• Through 2006

Photos published on this site, in random order each time you reload this page (Note: in many blog posts you will find more photos).

Please note that we are in the process of aligning the translations of titles of old photos we recently migrated from Flickr, so if you go on the Italian version of this page, you will get a chance to see a lot more shots.

please note: Videos for the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band (Jug Band Colline Metallifere) are proposed in a dedicate page on the JBCM web site: http://www.pibinko.org/jugbandcollinemetallifere/videos/

Shorts, in reverse date order.

Nine videos are co-productions (with: Lucio Monocrom, Orsola Sinisi, Francesco Giubbilini, Manuel Schianchi).

Some videos are, intentionally, “lo-fi”, instant productions. Others follow a detailed production plan and are created with high quality standards. If you like the overall mood of these works and would like to have a similar video made (you choose the quality), please contact us and we will be glad to discuss the details.

• Waiting for the Farma Valley Winter Fest in Madrid
• The Metalliferous Hills Jug Band – Abramo (Abraham)
• The Metalliferous Hills Jug Band – Sognando il Vaticano (Dreaming about the Vatican)
• The Metalliferous Hills Jug Band in “Supermarket”
• Jolene and the metalliferous spiderdog
• Tom “harp” Newton…not just harp
• Etruschi from Lakota feat. Wolfgang Scheibe and Guglielmo Eboli: Everyday I have the Blues
• Supermarket (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo M.mo Oct. 31, 2017)
• Il vino nero (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Sempre allegri (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Mr. Hitler (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Sognando il Vaticano + That’s alright Mama (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Corn Flakes (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• All you fascists bound to lose (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Abramo (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• I’m so glad (The Jug Band @ Monterotondo Marittimo, Southern Tuscany, Oct. 31, 2017)
• Etruschi from Lakota – “Guerra fra poveri” – at the 38th palla a 21 tournament in Torniella
• Tom Newton “on the road” in Pomarance, Southern Tuscany
• …from the Etruscan print shop in the secret hills (crowdfunding video for Etruschi from Lakota)
• The recording of the webinar of open-source geomatics, environment and music from Southern Tuscany
• Pietro Crivelli: Nobody knows when you’re down and out @ Belagaio Castle (Southern Tuscany)
• Mar. 7, 2017: Mario Straccali on the Farma Valley Community Map
• Geomatics and music at FOSS4G-IT in Genova, Italy
• Piro and Tom from “Etruschi from Lakota” experimenting with excerpts from “Black Market”
• Video report from the 37th Palla a 21 tournament in Torniella (Tuscany)
• Highlights from the 2016 palla a 21/palla eh! tournaments (video)
• Beans with Rind (De’ Soda Sisters live)
• De’ Soda Sisters live @ Baravaj Bookshop, Milano
• An Etruschi from Lakota video: Any other Wheat Thursday
• Interview #3: Holes and Rocks
• Interview #2: kaolin/Caolino
• interview #1: We’ve got parking issues…
• Interview #4: 21 (or palla eh!)
• Interview 5: With a Waning Moon, beware of Nilo, Valdemaro and Dante
• Mar. 13, 2014 Elevator producing quasi-diatonic singing (Milano, Italy)
• Mar. 12, 2014: Street Music in Toulouse, France (21″)
• Photo coverage of the New Year’s Eve party in Tornialla (Hardisco Live)
• Maria plays an astronomic guitar in Lastovo (Sep. 6, 2013)
• This is not “Photometrical” Water
• Testing the hotelbar-o-phone in Nice, France (May 15, 2011)
• Barbatuques and audience engagement @ Théatre Lino Ventura, Nice, France, May 14, 2011
• Barbatuques – progression @ Théatre Lino Ventura, Nice, France, May 14, 2011
• Baiana – Barbatuques @ Théatre Lino Ventura, Nice, France, May 14, 2011
• PIetro Crivelli – Farma Valley Stomp #1
• BuioMetria Partecipativa in Rome – Feb 2011 for M’illumino di Meno
• Trailer for “Rose Island”
• The Pretty Face in “Your Heart is made of Stone”
• Safari live @ Concentrato d’arte, Buca di San Vincenzo, Milano
• Showing of Ermanno X in Meldola, Italy: the highlights
• How dark is the sky in Maremma?
• Ermanno X: the trailer
• Let’s light up the stars!
• So, let me show you what I did
• Cheese: the trailer
• Buiometria Partecipativa in Sardinia
• Interview with Lucio Monocrom
• Charles T live: Sitting on the dock of the BART
• BuioMetria Partecipativa in Southern Tuscany – Lesson 1
• M(‘)appare Milano: the April, 6, 2008, outing
• Mapping Party in Arezzo, Tuscany
• Riflessioni sul tema(tismo) – on free/open-source GIS
• Mapping Party in Pavia, Italy
• Palla 21 a Chicago (e ritorno) – TRAILER
• The lonesome Chioccolo Player
• Palla a 21 at Tocatì Stree Game Festival 2007 (Verona)
• Different heights
• Palla a 21: Clearing the Field
• Palla a 21: a primal primer
• Palla 21: the rules according to Mario and Claudio, aka Bob
• If you start well, you end up well (the construction of the ball according to Ilo)
• New Year’s celebration in Naples
• Cracklebox
• Jim didn’t know
• Through the looking glass/Looking through the glass
• Starlings in Orrento
• The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombies: trailer #1
• Too much pepper stew
• 1997-2006 Kaleidoscope (test)
• The spot for my first photography site
• Growing up
• The Cat Tamer
• Revenge

