Petroleum
CHAPTER 1. PETROLEUM. Odessa, Midland, Gore (West Texas – USA) April- May 2017
One of the biggest storage centers is in Cushing, Oklahoma. Then oil leaves the center and is taken all around the world. It travels from Dallas to Chicago, then up to Norman Wells, in northern Canada. It goes from Midland to Tucson, Arizona, West United States. Then underground up to L.A., California, Portland and then up to Vancouver, until Fort Nelson. From Corpus Christi,
it travels down to Mexico, up to Honduras. Then it goes around the mountains up to the east coast. From Houston, it goes to New Orleans and then towards the south, to Florida. It then travels across the ocean on cargos to reach London, Spain, Switzerland and Italy. Oil pipelines start again in Morocco, Africa, and on the other side of the world, in Japan, to reach your homes. Can you imagine? Oil pipelines are everywhere; over ground, underground, indoors. Everywhere. It’s the blood of the earth and it keeps us going.
Cargo
CHAPTER 2. CARGO. Mar Mediterraneo (Oceano Atlantico) April 2017
95% of the world transportation by weight and raw materials on the market is moved by ships. 6
A cargo ship can reach 650,000 cubic meters of loading capacity, 400 meters in length and 564,000 tons in payload 7 . The Empire State Building is 381 meters high. The crew of a cargo ship of that size is formed by 25 men at the most. The Empire State Building hosts 21,000 people every day.
Measure
CHAPTER 3. MEASURE. Bologna, Ferrara (Italia) February 2017
An anechoic chamber is one of the possible scientific settings where the necessary validation to market many every-day objects occurs.
Inside this chamber, a human being becomes the only source of sound.
Once the human ear has got used to absolute silence, our body becomes audible, from our heartbeat up to our blood flowing in our vessels.
This experience may lead to the loss of physical balance up to the complete loss of psychological balance.
Lack of external stimulation favors concentration and intimate introspection. You’re more inclined to meditate on yourself, on the soul. A layperson, people, they’re always afraid of silence, as introspection is scary. In this sense, an anechoic chamber might be interpreted as a symbolic boundary between life and death. It’s a place of life, which smells of death. The origin of life lies in silence, and the end…
Ashes
CHAPTER 4. ASHES. Giubiasco (Canton Ticino – Svizzera) March 2017
During 82 years of life, a European citizen generates an average of 13.000 35-liter trash bags, equal to 60 tons. 500 kilos every year. A cutting-edge waste-to-energy plant of average dimensions, disposes of 180.000 tons of waste every year, equal to almost 40 million bags coming from around 350.000 people. And it produces energy for 20,000 people, heat for around 3.000 families and 30.000 tons of slag, equal to six million, five hundred.000 bags. A waste-to-energy plant reduces the volume of waste by up to 90%.
I hardly ever talk about my job when I’m out. It’s not easy to make someone imagine. I’m aware of the fact it’s an important job, so I often invite people to come and see what I do on Saturdays or Sundays. But nobody seems to be interested.
When they ask you what you do surrounded by trash every day, nobody could imagine that you do such a complex, useful job. Everyone thinks that I’m just there, holding a shovel, throwing stuff into a bonfire. Therefore, when they ask, I simply articulate: “I work at a waste-to-energy plant”
Reality
CHAPTER 5. HER & HIM. Torino (Italia) June 2017