Corvidae. The gaze of species

Originally written for the RAI 3 program La Fabbrica del Mondo by Marco Paolini and Telmo Pievani
Marta Cuscunà

Corvidae. The gaze of species is the TV series written for the RAI 3 program La Fabbrica del Mondo by Marco Paolini and Telmo Pievani.

The series now leaves the screen and comes to the theatre with three seasons in which a flock of crows gives a different perspective on the damage we as a species have done to the Planet and the possibilities we have to repair it.

Audiences will thus be able to revisit in the theatre the episodes of the first season that aired on RAI 3, inspired by the themes that Marco Paolini and Telmo Pievani have addressed from episode to episode and discover, in the new episodes of the second and third seasons, echoes of the thinking of the anthropologist Anna Tsing, the biologist Lynn Margulis, the philosopher Bruno Latour and that affective ecology that Donna Haraway talks about in Staying with the Trouble.

Corvidae. The gaze of species questions us about the possibility of achieving a new harmony between nature and a finally sustainable progress through the comic and disenchanted gaze of a flock of mechanical crows. The scenic installation, designed by set designer Paola Villani, allows the crows to be maneuvered by sight through a system of joysticks and bicycle brake cables.

The performance is produced by a network of important entities including Piccolo Teatro di Milano and CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia, led by MUSE - Museo delle Scienze di Trento, which chose to premiere the show on the occasion of its 10th birthday, July 22, 2023, on the large stage set up in the museum park.
MUSE also made its experts available to the artistic team: scientists, biologists, paleontologists, ornithologists, and science popularization experts who supported the research and writing phase with insights and insights.

Today, more than ever, the scientific world needs to forge alliances with other disciplines to effectively communicate the issue of climate warming and above all to encourage us to take collective action to stop it getting worse.
From literature to cinema and theatre, the art world is also involved in this challenge. Together with MUSE we undertook research in this direction, and now, with this new collaboration, for us the Science Museum is no longer just a place of knowledge but also a home for artistic creation.

The program La fabbrica del mondo was an examination of the contemporary world led by two experts, one in history, Marco Paolini, and one in science, Telmo Pievani. Each episode examined new questions that showed us the degree that issues such as climate change and the exploitation of natural resources are present in our everyday lives. The series used a collection of objects and places to tell the story of evolution and the crises and opportunities in the light of great global challenges. The two presenters were joined by special guests who gave their own insights, including the author of Spillover, David Quammen; Barbara Mazzolai, creator of the plantoid, the first robot-plant in the world capable of reproducing the behaviour of roots; the linguist Noam Chomsky; the economist Mariana Mazzucato and the scientific historian Naomi Oreskes.