Layers

Layers by Giorgio Di Noto addresses coastal erosion by moving away from the direct representation of its morphological effects on the landscape and focusing instead on the systems through which such transformations are observed, measured, interpreted, and simulated. The project adopts a perspective that moves across different sites of evidence production - from sediment analysis laboratories and hydrodynamic simulation facilities to digital environments for monitoring and modelling - bringing together heterogeneous scientific practices that contribute to the contemporary construction of the coastal landscape. The work also includes a series of images devoted to the sea surface itself, where wave motion conveys the force of the natural phenomenon in its most immediate and observable form. This dimension of direct recording is placed in dialogue with the spaces in which technological and infrastructural systems make the phenomenon intelligible.
A broader reflection on the relationship between image, science, and environment emerges from the project, which examines the role of photography through the lens of techno-scientific research. Representation no longer coincides with the simple recording of reality, but with the elaboration of epistemic processes through which landscape is transformed into a measurable and governable sur- face. Coastal erosion thus becomes a cultural and cognitive framework through which to observe the ways contemporary territory is analysed, simulated, and administered.