︎ MOBILE VERSION ︎UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Creative director and communications strategist specializing in visual storytelling, media, and technology.
simonesalvo@gmail.com
The Amazing Women's Club
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spatial, digital, interactive
Wata Na Life
Using Photoshop techniques, artist Ngadi Smart blends scenery, portraits, and objects to tell a more authentic story about Sierra Leone than any single photo can convey: fishing net surrounds a woman’s face with the strength and regality of a lion's mane; harvested palm kernels defy gravity in whimsical suspension; and a littered port gets shrouded in pink tin. Smart is intently countering the history of the Western gaze.
The accompanying experience follows suit, purposefully deconstructing the layers to reveal the stories embedded in each collage and breaking critical elements out of the frame and into the viewer’s own spatial reality.
The accompanying experience follows suit, purposefully deconstructing the layers to reveal the stories embedded in each collage and breaking critical elements out of the frame and into the viewer’s own spatial reality.
This Augmented Reality experience was developed by Simone Salvo and Lisa Jamhoury, co-founders of Parallel, for the 2022 Look Climate Lab at Open Eye gallery in Liverpool, UK. It has since been exhibited at Fotofestival Lenzburg (Switzerland) and The Africa Centre (UK).
See more documentation at parallellab.io ︎︎︎
Inspired by artists, like Ngadi, pushing their societies forward, the work of Parallel probes today’s cutting edge communications technology as a means to invite embodied participation. We believe that activating new tools, alongside existing models of art- and change-making, can offer additional entry points to engage with critical issues and expand the potential impact of a story.
Testing the AR with Open Eye Gallery, UK
With so much of our social lives being sustained online, we wanted to build a bridge to those in our community left behind by technology. But it's also for anyone who misses impromptu exchanges or is burnt out from their screens.
2020, created in collaboration with Dawn Sinkowski and Terrell Ibanez
Launched in 2015 during the Paris Climate Conference, #Reframeclimate is an interactive public art campaign challenging stereotypical notions of climate change imagery and sparking conversation amongst passersby. It has since been shown across the Bay Area, CA, Charlottesville, VA, and New York City.
Each large-scale pasting contains an SMS prompt to engage further with the image. Users receive a phone call with audio of the photographer describing the story behind their image.
We also developed an immerisve web version of the project using photogrammetry to extend the campaign beyond physical space.
Magnum Foundation, Dysturb, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
A public installation of seven billboards from the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative that showcase artist responses to issues of migration and the family separation crisis at the US-Mexico border. This project was included as a part of The Value of Sanctuary exhibition at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC, and is still currently on view along the 110th Street perimeter.
Magnum Foundation, For Freedoms, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine