1,720,979 research outputs found
Marina Apollonio: Fusione circolare/Endings. Tra arte cinetica e testo musicale elettroacustico
No full textMarina Apollonio (1940), tra le protagoniste dell’arte cinetica e programmata internazionale, è ancora oggi in attività. Condivide con altri esponenti dei movimenti ottico-cinetici la spinta verso un’arte fortemente depersonalizzata – in netta opposizione al concetto di astrazione espressiva e alle correnti informali – realizzando opere ‘calcolate’ che, nella visione dello spettatore, si trasformano in oggetti e spazi dinamici. L’articolo presenta l’analisi idiografica della collaborazione artistica tra Marina Apollonio e l’autore. Nel 2021, l’opera Fusione circolare viene adattata e abbinata al brano di musica elettroacustica Endings, sviluppato a partire dai crepitii contenuti nel solco finale dei dischi fonografici. Tali frammenti sonori, giustapposti su più livelli come tessere di un mosaico a strati, restituiscono un testo musicale complesso e oscillante, in equilibrio tra la musique concrète di metà Novecento, la turntable music e le architetture poliritmiche della techno music. La parte visivo-cinetica è una doppia spirale bianca e nera. Come il raggio di un cerchio spiraliforme, una retta la attraversa dal centro fino al perimetro. Quando messa in rotazione alla giusta velocità, l’opera si fonde inestricabilmente con la musica, ne condivide il tempo ciclico e la pulsazione del tactus. Ciò che vediamo muoversi costituisce sia una Hörpartitur, un partitura d’ascolto grafico-concettuale, sia una manifestazione visiva della musica. L’opera rappresenta visivamente l’organizzazione del suono e, al tempo stesso, le forme in rotazione sembrano dettare – più che semplicemente descrivere – la musica che udiamo.Marina Apollonio (1940) was part of the historical movement of ‘programmed art’ of the 1960s.
She shares with other exponents of the optical-kinetic period a vision towards a strongly depersonalized art, in opposition to the concepts of expressive abstraction and informality. Her works are ‘calculated’ so that, in the viewer's perception, they transform into dynamic objects and spaces. The article presents the analysis of a practise-based research and the artistic collaboration between Marina Apollonio and the author. In 2021, the visual work Fusione Circolare was adapted and combined with Endings, an electroacoustic music piece composed using sounds from the run-out grooves of vinyl records. Several sound fragments were juxtaposed in a layered mosaic, forming a complex and oscillating musical text that is somehow reminiscent of mid-twentieth century musique concrète and turntable music, as well as rooted in the polyrhythmic architectures of EDM and techno music. The visual-kinetic part is a double spiral of black and white lines. A straight line radius crosses it from the center to the perimeter, indicating the beginning and the end of the cyclic period. When rotating at the right speed, the visual and the musical texts are synchronized and share a common cyclical time and continuous pulsation (tactus). What we see is both a Hörpartitur, a graphical/conceptual score, and a visual manifestation of the music. It thus becomes impossible to separate the musical part from the optical-kinetic part of the work: the moving shapes seem to dictate – rather than just describe – the organization of the sounds we hear
Per una prospettiva media-archeologica al ritmo macchinico
No full textLa ricerca indaga l’impatto dei media e dei dispositivi utilizzati per la memorizzazione e la riproduzione di ritmi musicali. In prospettiva media-archeologica, partendo dagli strumenti fotoelettrici dell’inizio del secolo scorso e proseguendo poi con quelli a valvole, transistor e a memoria digitale, si esaminano i principali mezzi di generazione, programmazione e memorizzazione ritmica insieme alle loro interfacce a pannello e a schermo. Oltre alle motivazioni artistico-funzionali che hanno portato allo sviluppo e all’utilizzo massivo di drum machine e dispositivi programmabili, si esamina il loro impatto nella determinazione un’estetica ritmica che trascende le caratteristiche espressive della performance umana e che, per questo, sembra determinare un cambio paradigmatico in quello che nella popular music è considerato un groove coinvolgente. Con il ritmo tecnologicamente determinato emerge anche una modalità di ascolto detta ’procedurale’ che consente di contemplare non solo i suoni mediati, ma di evincere anche i processi che ne determinano l’organizzazione.
In questo contesto, le letture mediologiche della actor-network theory sono utili nel considerare i dispositivi actant dotati di agency al pari degli acteur umani. La ANT si contrappone all’approccio socio-antropologico secondo cui gli strumenti sarebbero ricettacoli di valori e relazioni, oppure artefatti totemici inerti e privi di agentività..