Medium-length (directed by Lucio Monocrom)

• The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombiers (2007) – script and co-production
• Ermanno X, the news that kills (2009) – co-production

Since 1993 I have been working in parallel in Italian and English.

I routinely handle translations from English (and occasionally from French) into Italian.

Since 2018 I also work as a reviewer for Verbalizeit.com (for English-to-Italian translations)

Since 1995 I have been providing training/tutoring in terms of:

• tutoring for environmental engineering students in preparation of their MS dissertation
• trainer in courses and worskhops on Geographic Information Systems (in Italian, English, and French)
• tutor for junior employees

Apartaments, farm houses, and other solutions:

• Ersilia’s House, in Torniella, Southen Tuscany
• Forestano’s House, in Tatti, Southern Tuscany
• …other solutions (presentations to be finalized): please write info@pibinko.org

Since 2006 I have been working in a growing array of projects related to promotion, outreach, facilitation, and community engagement. For these activities, I often collaborate with other professionals or organizations.

The track record is provided below. Individual events or very short projects (e.g. a one week campaign or a presentation) are listed separate from long-term running initiatives.

A note on language diversity
Several of the initiatives listed below are currently documented in Italian. In English you will find brief descriptions, and subtitles for the majority of videos. Please write for more information (in English ou français).

Events or short projects

2000

1. Survey of GIS skills in Sardinia, with web forms and paper dissemination. 120 replies obtained.

2005

1. Procurement of a band for a wedding party (Nema Problema, an Italian-Balkan band)
2. Date for Nema Problema for an event on “wine and stars” (Calici di stelle) in Massa Marittima (Tuscany)

2006

1. The Revenge of the Killer Chihuahua and of the Zombies: Scripted and co-produced a short movie [2] with a production team involving 30 people

2007

1. Riflessioni sul tema(tismo) video “spot” for the Italian OSGEO Chapter [3]
2. Palla 21: from Tuscany to Chicago (and back): Promotion and management of a “mission” of a group of 20 players of an ancient hand ball game from Souther Tuscany (for Spanish folks: very similar to pelota Valenciana), to Chicago, Illinois in the Summer calendar of events by the Dept. of Culture of this city [4]

2008

1. participated in the organization of an OpenStreetMap mapping party in Arezzo [5]
2. M(‘)appare Milano: created a three-month participatory mapping campaign in Milano [6] (for Milano I created the title “M(‘)appare”). Various people took part in the events, including citizens which you might not expect, such as a blind lady, or people typically disconnected from ICT and mapping. Note: The M(‘)appare was then used as a “format” in Ferrara, Portofino, Antola Park.
3. organizer of a national conference on “Culture, environment, and free/open informatics: which opportunities by the integration of diverse themes” [6.1]
4. Summer campaign for GFOSS.it – Proposal and management of a stand at Festambiente (the main Summer festival on environment in Italy), for the Italian OSGEO Chapter, together with collateral activities. [7]
5. “Le palline sulle colline” (little balls on the hills): promoter and manager of two photographic exhibitions (one in Tuscany and one in California) and one photographic contest on the ancient Tuscan hand ball game [8]

2009

1. New Year’s Eve party (with participation for three days of 50 people from outside Tuscany in a village of 200 residents) [10]

2010

1. “l’altro lato dell’altro lato” – farewell event for a major radio show (l’Altro lato – creator of the event, and part of the organizing committee). The event was attended by over 250 people from all over Italy. [11]
2. photographic contest “between dusk and dawn” (with some 600 participants from 52 countries) [12]
3. organizer of the “First INSPIRE mashup” (on biodiversity), from April to the INSPIRE conference in Krakow [13]

2011

1. Presentation event of the Attivarti.org association at Terra Futura (Florence, one of the main events in Italy on awareness raising about environmental sustainability), with a session on light pollution and a concert arranged in the evening. [14]
2. Lecture at Politecnico di Milano [15] (this is included as an “event” since it was provided as a performance, rather than a “standard” lecture).
3. Proposer and manager of the second INSPIRE mashup [16], including a social event and a live radio interview with Radio 24 (the main “news and talk” radio in Italy).
4. Photo exhibition in the Toscana Foto Festival of a selection of the best shots from the “Between dusk and dawn” contest in 2010.
5. Festambiente stand for Attivarti.org [18]

2012

1. Presentations at various events related to biodiversity, in the context of the ENVIROFI project (see below)
2. Coordination of the exhibition and a web catalogue for the Società Filarmonica Popolare Torniella [20]
3. Organization of a two-day event on Culture, environment, and open innovation (Nov. 19, Monticiano, and Nov. 20, Massa Marittima) [21]
4. Organization of presentation for the proposal of comments to the new Master plan on environment and energy by Regione Toscana[22]
5. “Brano bag“: a series of blog posts published by 7AM CET on each working day (live, no automatic scheduling), proposing  a song, its lyrics, and some thoughts inspired by the song, or the previous day. From July to December.

