A layered graphic novel, conceived as a video-game trailer, weaving together diverse imaginaries, from Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony to H.G. Wells' short stories, from brutalist architecture to generative artificial intelligence.
A layered graphic novel, conceived as a video-game trailer, weaving together diverse imaginaries, from Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony to H.G. Wells' short stories, from brutalist architecture to generative artificial intelligence.
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Second Order Reality emerged from the desire to give a physical, immaterial, or digital form to a sensation. Or, rather, to a series of minor, peripheral, incidental, and paradoxically unconscious sensations."
Carola Bonfili set out to create a video game with a rich, layered narrative, weaving together diverse imaginaries, from Flaubert's
The Temptation of St. Anthony to H.G. Wells' short stories, from brutalist architecture to generative artificial intelligence.
At the heart of
Second Order Reality is the story of M'ling, a ten-year-old anthropomorphic monkey undergoing a mysterious and terrifying transformation as her body begins to turn to stone. Seeking guidance, she ventures into the forest, where she encounters a robotic being that shelters her within. By the end of this journey of self-discovery, which feels both deeply personal and universally resonant, she thus comes to realise that it is possible to coexist with one's own demons.
The publication opens with a graphic novel which reinterprets the video game trailer
The Stone Monkey, serving as a narrative gateway to the project's universe. The subsequent sections explore the design and development phases of the work. Finally, a series of essays by Bonfili, curators Ilaria Gianni and Daniela Cotimbo, and contributors Domenico Quaranta and
Valentina Tanni offer different perspectives to analyze
Second Order Reality's narrative structure, conceptual foundations, and broader artistic and cultural implications, providing a multifaceted exploration of the work and its interplay between perception, fiction, and new media.
Carola Bonfili (born 1981 inRome) is an Italian artist whose work consists of layered narratives mediated by technological languages. Taking inspiration from natural forms and cognitive mechanics, her work is structured in multy-layered narrations that develop towards mixed source texts. AI principles, CGI, VR a/v environments and automatic writing are the main tools of her recent research. A performative matrix is often found in the production processes at the basis of her sculptural works and environmental installations, which are immersive in nature and tend to forms of transmedial narration.