Un’ulteriore dicotomia esplorata nella ricerca è quella tra mediazione trasparente e opaca: nel primo caso non si notano (o non considerano) gli effetti del dispositivo; nel secondo l’attenzione è rivolta non solo al contenuto mediato, ma anche all'atto stesso della mediazione che identifica lo strumento impiegato. Esempi di opaque mediation ritmica sono la manifestazione di tagli, l’uso parossistico della ripetizione, l’incorporazione dei rumori di funzionamento dei device. Le tracce della mediazione coincidono così con il ritmo stesso: «mediations are neither mere carriers of the work, nor substitutes that dissolve its reality; they are the [music] itself» (Hennion 2003)
What is Italo Disco? Histories, aesthetics, identities
No full textThe ‘Italo Disco’ label emerged in the early 1980s as a distinctive dance music genre that achieved significant international success, to evolve later into other streams of electronic music (such as Italo house) and, more recently, to be re-evaluated in tune with the broader trends of nostalgic and retromaniacal rediscovery of dance music styles. The panel aims to offer a multi-disciplinary deconstruction of this genre – rooted in musicology, sociology, cultural studies and cultural history – focusing on its historical trajectory, its multi-layered aesthetics, its peculiar industrial processes and the cultural processes that have contributed to shape its identity, placing a distinctive emphasis on the tensions between its local national rootedness and its international circulation. First, Italo
Disco will be addressed in its cultural and social history, placing emphasis on the process of symbolic construction of its ‘Italian’ identity and addressing the reconstruction of authenticity supporting its contemporary revival within today’s dance music cultures. Then, the panel will trace some of the historical and stylistic boundaries of the Italo Disco corpus, examining repertoires and electronic production practices that emerged at the intersection between internationally established Italian disco music producers and local underground post-punk musicians. The same dialectic between internal and external perspectives, between construction and attribution of italianicity/italianness and the re-appropriation of such meanings by the national community, will then be addressed with regard to the peculiar industrial dynamics of Italo Disco – and of dance music in general – within the Italian media system of the 1980s.
Finally, we will consider Italo Disco from the point of view of its retrospective narration in different media, from documentaries to streaming platforms, by highlighting what strategies have been used to frame its cultural memory - as well as a specific imagery of the 1980s - using a number of tropes related to authenticity, performance and performativity
Il progetto della hauntology: forme e pratiche dell’artefatto musicale in un presente nostalgico
No full textLa musica hauntologica, lavorando con materiali e dispositivi propri dell’era della riproducibilità e
talvolta anche con i “residui” dell’industria culturale, si connota come pratica artistica anche
fortemente “teorica” e, in questo senso condivide la progettualità della musica “d’arte”, coniugata a
pratiche che ne caratterizzano l’impronta aurale. Partendo dalla concettualizzazione del tema della
hauntology nel contesto del postmoderno, della fine delle avanguardie, della nostalgia e della
retromania, l’articolo presenta un’analisi della hauntologia musicale individuando aspetti
progettuali e processuali nella creazione di opere sonore “fantasmatiche”, in cui sembrano dipanarsi
livelli temporali multipli. Esaminando diversi casi di studio e vagliando la letteratura esistente, si
evidenziano alcune criticità nelle teorie e categorizzazioni precedentemente proposte. Si procede
quindi all’individuazione di una prassi musicale hauntologica e si presentano elementi timbrici
e stilistici ricorrenti di cui si cerca di fornire una rassegna ragionata.By working with materials and devices from the era of reproducibility (and often even with the
"residues" of the cultural industry) hauntological music positions itself as a practice which is both
expressive and "theoretical". In this sense, it shares the projectuality of art music, combined with
specific elements that characterize the hauntological aural imprint. Starting from the
conceptualization of the theme of hauntology in the context of postmodernism, the end of the avant
gardes and the proliferation of nostalgia and retromania, this paper presents an analysis of musical
hauntology, identifying both design aspects and process aspects employed in the creation of
"ghostlike" sound works, in which multiple temporal levels are unraveled. By examining several
case studies and sifting through existing literature, we highlight some critical issues in the
previously proposed theories and categorizations. Finally, we proceed to the identification of a
hauntological musical praxis. Recurring timbral and stylistic elements are listed, reviewed and
discussed in both their formal characteristics and in the role they play within the hauntological
mechanism
Effects of underscoring on semantic appraisal and interpretation of ambivalent film scenes