2013

1. New Year’s Eve concert in Torniella (Southern Tuscany), again with Hardisco (in collaboration with the Torniella and Piloni communities)
2. See “Long-term projects”, below

2014

1. Four articles for the Opinions Post, a citizen journalism web site (January)
2. Boscoriserva: a series of articles commenting songs from the Woodstock festival.

2015

1. Experimental campaign in Torniella and Sesto Fiorentino (Tuscany), with a combined meeting of the Loss of the Night network.
2. Facilitator for the participation of a team from the Farma Valley to the INVOLEN location-based game contest
3. Mentor and jury member for the Connected Automobiles 2015 Hackathon

2016

1. Farma Valley Winter Fest

2017

1. pibinko.org + Attivarti.org + associates Winter campaign (with fifteen events and activities in eight Italian regions)
2. Events for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the “Palla 21 to Chicago” Mission
3. Promotion of the Farma Valley Community map
4. Second Farma Valley Winter Fest

2018

• Participation to Fa’ la Cosa Giusta (Milano)
• Promotion and organization of the first international symposium on protection and promotion of the night sky in Capraia Island, Italy. In collaboration with CNR IBIMET and University of Florence
• Third Farma Valley Winter Fest

2019

• Development of the Metalliferous Hills Jug Band, with over 30 performances between Tuscany, Milan, and Germany since November 2018. Please see this page for an updated listing of our performances.

2020

• Launch of the Participatory Lithology project as a resilience initiative (the project kicked off on March 21, during the COVID lockdown, after a fast-track design phase of one week)
• Hired Mauro Tirannosauro (Mauro the T-Rex) to support pibinko.org activities.

Long-term projects

1. 2003-2006: I had the role of staff manager in the Italian branch of a large environmental engineering company (multinational). In addition to recruitment etc, among my tasks in this role I had the responsibility of creating and managing entertainment/social activities for the staff and for guests/clients (mostly from the USA).
2. 2008-ongoing: BuioMetria Partecipativa project (participatory light pollution monitoring) [21], then leading also to CORDILIT [22], Toscana Stellata [23], and the Loss of the Night EU COST Action
3. 2007-2010: GFOSS.it (the Italian OSGEO Chapter) – Founding member. Board member (2007-2008), and vice president (2008-2010). Mainly active in communication/marketing, and relatioships with other entities. [24]
4. 2010-2012: Facilitator of the INSPIRE European Directive on spatial data infrastructures. Name I have bee working for the Thematic Working Group of the “Production and Industrial Facilities data specification”.
5. 2012 -2013: Citizen science coordinator for the biodiversity work package of the ENVIROFI project [19]
6. a concise history of participatory night sky monitoring from Italy (work in progress)

I have been using computers since the early Eighties, first as a hobby, then for my studies, and since 1994 for my professional activities.

Having worked often as a liaison between IT specialists and people who do other jobs, I frequently provide advice and guidance on how to make these two communities interact.

The aim of information technology awareness is to help businesses to use IT using less time and energy, thus leaving more time and energy for your core activity.

For more information: info@pibinko.org

Lighting is an essential component of modern life. On the other hand, darkness is perceived often as a negative element: we forget that it is a natural part of the life cycle of many species, and that natural dark skies are not as somber as some say. The misperception of these elements leads to irrational patterns in the use of artificial lighting, with actual impacts on ecology, environment, energy, safety, and health. Interestingly, also the reaction to “too much light” -and the response to light pollution issues- without an interdisciplinary approach may oftenr lead to additional distortions in our appreciation of the issue.

With the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, as an environmental engineer since 2008 I have been organizing outreach events on these topics. The events are aimed at (1) increasing awareness on the use of light, (2) suggesting sustainable practice compared to many cases we can observe daily, and (3) promoting dark sky places.

With a track record of over 130 presentations over the past ten years, at various latitudes and directed to extremely varied audiences (up to 200 participants), I can propose contents tailored to different situations, in Italian, English, and French. The presentations take shape by composing different media, including text, photography, videos, music and installations, often collaborating with other professionals.

The presentations on these topics often have a promotional component for the hosting venues, and may be connected to other animation activities. Last but not least, all the events we organize are advertised via the pibinko.org network, with an extended mailing list, media contacts, and social networks.

Working on this as an environmental engineer and PhD with 25 years of experience in environmental monitoring, I can also interact with other experts on light pollution-related projects.

For more information on this topic, or to arrange a presentation on lighting and darkness write to bmp@pibinko.org