da Follonica (GR)
  5. Buiometro Cariddi (2008)
  6. Miele millefiori az. agricola Pacha Mama, Tatti (GR), 2018
  7. Birra Guadagnata, birrificio 26 Nero, Poggibonsi (SI) 2018
  8. Birra Ipnotica, birrificio 26 Nero, Poggibonsi (SI) 2018
  9. Portaqualcosa del Caffe’ Ricasoli, Grosseto, 2018
  10. Insaporitore agli 11 aromi di Tattistampa, Tatti (GR), 2018
  11. Melanzane piccanti az. agricola Loriano Bartoli, Pian d’Alma, Scarlino (GR), 2018
  12. Filo verde per legature agricole (2016)
  13. Metro da muratore (2016)
  14. Accordatore per chitarra (analogico, 1980 circa)
  15. DVD di Six String Samurai (ANNO DA INSERIRE)
  16. Stampa “Maremma stai attento” di Tattistampa (2005?)
  17. Libro di geografia per le colonie estive della Montecatini (1952)
  18. Mappa di comunita’ della Val di Farma, ed. maggio 2018
  19. Articolo sul Bar Moderno di Roccastrada che disdice l’abbonamento a una pay TV per avere piu’ fondi per eventi dal vivo (2018)
  20. Pacchetto turistico che si definisce per esclusione, in collaborazione con Picasso Viaggi, Venturina Terme (LI), 2019
  21. Attrezzi antichi da falegname, dalla bottega di Roberto Serragli, Scalvaia (SI – da datare)
  22. Libro sulla Maremma del Grottanelli (ristampa di edizione ottocentesca)
  23. Originale dell’animazione “Vendetta” (1990?)
  24. Zafferano az. agricola Ixtlan, Tatti (GR)
  25. Vista dell’abbazia di S. Galgano, Olio su tela di Pietro Crivelli, 70×100 (2019)
  26. Palline di palla a 21 o palla eh! (varie epoche a partire dagli anni ’70)
  27. Panforte (il gioco, non il prodotto) – da datare
  28. Magliette GFOSS.it (2008)
  29. Guantoni da boxe (due paia), prestati dal Boxing Club Firenze – da datare
  30. Giu’ la Testa degli Etrushi from Lakota (CD, 2017)
  31. Striscione Jug Band Colline Metallifere (2018)
  32. Alberi in filo di ferro e perline di Forestano Giacomelli (1990 circa)
  33. Shardana e Sardegna, di Giovanni Ugas, 2016
  34. Chitarra acustica LAG (acquistata ad Ajaccio), 2017
  35. Spazzole per batteria
  36. Video dell’Ing. Fabio Bettio che racconta la storia della digitalizzazione dei Giganti di Mont’e Prama

What is a drummer and PhD in Hydrology doing in Florence selling archaeological tourism destinations?

Compositions
All-focus

Jack O’Malley, drummer and scientific director of the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band, at the end of the preparation of the pibinko.org seller table at the “Buy Cultural Tourism” session at TourismA, the national fair of cultural and archaeological tourism.

To appreciate what a percussionist and PhD in hydrology is doing by selling archaeological tourism destinations in Florence, you may read the English version of the press release from which an article from Il Tirreno Grosseto edition was derived on Feb 21, 2019. Or you may give five minutes of your time to browse random sections of the pibinko.org site.

Kudos to the Comité Régional de Tourisme Nouvelle-Aquitaine for the picture, and to Colangelo for the assistance in setting up the set.

Last but not least, do not forget the aperitivo-jams session with the Farma Valley and Friends micro-museum. This is organized by pibinko.org in collaboration with Hotel Lombardi, via Fiume 8, Florence, and will be on Saturday, Feb. 23, from 6PM to 8PM (a reservation is needed to info@pibinko.org or +393317539228)