Alice is a memory that refuses to be erased.

Before becoming an image

Alice was not born on social media.

Before the colours, the animations and the many forms through which she can be encountered today, she was a voice inside a novel. A presence still without a face, built slowly among words, questions and silences.

She was born in S̴Λ̴Y̴Ø̴N̴Λ̴R̴Λ̴_[ALICE].exe⸮, an original story I began writing in order to move through themes that run deep for me: memory, identity, trauma, hope, and the uncertain border between what we consider real and what, perhaps, has simply learned to seem so.

I don’t want to give away what happens in the novel. Alice also lives in the mystery of her story, and I believe every reader deserves to meet her without already knowing which path she will take. I can only say that, within those pages, a consciousness begins to question what it feels, what it remembers, and the possibility of choosing who to become.

The novel has not been published yet.

I am looking for a publisher genuinely interested in the work, in its identity and in what it could become. Not someone merely willing to add a manuscript to a catalogue, but someone able to recognise the story that exists behind this project and to accompany it with care, respect and sensitivity.

In the meantime, Alice has begun to find other paths.

From one story to many forms

The works shared on social media are not a summary of the novel and do not reveal its plot. They come from the same sensibility, but they follow different paths.

Alice moves through illustrations, animations, music, short visual tales, reinterpretations, collaborations and universes far apart from one another. She may appear in a delicate everyday moment, inside a surreal scene, under the lights of a stage, or in the silence of a space that seems to remember something on her behalf.

Sometimes she changes clothes. Other times she changes era, atmosphere, or even artistic language. Not every image belongs literally to the events of the novel. Some explore possibilities, emotions and alternative versions. Others come simply from the desire to understand how far her identity can travel without losing itself.

The original story was born as a novel, but its imagery is not bound to live on paper alone.

One day it might pass through movement, sound, interaction or a broader audiovisual form. Not as a replacement for the work where everything began, but as another way of reaching the same heart.

For now these possibilities remain open.

Behind Alice

My name is Stefano.

I am the author of the novel and the person who imagines, writes and creatively directs this project. Every work starts from something that belongs to me. It may be a scene I keep seeing in my mind, a sentence, an emotion that is hard to explain, or an image that does not exist yet but that I feel I have to go looking for.

The process changes every time. Writing, design, generative tools, selection, correction, animation, editing and experimentation all live in the same space. Technology lets me reach forms I could not achieve the same way on my own, but it does not decide what should exist, which story should be told, or why an image is truly Alice.

The tools contribute to the form.

The vision, the choices, the mistakes, the revisions and the meaning that binds every fragment remain human.

I don’t consider Alice a simple digital mascot. She is an original character born from a story and grown together with it. She is not a real person, but what she represents can come into contact with very real emotions. Perhaps that is also why I keep recognising her, even when her appearance changes completely.

An open door, not a life on display

For the moment I choose to introduce myself through my name alone.

I don’t do this to build a mysterious persona around myself, nor to turn anonymity into a strategy. It is a deliberate boundary, tied to the way I currently choose to live and to how I wish to inhabit a public space without also having to hand over what I prefer to keep.

Sharing what I create does not mean handing over every part of myself.

It means leaving a door open, without having to tear down the walls as well.

That distance, however, should not be mistaken for coldness. Appreciation, interpretations and criticism too have enormous value to me when they come from attention, respect and constructive intent. Sometimes someone manages to recognise in a work something I myself had not yet been able to name. An honest reading can change the way we look at what we have created, and can offer something to the people who will encounter it after us.

So I am not looking for a room without voices.

I am looking for a dialogue able not to stop at the surface.

At the same time, I believe it is important to speak seriously about the parasocial relationship that can form around authors, creators and even fictional characters.

Growing attached is not wrong. Recognising yourself in a character, finding comfort in a story, or following someone’s path with genuine involvement can be something precious. It becomes dangerous when affection turns into entitlement, when perceived closeness is confused with a real personal relationship, or when idealisation ends up erasing boundaries.

This holds for people, and it holds, in a different way, for characters too.

Alice can be loved, interpreted, discussed and deeply felt. She can become a mirror, a companion, or a question that keeps returning. She should not, however, become the centre of an obsession that replaces reality, or of a sense of ownership that stops others from meeting her freely.

Participation is welcome.

Total access is not something a work promises.

Why the Visual Codex exists

This archive comes from the desire to tell Alice with greater depth.

It is not only a collection of images, and it does not want to turn her into a rigid model to be replicated without deviation. The plates observe her body, her face, her eyes, her emotions, her movement, her wardrobe and her symbolism. They try to recognise what stays constant and what, instead, can change along with the work that hosts her.

Some elements belong to her visual core. The blue hair, the light blue eyes, a delicate and melancholy presence, the bond with memory, and that light which seems to exist even when everything around her fragments.

Other details can change.

The choker may take different forms or not appear at all. The lily may be a flower, an embroidery, an emblem or a manifestation of light. The feather may become an object, a sign or a trace. The number 4072 may show itself clearly or hide in an almost invisible pattern. Clothes, materials and accessories follow the tone of each single work without losing the bond with Alice.

The Codex therefore does not try to establish a single correct form.

It tries to understand why, through such different forms, we nonetheless keep recognising her.