melis.s

an hyperlinked diary-portfolio

It's March, and I'm back in Sardinia after finishing my semester in Milan. I feel like when you scrub your face after a long summer trip—refreshed, lighter, but also filled with new ideas and memories from the journey I just took.
I'm studying and experimenting with new things, even ones I've never tried before, but it's still too early to share them.
Right now, I'm reading Opera Aperta by Umberto Eco (La nave di Teseo). I just finished Display by Elisabetta Modena (Einaudi).
A year that feels like three. I remember having this same feeling back in 2019.
I started the year in voluntary isolation—with my cats and a sea view. I thought it was time to remember what I loved and to rediscover my enthusiasm. To do so, I almost had to reset all external stimuli. Then, as always, there are things you can plan and others that come your way and simply need to be embraced.
In March, I suddenly started teaching again at the Academy of Fine Arts, this time in two cities: Verona and Milan—where I studied and was born.
I realized that being tired is not the same as being unhappy. I am, in fact, a little tired but so happy to be working with students. This precious environment has rekindled my desire to create something new.
So, for the second year in a row, this text contains no links to projects. But I’ll leave you, and myself, with a promise: in 2025, there will be something to see.
P.S. I’m finally ready to send out my first newsletter in 2025. If you’d like to receive updates, you can enter your email at the bottom of the page. This way, I can satisfy my desire to write without being tied to the constraints and rhythm of social media.
I will remember 2023 as the year I completed my Ph.D., a challenging, very solitary, and introspective journey. I spent many months focusing only on the negative aspects of this path—the obstacles I couldn't overcome, the help I didn't receive—and I saw my self-confidence diminish day by day. However, once it was finished, only immense gratitude remained in my thoughts for those who took the time to listen, understand, and encourage me over the years. These generous individuals cared about me as a person before considering me as a researcher. Conducting research is a privilege for a few, and now I can see it, but the road I will take is certainly different, applying everything I have learned in these just-passed years, for better or for worse.
I have many projects on my "things I want to do" list (not things I "have" to do). So, with a heart and mind full of excitement, I bid farewell to this year because, in the end, when I sift through memories, the most beautiful ones always surface.
If I could describe this year in one word I would choose: rebel. First of all, it's important to say that the most artistic thing I did was finish my first book and finally see them on sale. The first copy was bought from the COMMERCE bookshop, in Milan, by a gentleman from Detroit. It was a long job, with many obstacles, but full of satisfactions. Another relevant episode was my stay in Vienna for six months (March-Aug). Vienna is like a kind lady who welcomed me and made me feel safe. I spent those months alone and had the silence needed to hear that rebellious part I mentioned at the beginning. I realized that I have to change something, and I felt better when I realized that I can change something. I started embroidering random things, I don't know if they will ever become something serious, but it's very relaxing. I lost weight and then gained weight. In conclusion i can say that 2022 was a preparatory year, i will come back in 2023, and this time i will do it for me.
From September 22 to May 23 I will be busy writing my PhD dissertation, so please text me if you have anything to tell or ask, so I can distract myself. thank you
This strange year is over too. I have thought several times about the choices I made, and the consequences of each decision I made, without nostalgia but only as an analysis of the facts. I think and think again that the only work of art born this year is called fughe (escapes). And it is one of the jobs that makes me most proud. I'm working on my first real book, inspired by the works done in 2020 in Friuli, in the archive of the drawing school. It will be released in the first months of next year. I leave a small preview.
I started the year looking up to the lights in the sky, feeling my smallness and limitations. I didn't know yet that soon we would all change the way we perceive things, that I would ask myself so many times: how long is a day? Despite this, I felt a great desire to overcome that condition. The opportunity came in the form of a place full of drawings. After a few attempts I decided that I would become a student at a boys' school, closed in the 60's, that's where I met my teacher: Miranda. I am still in contact with her.
I went to the dark side: from student to professor in one month, and found I knew more than I thought I did. I moved back to Sardinia and resumed the slow pace typical of the island, but I took about 25 flights this year (not very sustainable). I saw Tianjin, where I did a Masterclass, and fell in love with China. My research becomes more constant and in-depth also thanks to the beginning of a PhD: I study how the communication of complex information is approached in the world of design and art. I wonder if doing so many things fulfills innate or induced needs.
