During the Eighties, with the spread of personal computers, the image of the Italian television was revolutionised by computer graphics. Broadcasts like Obladì Obladà (1985) and Immagina (1987-88), both directed by Ranuccio Sodi, made extensive use of computer graphics and combined analogue and digital post-production techniques. These programs were dedicated to contemporary audio-visual production: from videoclips to video installations, from advertising to computer art and, more generally, to artistic forms related to electronics. For Obladì Obladà, Massimo Iosa Ghini designed the graphic line and created a futuristic studio that revealed the style of bolidismo. While in Immagina, Fabrizio Plessi’s scenographies dictated the aesthetics of the transmission, dialoguing with Mario Convertino’s graphics.
The article aims to analyse the two programs as products of an aesthetical and technological experimentation in which the collaboration between the director and the artists involved represents an attempt to create a “television art”.
