Each experiment represents a degree of departure from the center.
Anthropoperiphery: the sistematic sequence
Anthropoperiphery is a continuous artistic research program developed by Alessandro Scali since 2004.
Rather than a pre-planned roadmap, this body of work reveals, in retrospective analysis, a consistent trajectory of experimental investigations
. Conceived as an exercise in experimental philosophy, the research has tested, decentered, and challenged the limits of human sovereignty within perception, culture, representation, and cognitive judgment
.
Each experiment functions as a step of phenomenological reduction: an exercise in downsizing to observe what remains of reality when the human observer actively steps aside
The conceptual matrix
The program originates from the Zibaldone Filosofico: an intimate laboratory of reflections where the first hypotheses on the "dictatorship of the self" were formulated. If the Zibaldone represents the theoretical matrix, the experiments are the technological and aesthetic devices built to verify those hypotheses in the real world.
The four axis of decentration
The research is mapped across four distinct axes, each revealing a domain of assumed human sovereignty that, through experiment, proves to be peripheral:
I. The perceptual axis | Experiment I: Nanoart (2006–2014)
An investigation into the contingency of biological sight. By creating physical artworks engraved on silicon at nano and micro scales, the experiment shifts art from the "optical dictatorship" to technological mediation. It provides empirical evidence that an artwork’s existence and meaning do not depend on a human eye to certify them.
[Explore the full archive of Experiment I]
II. The archival axis | Experiment II: Okkult & Giphoscope (2012–2020)
An inquiry into cultural memory and the thresholds of institutional preservation. By materializing ephemeral digital loops (GIFs) through handcrafted mechanical apparatuses, the experiment exposes the hyper-visible yet institutionally unreceivable. It demonstrates that cultural significance can circulate and endure independently of official archives and museum registries.
[Explore the full archive of Experiment II]
III. The representational axis | Experiment III: Van Glitch (2017–2026)
An analysis of digital mediation through the smartphone as a cognitive laboratory. By forcing mobile architectures to their rupture point, the work exposes how the algorithmic infrastructure co-produces reality. This phase demonstrates that the subject is peripheral to their own mediated experience, merging with the very tool used to observe the world.
[Explore the full archive of Experiment III]
IV. The authorial axis | Experiment IV: Catherine Gipton (2023–ongoing)
The ultimate decentering of intellectual sovereignty. By delegating aesthetic judgment and critical authority to a semi-autonomous, legally protected AI curatorial agent directed by a strategic pilot, the experiment tests the final domain of human power. It questions whether the act of deciding what "matters" in culture truly requires an incarnate human subject.
Foundational
monographs
Zibaldone Filosofico | An intimate philosophical diary
Written prior to the formalization of the artistic practice, this raw and personal notebook of reflections laid the groundwork for the Anthropoperiphery research program. It traces an early fatigue with the "dictatorship of the self" and the limits of subjective perception, anticipating the technological delegation of memory, representation, and judgment that became central to the later experiments (Italian language).
Anthtopoperiphery | Foundational monograph
A comprehensive record of the twenty-year trajectory. While the internal text is written in the first person to document the researcher's departure from the center, the volume maps the transition from initial philosophical discomfort to the systematic sequence of artistic experiments. It functions as the theoretical backbone of the entire program.