I discovered new landscapes and stopped there for a while. My passion for chairs and miniatures doesn't seem to want to diminish. Here in Milan I have many stimuli but little energy, and the white light, typical of its sky, causes me a lot of headaches. I have a problem with time management. I think that when I finish my two years here I will go back to Sardinia, even if I will miss my friends, but I promise to come back often.
When I was 5 years old, a nun in the kindergarten called me over to show the whole class my drawing. It was a city seen from above with streets and toy cars. I certainly wanted to reproduce what I had seen from the airplane. She said, "look how beautiful Sabrina's drawing is, even though you could have made the streets more colorful than black." I was happy and ashamed at the same time, but I didn't understand why she wanted the streets colored. I didn't find that drawing again, but I tried to do it again.
EDUCATION
2023 Phd in Architecture and Environment, Department of Architecture and Design, Alghero, IT
2022 Phd visiting scholar at the Medientheorie Department. Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, AT
2019 MFA Arti Multimediali del Cinema e del Video, Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milano, IT
2019 - 2014 Researcher in Multimedia Lenguages, Department of Architecture and Design, Alghero, IT
2013 MA in Communication Design, Department of Architecture and Design, Alghero, IT - Elisava, Barcellona, ES
2011 BA in Industrial Design, Department of Architecture and Design, Alghero, IT
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Scale, a cura di Emanuela Manca, a project by Frame art project, Nuoro - IT
2020 La sera, dalle 7 alle 9, Una boccata d’arte, a project by Fondazione Elpis e Galleria Continua, Sutrio - IT
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2020 If I woke up one day, in dialogo con Camilla Compagni, Manifattura Tabacchi Firenze - IT
2020 Archipel Ouest: îles du futur, curated by Anne Alessandri, Nekane Aramburu, Luigi Fassi and Emanuela Manca, FRAC Corse – FR
2019 Intervalli, with a text by Manlio Brusatin, Galleria Bonaire Contemporanea, Alghero – IT
2019 Little we see is ours, curated by C. Compagni, F. Finotti, G. Zalukar. Zecchini Musica, inside ArtVerona events, Verona – IT
2018 Premio Nazionale delle Arti. Palazzo Ziino, Palermo – IT
2018 falía* AIR, curated by A. Vangelisti. Museo della Gente di Lozio, Villa di Lozio (BS) – IT
2018 Self-Discharge, curated by TWT2, Sky Stone & Songs, Lucca - IT
2018 Leave them Girls Alone, curated by Kamilia Kard, Lavanderia self service dell’Isola, Milano - IT
2018 Unleashing Screensaver, curated by Marie Meixnerová, Screensaver Gallery/Columbia University, Manhattan NY - US
2018 Sine vol.1, curated by Nicola Mora, Spazio Bunker, Brescia – IT
2017 Lucky charms for dinner, curated by Kamilia Kard. The Wrong, digital art biennale – WEB ----> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/arts/design/the-wrong-biennale.html
2017 Your content is here, curated by TWT1, Greencube gallery – WEB
2017 GEM Summer Institute, Kim’s Video archive, curated by Elisa Giardina Papa, Andrea Masu, Paul Soulellis Salemi – IT
2017 Biennale de la jeune création contemporaine, Mulhouse, FR
2017 Past Future, percorsi del craft design in Sardegna, curated by Giuliana Altea, Triennale Design Museum, Milan - IT
2016 Video mapping Il muro sociale, Piazza San Domenico, Cagliari, IT
2015 Padiglione Sardegna at EXPO 2015, EXPO Milan 2015, IT
TEACHING
2024 - ongoing Professor - Progettazione Multimediale, Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milano, IT
2024-2025 Professor - Sistemi Interattivi, Academy of Fine Arts of Verona, IT
2021-2019 Professor - Linguaggi Multimediali, Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, IT
2022-2019 Professor Assistant – Digital Design Media, Department of Architecture and Design of Alghero, IT
2019 Masterclass teacher - Multidesign: a multidisciplinary approach to design, Tianjin Design Week, Tianjin, CHINA
2018 Teacher - 2D Animation basics course, INOKE Nuoro, IT
2017 Tutor - 2CO Communicating Complexity, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Univesidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, ES
2016 Tutor - Arona Extra, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Univesidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, ES
2014 Tutor - Communication Machine Summer school, Department of Architecture and Design of Alghero, IT
WORKSHOPS - COURSES - INTERNSHIPS
2022 Solidarity, Refuge, Sanctuary: Critical, aesthetic and technological practices in migration research, European Forum for Advanced Practices (EFAP), Malta.
