Maria Grazia Mattei

Interview

• "The first multimedia training fair in Italy" (Milan, 11/09/96)

Biography

Born in Pisa in 1950, Maria Grazia Mattei graduated in art criticism in 1977 from the History of Art Institute of the State University of Milan with a thesis on "The use of the photographic image in mass communications". Journalist and art critic since 1979, she has contributed to several national newspapers and magazines, and has published articles in a number of catalogues and anthologies. An expert in new communication technologies, in 1995 she founded and is still director of MGM Digital Communication, a centre for research and the distribution of new media culture.

She has been an advisor to the board of directors of the Multimedia Centre of Terni since 1996. Since 1995 she has been new media consultant to the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, contributing to the D.I.M.M.I. (Digital Interactive Multimedia Made in Italy) project, which promotes the multimedia industry in Italy and abroad.

Since 1989 she has been a consultant to IBTS (International Broadcasting Telecommunication Show), a trade show organised by Assoexpo of Milan, with particular responsibility for the Mediatech project, the electronic audiovisual communication forum (conventions, seminars and reviews) and the Premio Immagine project, a video journal and competition dedicated to Italian electronic audiovisual electronic production organised in collaboration with Imagina of Monte Carlo

Since 1997 she has been a consultant to SMAU, Milan for the planning and creation of exhibitions and special events in the field of new media and multimedia (Abacus, Mifed). She has been a member of several international juries and since 1990 has worked with Imagina, organised by the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) of Paris, and the International Committee of Siggraph, USA, two major exhibitions dedicated to new technologies.

Since 1984 she has created and co-ordinated numerous exhibitions on the relationship between art and technology and several international reviews of computer animation. She contributed to the Venice Biennale in 1986, co-ordinating the section on Computer Art, and to the Triennale of Milan on "Beyond the Global Village" (June 1995), which focused on the effect of new technologies on the evolution of the media.

From 1986 to 1990 she was a consultant for the "Video and New Images" sector of Palazzo Fortuny of Venice, for which she planned various exhibitions and international conventions, including "Mondi Virtuali" (1990), the first Italian event dedicated to virtual reality. In September 1996 she created Virtual Set, a demonstration of new technologies for the cinema, for the 53rd Venice Biennale of the Cinema. She has edited three editions of Opera Totale (Mestre, 1995-1997) on the relationship between images, sound and new technologies.