I’m an artist!

Open letter from the project founder

Dear artist,


I’m Dario Riccio, co-creator of the usual neXt project. Italian by birth, I have lived in Switzerland for about two years and have always been passionate about new technologies. It’s also my specialty, actually.

And I love beauty, madness. All that is beautiful is art. How is the contrary statement valid.

For years I have been a videomaker. A little for “family inheritance”, a little for having spent years in Cinecittà (Fellini’s studios, the homeland of Italian cinema), I have had to deal with technology every day. Always looking for new things, always looking for ways to obtain “that little bit more”, to create with limited resources, things that beyond the Ocean big companies were creating with unlimited means and millionaire budgets.


So, I love technology. I know it deeply. And that’s why the usual neXt was born. To help the world to use technology correctly.

There is nothing dystopian about this. Modernity will not kill us all. It will not harm us physically. But it will give us, as it is already doing, moral problems.

The «virtual world» is taking over the physical world. Too much time, every day, is dedicated to computer activities (online and offline).

But how do we hope to help someone, I believe you are asking yourself. Simply, by transmitting art and real world. Spreading the desire to travel, or just to live the open air, thanks to the unifying capacity of art.

This is why our project will expand by territories. We will initially focus on individual regions, and then expand to the others. Initially in Europe, and who knows where it will go next? We are too small at the moment to think about it. But there are ambitions and possibilities, and we know we can do more.

We’ll make popular the territory through the artists, and their art.

Pros and Cons of technology

Is technology a monster? No. In the strongest terms. How much has it improved our life?

We can mention the quality of work (and the efficiency of companies), communication with distant relatives and friends, the (extraordinary) improvement of medicine, and therefore of life expectancy both in duration and quality.

The downside, is just its effectiveness. Effectiveness that sometimes goes behind our mind. And this effectiveness, needless to say, is in the hands of a few very large companies. In the name of profit they force billions of people to work for them. For free. In their entire spare time.

They force us, our children, our parents, to spend our days training their algorithms. To make us buy products, to inform us of what the highest bidder has to tell us.

About that, I suggest you read the article by Luisa Bassoli, on our blog, entitled “The importance of living in the real world – Leaving the Cave” (link). It’s a source of information but also of hope. Hope, because some of the same oligopolistic companies of current human knowledge are faintly beginning to notice that the situation is getting out of hand.

We have some issues to solve. Economics, psychologicals, artistics… We hope to help each other.

So… What do we want from you?

We want to bring people out, to find themselves in the real world. Therefore we will be an hybrid. We want to take advantage of technology, to enable people to use it less. The only way to reach people, now, it’s precisely by smartphones and computers.

More precisely we ask you to help us by:

1. Authorizing us to publish on our platforms and events (online and offline) textual contents, interviews, photo and vids (normal and in virtual reality) of you and a selection of your works.
2. Help us by spreading and keeping our brochures in your locations, by tagging us in your web and social channels, and equally we’ll do for you guys.
3. Collaborating in the best and agreed ways every time to our events in the real world.
4. Finding the method to collaborate in the best possible ways by keeping in touch and updating each others on news or proposals.

We’re just starting out. We really want your ideas.

I thank you and the team… It’s great.


And that is why I thank all those who have decided to follow me in the development. I thank Mario Rainaldi, architect and historical researcher, as well as co-founder of the project. I thank the diplomat John Kapine Kodo, for following me in every step, and being my alter-ego in Italy. Alberto Teti, to give me the strength to continue with all his pragmatism. Mario Covotta, marketing expert and much more, who translates every theoretical idea into practical sequences.

And again Giuliana Amorosi, artist and artistic director of the project, for her desire to replace problems with art in every corner.

And all the other team members: the director Michele Pelosio, who readjusts his genius to follow the new technological frontiers touched by the usual neXt. Zahid Iqbal, computer scientist expert in virtual reality. The skilled 3D modelers, Michela Sette and Sebastian Lapthorne, who will soon be joined by other wonderful colleagues. Giulia Verile, for the logo and her graphics. Luisa Bassoli, Brazilian writer with a degree in art and cinema who helps us with our blog. Fernando Bellini, who puts his musical art available.

There are many whom I still have to thank for practical and moral help in various activities. And above all, I have to thank YOU.

Yes, THANK YOU. Because without you to give us a hand in creating a real, large and strong network, the goal itself of the project is dead on the vine.