- Weapons of Visual Mass Distraction
- Tools from the Past for the Aesthetic of the Future
- Simultaneous analog translation of sound into light and light into sound
- Visual listening: Listen with your eyes
- I make old TVs do things they never knew were possible
- Sculptural light works inside vintage 1970s monitors
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN’s practice repurposes found or decontextualised analogue devices to investigate the connections between light and sound in the form of contemplative installations and performances. He repairs and modifies tools from our analogue past: oscilloscopes, early game consoles, analogue video mixers, and lasers. He is attracted to their intrinsic limitations and strong ‘personalities’: fluid beam movement, vivid colors, infinite resolution, absence of frame rate, and line aesthetics. By using these forgotten devices, he exposes the public to the aesthetic differences between the ubiquitous digital projections and the vibrance of analogue beams, engaging them to reflect on the sociopolitical impact of technology in a retrospective on technologisation: what ‘old’ means, and what value the ‘new’ really adds. In most of his works, light and sound are fused into an indivisible entity that stimulates both senses simultaneously, enabling what he calls visual listening: a phenomenon wherein one listens to light and observes sound.
ARTISTIC ACTIVITY
His productions in form of performances, talks, papers and compositions have been presented at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, Ars Electronica Linz, Amsterdam Dance Event, Venice Biennale, National Art Museo of Lima, New York Computer Music Festival, Bozar Bruxelles, BOA Biennale Porto, Rewire Festival Den Haag, Glasgow Contemporary Art Center, National Art Museum Buenos Aires, Dom Moskow, Seoul International Music Festival, Imagen Festival Colombia, Rome University of Fine Arts, to mention a few.
He has released records for Hive Mind Records, Staalplat, Bowindo, Elli Records, Dobialabel, Setoladimaiale, Ante-Rasa and Creative Sources.
COMPETENCES
He graduated in Nuclear Physics at the University of Trieste, completed the master Art Science Technologies with Jean Claude Risset, obtained a PhD degree at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven with Armin Kohlrausch, and graduated in Electronic Music at the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatory of Den Haag. He worked for Texas Instruments, Philips Research, and Auro Technologies creating software for their audio applications.
NETWORK
He has assisted Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, Nicholas Collins and Trevor Wishart. He has improvised with Evan Parker, Butch Morris, Karl Berger, Rob Mazurek, Ilpo Väisänen and Tristan Honsinger. He was invited professor at Sussex University, MICA Baltimore, SAIC Chicago, Tallin University, Den Haag He has assisted Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, Nicholas Collins and Trevor Wishart. He has improvised with Evan Parker, Butch Morris, Karl Berger, Rob Mazurek and Tristan Honsinger. He was invited professor at Sussex University, MICA Baltimore, SAIC Chicago, Tallin University, Den Haag Conservatory, Turin Conservatory, IEM Graz, Champaign-Urbana University, CMMAS Mexico among others. He was curator of AESON Festival, is a New Media professor at the Conservatory of Padua, coordinates the SAMPL Lab Padova and is the artistic director of the NEAT festival in Trieste.
AWARDS
- Digital Arts Zurich 2025 – Honorable Mention
- Price CIME 2023 – International Competition of Electroacoustic Music, category Sound Art, New Interfaces.
- Escherjaar 2023: Selected artist reinterpreting the work of M.C. Escher for his anniversary, the Municipality of Den Haag, NL.
- Landscape Price 2023 by Zeugma.
- Excellence Awards 2020 at the 5th Shanghai Digital Creation, Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition – New Media Art Section.
- Price Destellos 2014 – International electroacoustic music competition.
- Selected compositions for Monaco Electroacoustique 2015, Udine Contemporanea 2015, New York City Electronic Music Festival 2015, Acusmatica 2017.