Comunicazioni Sociali on-line Dottorato di ricerca in Culture della Comunicazione Dipartimento di Scienze della Comunicazione e dello Spettacolo UNIVERSITÀ CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE 5 • 2011 | © Vita e Pensiero | ISSN 2037-0415 MIRIAM DE ROSA LUPERCYCLOPEDIA Moving Images and Living Archive * On the 17th of June 2005, Peter Greenaway set about his first VJ performance. It was the beginning of a worldwide live cinema tour, but mostly, it was the beginning of what later would have become the Lupercyclopedia. Based on the Tulse Luper Suitcases 1 , the project consists of a living encyclopaedia conceived for the infor- mation era, characterized by the presence of particular figures, motifs, themes and a peculiar recurring symbology. This conveys the idea of an archive, which works as a database able to support and feed the contemporary “cinematic-scape”. In particular, the main hypothesis I will try to demonstrate is that this last work by Greenaway can be considered as the author’s own archive. Not by chance, Lupercyclopedia sounds obviously to be the encyclopaedia of Tulse Luper, who is Peter Greenaway’s alter ego. We are thus presented a live reinterpretation of Tulse Luper’s story, which is rendered through the com- bination of 92 characters, 92 settings in place, 92 global events, 92 individual stories, 92 natural elements, 92 symbolic objects and a final sequence, which is the result of the montage of 92 explosions sequences. * This is a draft paper of the talk given during the IX MAGIS – Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School (Gorizia, Italy – 10 April 2011). The full version of the text will be included in the Conference proceedings (publication expected in 2012). 1 Tulse Luper Suitcases is a multifaceted project by Peter Greenaway. It is composed of different parts, including a wide range of media platforms; among these products it is important to mention at least the three feature films devoted to the figure of Tulse Luper (The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story, The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea, The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish), a series of travelling exhibitions, a web site (http://www.tulselupernetwork.com/basis.html [Accessed 26 June 2011]); moreover, there are a blog (http://blog.tulseluperjourney.com/ [Accessed 26 June 2011]) and an online game (http://www.tulseluperjourney.com/game/ [Accessed 26 June 2011]), both entitled Tulse Luper Journey. This is a meaningful choice by the author, both for the nature of the archive which represents the object of this study, both on a theoretical level, since Greenaway’s use of different media is to be considered and related to the post-medium condition of cinema. As regards, the équipe producing the online game has been pointing out that «Greenaway’s statement that ‘cinema is dead’ calls for new ways of com- municating ideas. This game is part of the search for a crossover format that breaks the boundaries and rules that have been im- posed by film, theatre, books, games and other traditional media» (http://www.tulseluperjourney.com/about.jsp [Accessed 26 June 2011]). As far as the post-medium condition of cinema is concerned, please refer to the last essays by Francesco Casetti, and mainly to Casetti, F., 2011. Back to the Motherland: the film theatre in the postmedia age. Screen, 52 (1), pp. 1-12; an interpretation and application of the same debated concepts is to be found in De Rosa, M., 2010. David Rockwell’s Hall of Fragments. Looking for Film’s Genius as a Medium through Audiovisual Geographies. Comunicazioni Sociali online, 3, pp. 40-49. Available at http://www.comunicazionisocialionline.it/2010/3/6/loadPDF/ [Accessed 26 June 2011]. The moving images provided to re- lease the video-performance, which is the subject of this essay are basically taken from these products, as from the whole direc- tor’s filmography.