Mettete le cuffie, alzate al massimo, chiudete gli occhi… e ascoltate…

Rolling twisting jumping: parkour! sliding jumping twisting rolling (again)…. rolling twisting sliding cover me/uncover me JUMP!

Amazing papercraft by Serene Teh.

And if you are wondering what the hell is “Neutra” look at the company vendor

Robot calciatori, giocando si impara

Here we are! Our laboratory is on the net!
Brief story: read the article about RoboCup and our activities here on Repubblica.it

Long story: Few days ago we (our team) were contacted by Flaminia Festuccia, journalist for Repubblica.it. She wanted to write an article about our robots (it seems we are “well-known” about that, never imagined…).
Anyway, she came on Tuesday and now you can read the article (sorry Italian only)!
It’s complete and there is a video too!
Check it out (I apologize for the clutter in our lab, but we are working…)

Robot Calciatori on Repubblica.it

A very impressive tale about the birth of Internet.
And somehow funny, too

Lorenzo version

And there are three more versions!!!

Emauel version

Elisa version

Mauro version

1 song, 4 videos and just a word: genial!

He is my favorite singer and have the chance to meet him face to face is something I never expected!

His mind is a melting pot of ideas and its original life style has no rivals.

All began two days ago. We were invited to the Festival fo Creativity, held in Florence during this week. I tried to keep me away from this, I have my thesis to write.
Unfortunately (or luckily I should say now) I could not. So I was kindly compelled to be there yesterday and the day before.
So far it is nothing special. Going to the fair, mounting the field, setting up the network, cutting the goal posts, trying to let the robot work: just routine.
Then, during the dinner at 10pm, the shocking notice: Lorenzo would talk at the fair. Unbelievable!
I was so excited to meet him I did not sleep well.

10 o’clock. There I am, ready for the talk. Of course I was standing up close to the stage. And he entered.
Suddenly it became a sunny day.

His music is really wonderful, he put his soul inside each note. He is a genius in using different media to let his mind go outside.

Yesterday he should have presented his new project, OrlandoLab, a laboratory of creativity inside the Cortona Fortress.
He talk about this too, but the focus was in what is creativity for him. (if you would like to know more about his inventiveness, try in his website)

Creativity is Invention.

We cannot create, everything is already created. We just invent new things from the actual ones. The biggest inventor was Leonardo, of course, but everyone can be an inventor.
Technology today allows everyone be an artist, there are no excuse like “I cannot do that”. If you have a good idea, a great idea, you can won the Oscar prize with no effort. Everything is up to help you become a communicator, and it depends just on you.

Did you have ever do the game of free association? It is like you start from a word and then connect it to another that comes to your mind. Then you do the same with another, and another and so on.
This is what he often did to take the inspiration from the world. Sometimes he surfs on Google Images and makes a collage on what he finds.
He did it too in preparation of his talk.
With a borrowed pc, he showed us dozen of pictures. For each of them he talk about why he chose it.

The Red Baby by Keith Haring

The Red Baby of Keith Haring was the first one. The power of this picture is eternal, it will be the same in 3008, no matter what. Its beauty is all in the simplicity and in the message: a child, the light from him, a message of hope.

The angels of Raphael.

The favelas in Brasil; a Japanese Pagoda, the LHC, Leonardo Da Vinci’s face, the Human Rights Constitution
The pyramids, the Police, Bod Dylan, the slave boat, Fred Astair, the LHC, Bob Marley. the Gorillaz.
The cannabis (“someone says that with drug you can make masterpiece. I knew people that make great masterpiece and they do not take drugs. And people that even if with the drug they can do just crap. So the conclusion is simple: the drugs are not involved in the arts. Not at all!”).

The eyes of Antoine de Saint Euxpery.

Such an amazing day could not ended without a picture of me and him together, and his autograph.
I cannot take the former, and about the latter… well…