Italy in a Day (Participatory Culture)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eXZBlOmUnc
This is a movie edited by Gabriele Salvatores, choosing from over forty-thousand clips sent by the public. It’s done along with RAI, which has sponsored the event. It is a choral movie which shows the best sides of Italy, putting aside the negative ones (which are often more talked about that the positives) for 75 minutes, making the spectator forget all the troubles of a Country which is not always so carefree and pride-worthy.
The project is based on a format by Ridley Scott made for the first time by Google (then, as RAI did for Italy, BBC also did in the United Kingdom). Today, many tv programs are based on facebook and twitter communities with exchanges of materials, comments, feature etc. In the age of constant visual dictatorship, the little miracle of this social project, is to have spurred active creativity, and not plaintive one. The image of Italy that these videos give, is that of a suffering but dignified Country, which hopes for a better future. If you like to give a historical context to the crowdsourcing and to “participation” it should be mentioned that before the internet there were famous examples in Italy: “Radio Alice”, radio of the student movement in Bologna, in 1976/77, it put the listeners’ calls directly on air (called from home or coin-operated booths, there were no cell phones!) They gave indications about the clashes in the city and the movements of anti riot police departments. Also why the radio was closed and the irruption of the police broadcast live.
