R&D
Currently working on a 3D environmental scanning and immersive media project that will enable viewers to navigate through my late artist grandmother’s home, which no longer exists as a physical space. This project explores preservation and memorialization through the lens of personal history.︎ MOBILE VERSION ︎UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Creative director and communications strategist specializing in visual storytelling, media, and technology.
simonesalvo@gmail.com
The Amazing Women's Club
︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎
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
Over the course of 2020, I co-produced twenty-nine stories for The Nation Magazine across two series: The Invisible Frontline, centering the experiences of frontline workers and communities disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, and What’s At Stake, focusing on issues related to the US elections.
In the fall of 2020, I curated a selection of this work and designed a public installation as a part of the Photoville festival. Frontlines in Focus documented the global uprisings that have shaken the world from the lenses of indpendent imagemakers whose role in communicating stories in this time of collective isolation is especially vital.
A public installation of Matt Black’s Geography of Poverty series included as a part of The Value of Food: Sustaining a Green Planet at the Cathedral of Saint the John Divine focusing on food security, accessibility, and sustainability.
In the summer of 2015, Matt traveled continually through 70 towns and cities across the US where at least twenty percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Matt chronicled his project on Instagram, using the newly released location tagging to mark the route and draw attention to how poverty is inextricable from issues of migration, land use, industry, and the environment. For the installation, we enlarged the images and pulled quotes from his extensive interviews to bring the work from the screen to the streets.
Magnum Foundation, Matt Black, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
Info
Creative director and visual communications designer exploring what’s next in storytelling.
simonesalvo@gmail.com
The Amazing Women's Club
On View
Wata Na Life is at The Africa Centre, UK | Nov 9–Dec 10