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3dTotal: You know, that answer makes me want to look out of the window, get on a train and do the ‘brain sponge’ thing that you make sound so appealing! With so many images and memories buzzing around in your head, do you find your projects often start with one set of ideas and end up with something completely different? Or is your chaos theory under more control when you’re actually working?
Marco: Whenever I work on something, I usually start with a very basic idea. Almost light, some shapeless forms that create mood and communicate my feelings. And then I refine and refine and refine. Let’s say that you have to imagine a scene with two characters talking. You focus on the dialogue, the feelings and the characters. Everything else is blurred. Light, colours, everything will try to match what’s happening on scene. Then you begin to widen your vision, imagining the same scene over and over again.
Each time the scene is less blurred and more detailed. So that black spot in the background has transformed into a facade hidden in shadows and the scene gradually emerges from a blurry substratum. And then you start playing, messing up everything you’ve done until that moment. Adding details is a lot of fun. I love to give some sort of meaning, to create a relationship between form and function of the objects, architectures and places I design.
For example, one thing that’s always amazed me is the way a simple problem has been addressed differently by different cultures.
You’ll see this in very simple objects (like European copper buckets and their Japanese traditional wooden counterparts) and again in technological marvels (compare American and Soviet warships, for example). I love trying to find unconventional answers to otherwise simple questions, and all these examples from real life really help.
3dTotal: Now I have been very sneaky and translated your blog into English. I’m not sure how well Google handled it ...
Marco: Okay, I’ll translate it instead!
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3dTotal: Thanks! What I’m reading from your entry in October last year is: “
I finally decided what do with my life. I can see people rising, applauding cheering and shaking my hands (he finally did it). Being a kid of 33, I decided to throw away almost everything I’ve done in the past (or rather, what I have done so far that led me in the wrong directions) and start from scratch. Reset. See you in the next life.”
So ... er, what’s all that about!?
Marco: Simply put, I woke up one morning and thought of my early youth, of my childhood dreams and ideas. I realised that I hadn’t followed them. I asked myself why? And then an interesting discussion started, with me on one side and the child
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on the other. Embarrassing arguments like, “I’ve tried to be responsible, to put some order in my life, to find my place in the world,” were slaughtered by the simple, direct and naïve question of a youngster: “Responsible? For what? And this order? Where does it come from? You happy?” He won, 10-to-1. He even laughed, and like the older brother explaining a card trick to the puzzled newborn he said: “Ok, let’s start again”.
And that’s it. I threw away my career in architecture (which was basically what I was pursuing) and I began to follow my wildest dreams. And as it turned out, they weren’t that wild. To some people they even made sense. I took a chance, but somehow it seems to be working. Last year was great, I felt like being a |
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child again! I played with LEGO, watch cartoons all day and pretended I was going it for work. Lovely! This year I'm back on being serious. Apart from my work at the office I'm also doing some other things, mostly preparing my next moves. I've also begun to give some order to all the things in my head. Create some sort of logical order and throw out a story. A trilogy to be exact (how original, you might say?)
3dTotal: Brilliant! It’s always great to hear about life-changing moments such as this (even if they do involve chatting with an imaginary version of yourself!) After you decided to make this big change what was the first thing you set about doing? And if anyone is reading this and thinking their life could do with a radical change too, |
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what piece of advice would you give them?
Marco:Once I’d managed to understand what I really wanted to do with my life, the first thing I did was bang my head against the wall several times (my animal side was demanding that I “followed the crowd”, again). After recovering from the headache, the second thing I did was to start planning. Having a dream is great, but understanding that dream will let you understand the future self you’ll need to become in order to fulfil it.
Take a white piece of electronic paper. Write down all of your current strengths and weaknesses on one side, and write all the required skills for your future self on the other. Be honest with yourself. Then try to understand how to link these two sets by filling in the blanks. Once you’ve figured out how to become a candidate for the final prize, you’ll have to think about how to win the prize itself. This will require more planning. You’ll end up with a lot of ideas and a path to follow. But the headache will serve to remind you: all the planning cannot compensate the lack of passion. You’ll have to follow your dream, not a damn plan written on paper. Work with passion and enjoy doing it. Have fun and don’t waste too much time following the map.
3dTotal: If you could conceptualise and model a little scene on your computer, which you could transport yourself into whenever you wanted, what would it be like and what objects would you model to go into it?
Marco: I love secluded spaces in harsh environments – fortresses, castles, whatever. I love seeing the danger outside while feeling safe and protected at the same time (I guess it’s just the old keeping-warm-by-the-fire-while-outside-is-snowing syndrome). I also love ancient buildings; those places that are able to tell you a story, whispering to you of the lives and feelings of people long gone. I would say that I love everything that lets you feel something and tells you a story. If I had to invent something right now, I’d like to stay in the long-abandoned library of an ancient fortress carved directly into a cliff, where I could hear the waves roaring fifty metres below and feel the chill as the cool wind came in through the carved windows. I would begin by creating the room, the carved bookshelves (everything is made of rock in here) and a large bow-window. Set an orange reddish light coming from a fireplace and then begin modelling the exterior. I would do one cliff, adding decorations and windows on top of it.
3dTotal: What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
Marco: I really hope the guys at NASA consider my application for that astronaut position they just opened. Apart from that, I hope to become the ruler of the universe before my 40s, and find the meaning of life by pure chance, waiting for the tube during the rush hours. As you can see, my hopes are absolutely lame and common. Being more serious, I hope to be able to communicate with others using my work – plain and simple. Sounds strange, but even in a world of total communication it’s still rather difficult with the usual difference between hearing and listening. On the other hand, my dreams ... well my dreams are still just too wild to confess. That's why, when anybody asks, I always tell them that I want to become an astronaut. Really! And anyway, I probably have too many for a single lifetime. I honestly believe dreams are like the sun that sets behind the horizon. Something we couldn’t live without and we’ll always ride towards, but at the same time impossible if not dangerous to reach. What’s fun is in the ride. And I’m having it all. |
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