What do Proust, the silent movie killer, and Fabrizio have in common?

Proust, Rappazzo and Fabrizio
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What do Proust, the silent movie killer, and Fabrizio have in common?

24 August 2020, 3 mins read – Fabrizio Gramuglio

Did you know that the first sound film was invented more than 100 years ago by an Italian? His name was Giovanni Rappazzo. In this article, we will explain why, after more than a century, another Italian wants to further extend the dimensions of entertainment from two dimensions (2Ds), audio and video, to many dimensions (+ Ds): smells, touch, tastes, temperature, humidity, wind, etc.

Giovanni Rappazzo was born on October 16, 1893 in Messina, my father’s hometown: the first entrepreneur I had the pleasure of meeting in my life.

This article, in part, is dedicated to him, getting up before dawn to go to work (and sometimes for a short excursion in the woods to collect mushrooms) and to work hard to achieve his goals and ensure the well-being of his family. Although, I must confess that I was never influenced by the first habit, the passion and dedication for work is part of my DNA, and it is certainly a source of gratitude towards my father.

The other part of this article is dedicated, instead, to my mother: a deep art-lover, and my guide into the ability to judge things from different angles. In the last months of her life, although confined to a wheelchair and aware of her imminent fate, she continued to tell about her upcoming visits to European capitals and their museums, exotic areas, and live different experiences. From this dream to the creation of a platform to live experiences without physical, geographical, economic, and time barriers, the step was… not very short, indeed.

Initially I thought that life-logging could be an excellent way to follow, but I soon realized that, even if it was not really a dead end, it was still a fashion that was struggling to become popular and that contained in itself, in in any case, the limits imposed by the 2 Dimensions.

In the following years and thanks to the collaboration and development of various projects in the field of experiences, I understood that the limitation could be overcome thanks to the introduction and management of further stimuli, starting from the smells that represent a powerful connection with our memories, as explained in the  “episode of the madeleine” taken from” Remembrance of Things Past” by Marcel Proust.

If anyone were to ask where the idea of ​​X + comes from, well this is certainly the deepest part of the project.

As for me, I take no particular pleasure in writing about myself, compiling biographies, or updating my resume, so, although the title of the article suggests a short autobiography, I preferred to focus on what inspired the challenge I just faced with my team.


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