No full textThe relationship between film and music provides a domain for the investigation of the effects of background music on emotional and cognitive processing of film scenes. This paper presents the results of an experiment on the role of music in the semantic appraisal and interpretation of ambiguous film clips. Psycho-musicological studies on film music show that subjects are able to match a scene to its intended underscoring, and that there seems to be a “congruency” variable in play between a piece of music and a film scene. Some research also suggests that two independent factors, namely mood and arousal, underlie the appraisal of complex stimuli like musical tracks and film scenes. However, few studies specifically address the role of music in modulating the “cognitive” interpretation of a scene, so we set out to investigate the effect of underscoring music on ambiguous film clips in which the portrayed events could be explained in different ways. First, mood and arousal scores were obtained via semantic differential ratings for 22 music tracks (n=107) and 12 scenes (n=92) and those stimuli receiving the most consistent ratings among subjects were used to create different parings. Then, all combinations were rated for congruency (i.e. how well the music and the scene fit together). Changing underscoring music had a significant effect on the overall ratings for mood and arousal in most film/music pairings (n=92). The perceived congruency between visuals and music seems related to the distance of each stimulus on the mood dimension. When subjects were asked what they thought was happening in the scene, the soundtrack previously rated as congruent led the majority of participants to one same interpretation of the film scene. However, when underscoring music was in a contrasting relation with the film scene, responses were more spread out
Inventing the discovery of a manufactured 'African' sound. Transnational circulation, adaptations and appropriations of 'Kilindini Docks'
No full textIn the late 1950s, a small corpus of music allegedly featuring traditional African melodies and rhythms emerged within Italy's popular music industry. Some of these songs were quickly "exported" to Europe and the Americas, recorded by international artists. My paper will begin with an examination of the origins as well as the national circulation of these pieces of music, which were initially released as singles and then collected in an album. I then will look at their various international adaptations and appropriations in different languages and markets. Finally, I will discuss the ethnic stereotyping and the construction of "authenticity" in exotica music in Italy and abroad, trying to understand this collection of pseudo-African songs within the context of the calypso craze, which was often accompanied by ethnic stereotyping and the colonialist practice of manufacturing a 'traditional' sound representative of a territory or a people
Diritti, autori e ‘appropriatori’ nella discografia popular tra il XX e il XXI secolo
Full text linkThe Ph.D. students in Literature, arts and environmental heritage of the University of Milan present a series of seminars on "Culture and power".
The goal is to discuss some implications of the cultural realities with which we are accustomed to confronting in our research, questioning ourselves on the dynamics of influence, appropriation, and censorship in their relationship with power - understood in its broadest sense.
To enhance the interdisciplinary nature of our Ph.D. course, we propose moments of discussion between Italian and foreign personalities belonging to a variety of cultural institutions and research fields, for dialogue around specific thematic nuclei.
The seminar meetings will involve not only the guests and researchers of our university but also the students and anyone interested
Groove as technology and the technologies of groove
No full textI will show how the rapid development of 'groove technologies' has, on the one hand, made the form and nature of this perceptual phenomenon more apparent and, on the other, profoundly influenced the aesthetics of rhythm in contemporary popular music. This influence has been exerted along two lines: the first is that of machinic regularity, that is, the generation of perfectly isochronous rhythms that differ from human performance in terms of temporal precision and accuracy of repetition; the second is the possibility of designing very sophisticated grooves with temporal and timbral characteristics that do not attempt to mimic human performance at all but exceed it in terms of complexity. If machines were once used to emulate and replace the rhythms played by humans as realistically as possible, we will see how today there are some musicians who try to reproduce live the perfection of machinic rhythms
Singing the script: le filastrocche iperdiegetiche di Ennio Morricone
Full text linkIn the scholarly literature on film music, hyperdiegetic sounds are those that draw attention to themselves and have a symbolic effect, assigning a particular meaning to objects, characters, actions. Starting from this connotation, I would like to propose the idea of hyperdiegetic song or nursery rhyme, analyzing some peculiar works by Ennio Morricone featuring lyrics have clear references to the film’s plot, recounting events that have taken place before or will take place after such music is played. In the films discussed in this paper, hyperdiegetic songs are used as scores or as source music. In all cases, the narrative connection is established by the lyrics, which clearly re- fer back to the story. In this way, hyperdiegetic music brings out something that we cannot simply attribute to the flair of the composer or to a direct diegetic cause, and seems to have been written by the film’s authors themselves. These songs are an affront to the canonical functions of music in film: as the lyrics anticipate or recall the events on screen, the ‘ontological distance’ between the score and the events is denied, and an uncanny realism breaks through
Due teorie sulla hauntology. Dal ‘fantasma’ del rumore mediale alla ricerca del suono perduto
No full textLavorando con materiali e dispositivi propri dell’era della riproducibilità e con i ‘residui’
dell’industria culturale, la musica hauntologica si connota come pratica meta-mediale e, in
questo senso è caratterizzata una progettualità ‘teorica’ non comune nel contesto della popular
music. La relazione presenta un’analisi della hauntologia musicale individuando aspetti
progettuali e processuali nella creazione di opere sonore ‘fantasmatiche’, in cui sembrano
dipanarsi livelli temporali multipli. Esaminando diversi casi di studio e vagliando la letteratura
esistente, si evidenziano alcune criticità nelle teorie e categorizzazioni precedentemente
proposte. Si procede quindi all’individuazione di una prassi musicale hauntologica e si
presentano elementi timbrici e stilistici ricorrenti di cui si cerca di fornire una rassegna ragionata
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