Bruno Quast, who has Italian and German nationality and was born in Heidelberg in 1994, won the fourth and final category of the SISS – Open Call, which is reserved for AFAM students. As part of this victory, he was commissioned to create a new audiovisual work based on scenes from the French documentary ‘Naples’. Dating probably from 1927, the film contains no information beyond what has been recorded on the film itself. With the support of the ‘Tito Schipa’ Conservatory in Lecce, Quast’s work aimed to recreate the soundscape of the 1920s, drawing inspiration from contemporary local poems and folk songs.

Driven by soundscapes and books, Quast works as teacher of sound design for animation in Estonia and has made experimental 3D animation and drawings in the past. A field recording inspired artistic book and audiovisual compositions are his current PhD research, which is interested in such forms of expression, along surreal storytelling and playfulness. Bruno Quast was first taught contemporary art and piano, raised in Italy and born in Germany. He is currently enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples (Abana) as AFAM PhD student.

In this interview, we will get to know one of the young audiovisual talents selected by the SISS project better.

When did you realise that audiovisual media was the path for you?

«It was and still is a road with many ups and downs, and it is one of many ways. I don’t always perceive it as the way to follow. I especially liked animation for the freedom to be very peculiar and very personal in the style and approach to making things, and for the people I studied with. Making sound design, and through it field recording, came from the need to have sound for animated shorts. It is dramatically faster than working on video and allows me to immerse more in the real world, in slowness and detail. Digital media are great to combine and layer materials and techniques yet they do have a tendency to lead to detaching from the “real” world and impose themselves (the available effects and styles) into the creative process.

I started very young with audiovisual media drawing animals in paint and animating them in power point».

How long have you been involved in this artistic field?

«Since childhood, with phases. Professionally, since a dozen years».

Is this the first competition you have entered, or have you participated in others?

«No, I tried others. Animation festivals mostly, other open calls. I think it’s the first time I win».

Where does your inspiration come from, what is your creative philosophy?

«There are phases when things (videos, drawings, stories, sound) just come out on their own. They can last days, months or even years, or stop coming for many years. Inspiration is hard to pinpoint. It often comes while being creatively active and immersed in the creative moment without expectations, almost looking at it from the outside. I also believe it is easier for me to achieve that when having less freedom (i.e. while going to school or university or having a job). I’m inspired by nature in any magnitude, evolution and sci-fi and cyberpunk, fantasy, dreams, books, some movies, videogames, roleplaying games, tabletop games, music, lots of other art and other people’s workflows and creative worlds, and more. I don’t have a well established creative philosophy. Creating feels like something everyone should be doing if they wish, like playing. I do try to make some things for the public, people I don’t know from a culture closer or more distant than mine. Some things I make for friends. Some for myself. Some for work. I believe the artist-creator-individual figure is quite misleading and that creating is an activity for growing and being alive. It is wonderful to participate in close people’s creative processes and see things grow like a vine forest».

What do you see in your future?

«Much about relations with people I know and people I don’t know».