2020 Migration, Media & Governance: Advanced Practices, European Forum for Advanced Practices (EFAP), Online
2018 A come Archivio, dalla Wunderkammer al database, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como IT
2018 Ricerche Sensibili, with Zach Blas, Rana Hamadeh, Robert Leckie, Quadriennale di Roma, IT
2018 Fotografia ed editoria d’artista, with Amedeo Martegani e Emanuele de Donno. ABA Brera, Milano, IT
2018 Non sarebbe solo un gioco, with Cesare Pietroiusti, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy
2017 GEM Summer Institute. Centro Kim’s video archive, Sicily, IT
2015 Naturaleza dinámica. Taller de creación audiovisual con Julián Pablo Manzelli, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
2015 3D Illustration with Jing Zhang, Housatonic, Bologna, Italy
2014 AudioVisual production course, Genista Research Foundation, Progetto Leonardo, Malta
2013 IP InformAnimation summer school, Department of Architecture and Design of Alghero, Italy
2013 Internship, Tau Diseño, Madrid, Spain
2010 Internship, 3D modeler, Lichthof Production, Budapest, Hungary
PRIZES - RESIDENCES
2021 Contemporary Festival art residency, curated by Maurizio Coccia, Donori (CA), IT
2018 Winner of Premio Nazionale delle Arti 2018, Sezione Arte Elettronica, Palermo, IT
2018 Premio Centottanta, Special Mention Moviementu, Cagliari, IT
2018 falía* Artists in Residence, curated by Alice Vangelisti, Alessandro Mancassola, Matteo Galbiati. Valle di Lozio (BS), IT
PUBLICATIONS - WRITING
2022 Unione dei Legnami, Artist book (series of 200) cm 26×35; pp. 138; COL and BW; staple binding. A&Mbookstore Edizioni, Milano
2019 Intervalli, Alghero IT, (exhibition catalogue-curated by élitradesign)
2019 222 Artisti emergenti su cui investire 2019, a cura di Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, Edizioni Exhibart, IT
2018 Premio Nazionale delle Arti, Palermo IT (exhibition catalogue)
2018 falía* Artists in Residence, Villa di Lozio IT (exhibition catalogue)
2018 Sine vol.1, a cura di Nicola Mora, Spazio Bunker, Brescia - IT (exhibition catalogue)
2017 Biennale de la jeune création contemporaine, Mulhouse - FR (exhibition catalogue)
I have decided that one of the things I love to do, writing, will become my primary means of communication. This site was born as an attempt to regain interest in what I see, and prefer the quality of information over quantity. I am aware that a written website -today- won't get everyone's attention, but I'm sure people who are really interested will stop and read between the lines. I call it diary-portfolio, because I cannot separate who I am and the things I'm interested in from what I think and do. I still love images, and you can find them embedded in the text. The diary was created mainly to collect artistic works. For the current year the text will change and will be updated over the months, it's a small invitation to come back here, now and then. Past years can be explored as an archive.
I am an Italian artist and designer with a multidisciplinary background. My research explores human abilities from multiple perspectives, paying close attention to habits, behaviors, and the way people move through spaces—both physical and virtual. Through the analysis of these dynamics, I investigate the traces of a broader "universal search for solutions." I often work with fiction, using video and installation to intertwine hypothetical realities with factual data. This approach allows me to question and reinterpret the relationship between perception, narrative, and the structures that shape our experience.

I was born in Milan in 1986 and am based in Alghero, Sardinia. I hold a BA in Industrial Design (2011) and an MA in Communication Design (2013) from the Department of Architecture and Design in Alghero, where I also pursued research in Multimedia Languages (2014–2019). In 2018, I earned an MFA in Multimedia Arts (Cinema and Video) from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan. I recently completed a PhD in Communication Design and currently teach at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan.

My work has been exhibited and screened, among others, at the Biennale de la jeune création contemporaine (Mulhouse), Triennale Design Museum (Milan), The Wrong-digital art biennale (Online), Screensaver Gallery (Online), Columbia University (NYC), FRAC Corte (Corse). I won the National Prize of Arts (Premio Nazionale delle Arti 2018, Italy) in the Electronic Art section.
Love: miniatures, running, going to restaurant, building things
Don't love: butterflies, mushrooms, regular holes pattern (tripofobia)