Beyond the Individual: Gabriele Rosati, between flesh and screen

From body to surface: a visual investigation by Gabriele Rosati into the transformation of identity and energy through technology, digital presence, and human contact

Individuo: what does it mean? The etymological root

In its etymological root, the Latin word individuo describes something that resists division: composed of the prefix in- (a negation) and dividuus (that which is divided), it denotes what cannot be split, what remains whole. In the context of this visual and conceptual exploration, Individuo becomes both a term and a statement — a proposition about energy, identity, and synthesis. It is a philosophical and aesthetic reflection on transition, on the passage from individuality to union, from natural to synthetic, from presence to its pixelated double.

This editorial feature, presented in Lampoon Issue 23, explores the transformation of identity and energy in a technologically mediated world — one in which screens, pixels, and digital spaces become not points of alienation, but surfaces of connection and new forms of intimacy. At its core, the narrative follows the stages of an experimental process, unfolding visually and conceptually across four precise steps.

The visual and conceptual experiment: how two individuals become a synthetic compound

The process begins with separation. As in any test, there is a protocol. The ‘Test In Dividuo’ takes as its starting point the existence of two distinct individuals — person A and person B — each observed and recorded in isolation. The first phase is analysis, in which each subject is portrayed not only in their physicality but also in the energy they emit: natural, spontaneous, irreducible.

The second phase is connection: the moment in which the two individual entities enter into contact. This is not simply a meeting, but an alignment of vectors — emotional, physical, digital. Here, man and machine overlap. Human skin is captured, pixel by pixel, by the synthetic surface of the screen. The image becomes an interface. The connection, at once tactile and technological, begins to create a shared space.

From duality to fusion: creating a collective identity through shared energy

In the third phase, fusion, something irreversibly new begins to form. The two individual identities — person A and person B — merge into a singular entity, AB. This new compound is not merely an addition of parts but a transformation. Energy becomes layered, overlapping, integrated. What emerges is not just an image of unity but the reality of a third being, charged with emotional resonance and visual complexity.

The final step is transformation: from AB (the fused entity) to D, the result of the fusion. This fourth stage signifies a shift not only in form but in state — from individual to compound, from separate to united, from analog to digital, from carnal to synthetic. It is in this final passage that a new source of energy is discovered: one that cannot be traced back to a single origin, but is instead the byproduct of relation, of process, of transition.

Synthetic emotions and digital contact: exploring the aesthetics of energy transfer

What does it mean to generate energy that is emotional, digital, and synthetic all at once? The editorial suggests that in the modern landscape, emotion itself can become a material — something that moves across screens, through images, between people. The tension between presence and absence, contact and detachment, is central to this narrative. It is in the very flatness of the screen — cold, synthetic, inanimate — that a new form of contact becomes possible. A visual space where skin is no longer skin but light, code, abstraction.

Yet, this abstraction does not dilute emotion; rather, it distills it. In this context, synthetic emotion is no less authentic — it is simply born through new media, new rituals, new aesthetics. It is the byproduct of a technologically mediated closeness that retains all the intensity of carnal connection, even as it is reshaped into something pixelated and screen-bound.

Natural energy and synthetic surfaces: man in dialogue with the digital world

The individual, seen here as both subject and energy source, comes into contact with the digital world not passively but actively. The editorial portrays the screen not as a barrier but as a conduit. The flat, glowing surface becomes a new kind of skin — one that receives, reflects, and refracts. Natural energy — the kinetic charge of presence, movement, emotion — is transferred into synthetic space, becoming something else entirely. Yet the origin remains human.

This duality — between natural and artificial, analog and digital — is not presented as conflict but as potential. It is precisely in their tension that something new is generated: a compound energy formed by multiple solutions, by the coexistence of differences. This layered energy reflects the contemporary condition, where identity, emotion, and presence are no longer confined to the physical body but extended across virtual architectures.

Energy without fraction: the indivisible identity of the contemporary subject

The project returns us to the etymological and philosophical notion of the Individuo: not just a person, but a principle of unity. A singularity composed of multiple layers — psychological, emotional, digital. In a world defined by fragmentation and data, the editorial proposes an aesthetic and conceptual counterpoint: an identity defined by dimensions or values that do not allow for fractionation.

Here, individuality is not isolation. It is a compound structure — something formed, discovered, and transformed through process. Through test. Through transition.