Breathing Machine

Breathing machine is a self-contained, wearable breathing apparatus. It permits how much oxygen flows into the user’s lungs by setting an oxygen quota that is relative to the a payment in bitcoin. The setting and context for breathing machine is intentionally dystopian--yet perhaps a nearer future than we may like to admit. The artists were strongly motivated by worldwide anxieties about the anthropocene; our oxygen is a precious commodity that we fear may become more heavily regulated by large corporate entities. Breathing machine demonstrates suffocation by crypto capitalism. It presents a dystopian future in which only those who have wealth in the form of a cryptocurrency can breathe. This piece interrogates the realities of digital wealth in a time of global pandemics, climate change, and greed.

Speculative Design by Esteban Yosef Agosin, Brian Kinnee, and Sarah Lisette Chiesa

Film by Sarah Lisette Chiesa

April 2020

Le Sorelle

Created and filmed by Julia and Sarah Chiesa

Gessi Triassici Secchia is a place I went frequently while living in Reggio Emilia, Italy. When I took my sister there we were immediately reminded of our childhood dancing together and building our lives as movement based artists. Today Julia is an Art Director for film on IMDB and embodiment film maker.

Hacker Lab July 2019

Sacramento CA

Yolanda Journey

A journey of three women and their bodies in the region of Reggio Emilia. There relation to the body attached to self and the external container represented in the gesso casted bodies. I created the script and the with the help of the cinematographer Mauro Farina scouted sites to film. I built all the casted bodies with the help of Angelica Fossemo and Anna Mattioli( dancers). The Visual FX in train was created by Aaron Chiesa. Original sound by Alberto Benati.

Fotografia Europea Festival 2016 

Reggio Emilia Italy

Original Stop motion

First Body Cast experiment with stop motion, form and variation depending on animate and inanimate players.

Upstate New York 2015

Light to Dark, the Human Psyche

This was an experiment with light and shadow. As the performer, I wanted to explore different ways to relate to light and being seen vs being hidden.   As a cinematographer, I was interested to film the audience as a way to watch what they watch, or a way to go inside the audiences head with a hidden camera.

Music: Arvo Part

Austria 2013

Le sens De l'amour

Created for a friend and fan, Franck Baruch for his wedding present.  Charlie Chaplin inspired. 

   Script and Dancer: Sarah Lisette Chiesa

Music: Fred Astaire

Reggio Emilia 2013

In this Breathless Realm

" In this breathless realm we dream that we are the  displacement of water, to which we once, without thought, surrendered, and will again when our agreement coincides with that form which we considered separate pushes in the to fill the vacuum where we had been."

Terrence Chiesa

Cinematography: John Mattuizzi

Editor: Jimi Pantalon, John Mattuizzi, 

Photography: Rachel Shane

 Albany NY 2011

Desirous Journey

One minute Film created for Cinedans Competition, edited and shot by Mauro Farina

Gessi Triassici, Reggio Emilia 2013

Reflections I

Stop motion animation of a reflection shot in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York.  I simply danced with the clouds…

Music: Austin Donohue

 New York 2010