Renowned scientist, journalist and Quark presenter Piero Angela, discusses with Charles Mifsud his creative vision in the evolution of television, science, and Renzo Piano.
Arriving slightly late for the meeting, Piero Angela beckoned me into his office with an apologetic smile. His was the same familiar friendly expression which has beamed down to millions of TV viewers for 30 years.
In 1981 Angela was tasked with producing a scientific programme to follow the popular soap opera Dallas. At the time Rai was beginning to experience stiff competition from Canale 5 and other emerging private TV stations crowding the airwaves.
His task was to find a formula that captivated the audience. TV viewers are usually hooked by programmes with stories connected with love and crime as their main themes.
Angela broke the mould and started using short cartoons to explain his concepts. Like a Trojan horse, the cartoon characters stealthily penetrated in the subconscious of the TV viewers.
If it had any chance to compete with the private TV stations, Rai needed to capture the massive audience at prime time who would then remained hooked late into the evening.
He won worldwide acknowledgement for the way he succeeded to communicate complex scientific concepts in a tangible and entertaining way.
Across the universities and learning institutions worldwide, Angela today has become the ambassador of knowledge.
“Of course in my programmes I could not commit murder or arrange love scenes using members of my production team to explain scientific concepts,” the 81-year-old said.
“At the same time my concern was not only with numbers but with quality. I wanted an audience who not only switched to Rai channels but also switched on their appetite to learn,” he said.
Quark became an overnight success and several years later, in 1994, a two-hour version of the programme named Superquark was launched. Apart from scientific concepts, the programme delved into historical events, popular myths and biographies of famous people.
During the interview, Angela was cruising in control, leaving me as a mere spectator enjoying the trip in the realms of his experiences.
He explained how he started to use pieces of cinematographic pieces on their lives to help him portray biographies of historical persons.
“Our programmes are there to give facts not fiction,” he explained.
A theme that has enthralled Angela and which he has reproduced in a recent edition of Superquark was that of Mata Hari, the exotic dancer executed during the First World War for being a German spy. Neither the 1931 film featuring Greta Garbo nor the more recent version of the story by scriptwriter François Truffaut were based on real facts of the popular figure.
True to his professional traits, Angela spent a year in Brussels to research on the historical account of Mata Hari. He managed to locate 45 people who could give first account of this enigmatic figure, including the nun who was Mata Hari’s warden in prison.
Angela went beyond the accessible themes and even explained complex concepts like the economy. How does he assess the recent global economic crises and the need for the world to tap creative ideas to help generate wealth?
Angela believes economists should not only be creative in administering the economy but in effectively creating technological innovations to regenerate the economy.
In Italy a number of experimental laboratories like the one in Trieste and even at Rai are coming up with new techonolgy. However, what Italy lacks is the expertise to launch these products into the market.
In a globalised world can understanding through cultural differences help work for a better common good?
He believes that creating a common understanding between nations takes time. People have a habit of putting up barriers when faced with a culture alien to their own.
With a hint of nostalgia in his eyes, Angela remembered his time as a journalist with Rai in 1968 when he had to announce the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. It seemed that the dream of a whole generation had ceased to exist on that day he recalled. Yet today, US President Barack Obama is of African origin, a graduate from Harvard and addresses the aspirations of his nation.
Angela paused to ask: “Do you know why a Turkish worker can never ask the same pay rise as a Swedish one?”
The answer lies in his next book, which will effectively analyse the development in different European countries in and across the world and how diverse cultures influence the development of these countries.
In his programmes Angela often mentions that even in the art of building, our generation lost the artistic touch compared to the renaissance artists, for example.
He puts forward some ideas. Since the advent of machinery, man has lost touch with the workmanship of artistic work. But today, architects like world-renowned Renzo Piano are also working to bring back artistic expression to their design.
A case in point is a museum Piano had constructed in California that blended seamlessly up with the nature around it.
“Renzo is an architect who actively participates in the actual building of any of his designs,” Angela explained.
I inform him about Piano’s plan for Valletta and ask him whether buildings with modern designs can amalgamate with old architecture.
Taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts, Angela said that every case has to be evaluated on its own merit.
He recalled that in the 1950s Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture designs for Venice were rejected because they were too intrusive on the elegant historical buildings.
But, on the other hand, different constructions from different time periods stand in the same city. Cities are like living bodies and are made up of old and new.
Angela is of the opinion architects and artists should find a point of encounter between the past and contemporary cultures and ideas.
“But in the past artists were also scientists – a typical example was Leonardo Da Vinci.”
Angela explains he is a scientist but enjoys jazz. In interpreting jazz he can also open spaces where one can be creative by interpreting pieces in different ways.
He recalled how young children in Germany are being exposed to music but not in the formal tuition way. Children are left to experiment with music to create their own pieces to help them foster creative thinking in other subjects.
We discussed the talents on state broadcaster Rai and asked whether singers and showmen like Domenico Modugno and Alberto Sordi have become scarce over the recent years.
Angela said one has to keep in mind the mass market of television and what the viewers and clients want – but not at the expense of quality.
His programmes always won the maximum number of viewersin Italy. The secret was very simple: provide information and entertainment.
Angela said decisions at Rai however are often piloted by the policies of the party in government, in contrast to the BBC for example, where policies take into consideration the whole wider spectrum of ideas .
Probably this was a by-product of the Italian political scene where political polarisation reigns supreme.
Before leaving Angela invited me to see a project he was working on in Palazzo Valentini, beneath which lie the ruins of a Roman house dated between 200 AD and 400 AD.
Through multimedia projections Piero Angela the vision of the house with children playing as they ran up the stairs in the filtering sun. What would have been only an opaque visit of a few ruins turned into a vision of a majestic past… a past that we feel is also ours today.
The final projection sees Angela explaining the history of ancient Rome in a simple yet effective approach.
Many say that the beauty of things we see in life lie in the eye of the beholder. But Angela has brought many to appreciate the beauties in life that would otherwise have remained anonymous. This is a beauty that comes from the love for the quest for knowledge.
Mr Mifsud is an engineer, traveller, writer and photographer who has organised cultural exhibitions.
mifcha@maltanet.net
Factbox
Piero Angela’s programmes, originally screened on Rai, were translated in English and sold in over 40 countries. He is the author of over 30 books, many of which translated in English, German and Spanish, with a general circulation of over three million copies.
Angela has received numerous recognitions, among which are the Kalinga prize of the Unesco and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.