Where are you?
This is the website of REINCANTAMENTO, welcome.
Born in 2020, REINCANTAMENTO is a hybrid entity based in Northern Italy and Berlin and initiated by Alessandro Y. Longo.
We are an independent research and publishing group formed by philosophers and designers dedicated to exploring the intricate relationship between technology, magic, and society. REINCANTAMENTO operates as a publishing label, releasing content on DROPS - our online publication - and working on physical artifacts, from zines to a monographic magazine called nCHANT. REINCANTAMENTO also works as a research-based art collective, intervening in the art world with talks, games, installations, and videos both in institutional and independent spaces.
The concept of re-enchantment grounds our research, offering a speculative framework through which reality can be re-signified. We search for pockets of agency in times when action seems impossible. Nurturing a philosophy of hope, we weave together networks of resistance and imagination.
Our research spans network philosophy, political imagination, and technological infrastructures..From digital gardens to peer systems, from generative models to blockchain experiments, we trace both the speculative potential and material conditions of technology - down to the geopolitics of components.
REINCANTAMENTO has collaborated with Serpentine Galleries & RadicalXChange, SAVVY Contemporary, MoCa, MacTe, 48h Neukölln Festival 2023, C/O Digital Festival 2022, IAM Festival 2021, and with online magazines such as SCHON, Not, L’ Indiscreto, Singola.
The extended mind of REINCANTAMENTO includes the individual ones of Alessandro, Giorgio Craparo, Jeein, Marco Mattei, Vincenzo Grasso, Lorenzo Casavecchia, Lapo Sorride, Stranding Production, Anna Fasolato, Arianna Longo.
- The Writings section houses found all articles in Italian and (almost) all in English as well.
- The Bonus Texts page, on the other hand, includes texts of another nature, unpublished or designed for specific events. We have come up with reading paths to give coherence to all this material, which you can follow by clicking on the bouncing keys at the bottom of the articles. This idea is still under development
- The Activities section includes all the workshops, projects, and other interventions made IRL.
- Videodrome hosts the two seasons of Speculum!, the program aired between 2020 and '21 on the Decamerette network. Speculum! involved Alessandro Y. Longo, Marco Mattei, and Vincenzo Grasso. During 2021, Speculum! was a newsletter, currently suspended but ready for future activations. Here you will also find the video-essay Future Archaeology, the talk on Tech Collapse, and more.
- Finally, the Garden section, a reworking of Tumblr style, is a confusing page of visual inspirations and HTML tricks, an experiment in curating jpg files, and a radical elaboration of the idea of repost. Find out more about it below.
REINCANTAMENTO originated as a series of articles by Alessandro, published on Medium in April 2020. This initial series delves into philosophical approaches to digital technologies, the issue of surveillance, the question of design, and possible solutions to enchant our tools once again. From this crucial philosophical framework, an online meditation with daily outreach on Instagram and article publications across various magazines emerged. In this phase, Speculum! was also born, a philosophical trio engaged in contemplating the idea of the future through YouTube and newsletters.
In 2022, REINCANTAMENTO moved to Berlin and begins organizing performances and workshops as expansions of its philosophical research.
The process of web design has been oriented around the concept of
Born in 2020, REINCANTAMENTO is a hybrid entity based in Northern Italy and Berlin and initiated by Alessandro Y. Longo.
We are an independent research and publishing group formed by philosophers and designers dedicated to exploring the intricate relationship between technology, magic, and society. REINCANTAMENTO operates as a publishing label, releasing content on DROPS - our online publication - and working on physical artifacts, from zines to a monographic magazine called nCHANT. REINCANTAMENTO also works as a research-based art collective, intervening in the art world with talks, games, installations, and videos both in institutional and independent spaces.
The concept of re-enchantment grounds our research, offering a speculative framework through which reality can be re-signified. We search for pockets of agency in times when action seems impossible. Nurturing a philosophy of hope, we weave together networks of resistance and imagination.
Our research spans network philosophy, political imagination, and technological infrastructures..From digital gardens to peer systems, from generative models to blockchain experiments, we trace both the speculative potential and material conditions of technology - down to the geopolitics of components.
REINCANTAMENTO has collaborated with Serpentine Galleries & RadicalXChange, SAVVY Contemporary, MoCa, MacTe, 48h Neukölln Festival 2023, C/O Digital Festival 2022, IAM Festival 2021, and with online magazines such as SCHON, Not, L’ Indiscreto, Singola.
The extended mind of REINCANTAMENTO includes the individual ones of Alessandro, Giorgio Craparo, Jeein, Marco Mattei, Vincenzo Grasso, Lorenzo Casavecchia, Lapo Sorride, Stranding Production, Anna Fasolato, Arianna Longo.
What will you find here?
- The Writings section houses found all articles in Italian and (almost) all in English as well.
- The Bonus Texts page, on the other hand, includes texts of another nature, unpublished or designed for specific events. We have come up with reading paths to give coherence to all this material, which you can follow by clicking on the bouncing keys at the bottom of the articles. This idea is still under development
- The Activities section includes all the workshops, projects, and other interventions made IRL.
- Videodrome hosts the two seasons of Speculum!, the program aired between 2020 and '21 on the Decamerette network. Speculum! involved Alessandro Y. Longo, Marco Mattei, and Vincenzo Grasso. During 2021, Speculum! was a newsletter, currently suspended but ready for future activations. Here you will also find the video-essay Future Archaeology, the talk on Tech Collapse, and more.
- Finally, the Garden section, a reworking of Tumblr style, is a confusing page of visual inspirations and HTML tricks, an experiment in curating jpg files, and a radical elaboration of the idea of repost. Find out more about it below.
Our story
REINCANTAMENTO originated as a series of articles by Alessandro, published on Medium in April 2020. This initial series delves into philosophical approaches to digital technologies, the issue of surveillance, the question of design, and possible solutions to enchant our tools once again. From this crucial philosophical framework, an online meditation with daily outreach on Instagram and article publications across various magazines emerged. In this phase, Speculum! was also born, a philosophical trio engaged in contemplating the idea of the future through YouTube and newsletters.
In 2022, REINCANTAMENTO moved to Berlin and begins organizing performances and workshops as expansions of its philosophical research.
The process of web design has been oriented around the concept of
digital garden
A concept dating back to Web 1.0, a digital garden is an experience that affects the senses, a cognitive space living an eternal work-in-progress, an oasis of cues, sparks and multimedia deluges. Compared to social media's logic:
“The Garden is our counterbalance. Gardens present information in a richly linked landscape that grows slowly over time. Everything is arranged and connected in ways that allow you to explore. [...] You get to actively choose which curiosity trail to follow, rather than defaulting to the algorithmically-filtered ephemeral stream. The garden helps us move away from time-bound streams and into contextual knowledge spaces. ”
Crossing different styles, from pixel-art to old cryptography manuals, via retro games, HD aesthetics and blogosphere frenzy, the first iteration of our garden is born. Far from being truly autonomous, this digital space is still a work-in-progress and further iterations are planned.
P.S. If you're interested in learning more about digital gardens, click on these flowers