seminar and listening session

 

14 September 2023

Cotonificio, aula P

h 16

 

promoted by Centro Studi SSH! Sound Studies Hub

curated by Nicola Di Croce

 

poster >>

 

 

 

The International seminar and listening session focuses on the site specificity of sound within urban and rural contexts. It explores the practices of researchers, composers, artists and curators interested in sound compositions based on field recordings as a form of urban and territorial investigation as well as trigger for cultural and spatial transformation. Drawing from current discussions on media studies, cinema, urban and regional studies and sound art, the event will alternate talks with listening sessions where the invited guest will present their sound works or comment on others’ sound pieces.

 

Guests of the day are Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, visiting professor at Critical Media Lab Basel, and Leandro Pisano, Honorary Research Fellow in Anglo-American Literature at University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”.

 

Speakers include Giulia Vismara, Postdoctoral fellow at Royal Academy and Conservatory Anvers, Gaia Martino, independent curator, and Nicola Di Croce, Marie-Curie Fellow at Iuav, members of SSH! Sound Studies Hub (Iuav).

 

 

 

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay: Sonic Mediation
This talk investigates how the sonic environment is reconstructed in films and audiovisual media through the recording and mediation of site-specific environmental sounds or ambience. Although the cinematically mediated setting acts as the sonic backdrop where a story or event can take place, there has been little academic study of the transformation of ecological relationality and sonic symbiosis through sound recording and design by the process of mediation of the environment and production of space in film and audiovisual work. This talk presents a book The Auditory Setting (2021/2023) to focus on these issues. Drawing on theories of narrative, diegesis, mimesis and presence, and giving example of a varied number of relevant films and audiovisual media artworks, the book explores the human agency and affordances in producing sonic reality and presence through recording and (artistic) mediation of environmental sounds, ecology and symbiotic relationships on audiovisual media for human consumption and entertainment in the Anthropocene. 

 

Leandro Pisano: The Manifesto of Rural Futurism

The talk will focus on reflection and listening from the 20-year experience of Interferenze / Liminaria, a research project carried out across several rural areas of southern Italy, from Irpinia to Sannio, from Cilento to Fortore, from Molise to the peripheral area of Palermo. A short selection of context-specific works realized by international artists during a series of art residencies in the region of Campania will be presented and discussed, thus resulting in an “invisible” sound map made of voices, places, people and landscapes.

A specific focus will be devoted to the Manifesto of Rural Futurism, a document written by Pisano together with Beatrice Ferrara in 2019. The Manifesto is founded on a series of propositions aiming at rethinking rural areas and re-imagining their possible futures, understanding them as complex spaces actively immersed in the dynamism of encounters, flows and fluxes of contemporary geographies and critically questioning the modernistic discourses of capitalism and metropolitanism in which they are marginalised and considered as doomed to oblivion.

 

Giulia Vismara: Colonized by water

Colonized by Water is an exploration of the underwater soundscape in Venice, unveiling auditory experiences often unnoticed in our daily perception of sound. Using a hydrophone and the auralization 3D technique, the project captures the unique acoustic traits of water. Imagining how water would transform iconic buildings like the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, the author contemplates the dynamic relationship between acoustics, human presence, and water's transformative power. This imaginative journey delves into potential acoustic changes as water fills the city's intricate shapes. The aim is to reveal hidden sonic dimensions and raise awareness about the impact of rising sea levels on coastal cities like Venice.

 

Nicola Di Croce: Containing Multitudes

Drawing from the results of a two years project developed in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacle (QDS) in 2021-2022, the presentation will focus on the implementation and assessment of a temporary sound installation realized during October 2022 in Place de la Paix, a small public square located in the heart of QDS. Addressing issues of traffic noise on the nearby streets and social inclusiveness within the square, the installation incorporated and transformed traffic sounds and everyday textures and voices recorded on the spot, aiming to create a meditative and engaging environment to encourage the cohabitation of diverse users of the public space. In particular the presentation with focus on: the compositional process, which mainly used field recordings taken within the same spot; (ii) the outcomes of two previous workshops engaging residents and city users of QDS; and finally (iii) the results of a questionnaire, which was administered to residents and users of the square before and while the installation was running.

 

 

 

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a media artist, researcher, curator, and writer. Chattopadhyay produces works for large-scale installations and live performance addressing contemporary issues of environment and ecology, migration, race, and decoloniality. His works have been widely exhibited, performed, or presented across the globe, and released by leading labels. Chattopadhyay has an expansive body of scholarly publications in media theory and aesthetics in leading peer-reviewed journals and is the author of four books: The Nomadic Listener (2020), The Auditory Setting (2021), Between the Headphones (2021), and Sound Practices in the Global South (2022). He holds a PhD in Artistic Research and Sound Studies from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the Critical Media Lab, Basel, Switzerland. https://budhaditya.org

 

Leandro Pisano is a curator, writer and independent researcher who is interested in intersections between art, sound and technoculture. The specific area of his research deals with political ecology of rural, marginal and remote territories. He is founder and director of the Interferenze new arts festival (2003) and frequently he is involved in projects on electronic and sound art in rural territories, including Liminaria (2014‒). He has curated exhibitions in Australia, Chile, Italy and Japan. He is author of the book “Nuove geografie del suono. Spazi e territori nell’epoca postdigitale”, published in Milan by Meltemi (2017). Leandro Pisano holds a PhD in Cultural and Post-Colonial Studies from University of Naples“ L’Orientale” and he is presently Honorary Research Fellow in Anglo-American Literature at University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. www.leandropisano.it

 

Giulia Vismara is a researcher and an electroacoustic composer interested in the relationship between sound and space. Currently she is a postdoctoral researcher at Antwerp's Royal Conservatory and Academy of Fine Arts, where she is involved in speculative research on the relationship between space and sound in virtual reality; co-founder of the SSH! Sound Studies Hub at Iuav, University of Venice, as well as a member of music technology research group music technology research group RISME digitali, a research group committed to the study of the use of electronic and digital technologies in music and sound. Vismara’s works range from electroacoustic and theater music to sound installations and video art. Through sound spatialization, the author investigates how sound can create a tangible sense of space within our perceptual experience. www.giuliavismara.com