UNIDEE - University of Ideas
UNIDEE NOTEBOOKS 2017 | n. 7
The Dance of Attention. What happens as soon as we press ’record’ on a device module mentored by Attila Faravelli and Enrico Malatesta with Adam Asnan
Cittadellarte Edizioni, 2018 ISBN: 978-88-98698-07-3 This booklet is part of the series of publications “UNIDEE NOTEBOOKS�. It has been realised by gathering ideas, images, impressions, thoughts and discussions from mentors, guests and participants during the modules. Curated and designed by Annalisa Zegna Under the supervision of Cecilia Guida Translations: Elena Pasquali
Cover image: The Dance of Attention. Credits: Jacopo Menzani
UNIDEE - University of Ideas 2017 Weekly residential module n.7
UNIDEE NOTEBOOKS 2017 | n. 7
The Dance of Attention. What happens as soon as we press ’record’ on a device
mentors: Attila Faravelli and Enrico Malatesta guest: Adam Asnan participants: Alessandra Carosi Sula Chiovenda Caterina Giansiracusa Manolo Liuzzi Natalia Ludmila Lopez Ariane Teodoris
17 July / 21 July, 2017
Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella
MODULE OUTLINE
The module, by means of both practical and theoretical sessions, confronts forms of direct action and perception with ones mediated by technological means of sound recording and reproduction. Given a world which sees an ever growing wide-spread use of advanced technological tools to capture and share one’s experiences, as well as a conditioned reflex by artists to heavily rely on forms of audio-visual documentation to show their work to a broader audience, the workshop aims at deepening the questions which arise “as soon as we press ’record’ on a device”. Where in our own culture (present and past) lies the urge to overly develop and refine techniques to sort fixed things out of a flux of living matter? Is it possible to turn these techniques into levers to de-stratify perception, even if they were partly born out of a desire to objectify reality? What strategies to adopt in order to find a ‘simple’ use for these complicated tools? To follow the lead by the Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda, “documenting is based on reality, but it is not a secondary supplement to reality. Documenting is not just a hollow version of reality, but is in itself a complete, autonomous being that exists within its own space and time. In other words, documenting plays its own role in our world. For instance, although footsteps are just a physical mark on the ground, we acknowledge them as independent matter, separate from the ground itself. This is because we have the ability to recognize ‘images’. This ‘image’ can be described as a ‘trace’ left by many factors colliding in a given space. I prefer to describe my recordings as a ‘trace’ of
reality, rather than a ‘relation’ to reality”. In our daily routine, as we go about our business we actively prioritise certain elements and eschew others, sound functions for us as a carrier of useful information: “A given sound provides information about an interaction of materials at a location in an environment” (William W. Gaver). E.g. we know from the sound of a car in an alley its provenance and we use this information not to be run over, or we focus our attention on the voice of a person talking to us in a crowded space, filtering out the background noise.
exercises proposed, aim at facing broader questions related to the relationship between unmediated and mediated experience.
But what if we’d bring a microphone into the world, into the very same “environment” we live in? The microphone’s horizon of listening is unconcerned and unbound, purely shaped by its technical capacities. Sound recording practices are not just a mechanism through which objectivity can or should be transmitted, they are instead a powerful creative tool through which “To experience the texture of the world without discrimination. Texture is patterned, full of contrast and movement, gradients and transitions. It is complex and differentiated. To attend to everything the same way is not inattention to life. It is paying equal attention to the full range of life’s texturing complexity, with an entranced and unhierarchized commitment to the way in which the organic and the inorganic, colour, sound, smell, and rhythm, perception and emotion, intensely interweave into the aroundness of a textured world, alive with difference. It is to experience the fullness of a dance of attention.” (Erin Manning and Brian Massumi). Despite the balance of the workshop tilting toward sonic practices, the topics discussed, as well as the
TOPICS/ TAGS Media history, sympathy, vibration, rhythm, surfaces, concrete music, traditional music, experimental geography, field recording, walking, ecological perception, mediation.
SCHEDULE
___________________________________ JULY 17TH morning Guided tour to Cittadellarte (Curated by Elena Rosina), including the Pistoletto, Arte Povera collections and temporary exhibitions. Introduction to the Theorem of Trinamics, the symbol of the Third Paradise and the concept of Demopraxy. afternoon Workshop and group presentation. Field recordings. Listening sessions, introduction to the microphone and its functioning. Short performances of Enrico Malatesta by using acoustic sounds specifically developed to highlight the specificity of listening through microphones. Participants’ presentations. ___________________________________ JULY 18TH morning Gathering. Field recording session. Playback and discussion about the achieved results. Small spaces, hidden microenvironments, daily objects and surfaces. Listening session and video screenings. afternoon Walking. Exploration of interior spaces: soundactions and observation of the spaces’ conditions and listening sessions. Exercises to improve the awareness of
a specific space’s affordances. Short performances and recording session. ___________________________________ JULY 19TH morning
western traditional music and sound phenomena. Listening session and video screenings. Field recording session. Various locations. ___________________________________ JULY 21ST
Adam Asnan: guest presentation and short performance. Sound-Space relationship and recordings technics introduced by Adam’s sound work and research. Aesthetic potential of recorded, amplified sound. Auditory image. Possible uses of a ‘spatialized’ sound diffusion. Unpredictabiliy of behaviour by different playback devices. Work in the ‘field’.
morning
afternoon
evening
Practical session: Field recordings session guided by Adam Asnan and Attila Faravelli. Sound of sound interventions and actions curated by Enrico Malatesta with a small group of workshop’s participants, to take place outdoor.
Listening sessions of ‘non western’ traditional music. Party.
___________________________________ JULY 20TH morning The microphone’s horizon of listening. Laboratory about active listening and rhythmicity. Readings. Brainstorming and discussion. afternoon The microphones and the role of the recorder in the documentation of non-
Workshop about active listening, sound-space relation and material’s vitality. Introduction to the idiophones and recording. Readings. Brainstorming and discussion. afternoon Field recording session in various locations (indoor and outdoor).
REFERENCES
The mentors prepared a reader for the participants with key texts, some of which are discussed during the week.
Texts: - Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience, University of Minnesota Press, 2014. - Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, Routledge, 2011. - Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture, Routledge, 2013. - Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Duke University Press, 2003. - Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, The Mit Press, 2002. - Barry Blesser, Linda-Ruth Salter, Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture, The Mit Press, 2006. - John Blacking, How Musical Is Man?, University of Washington Press, 1974. - Gilbert Rouget, Music and Trance, A Theory of the Relations between Music and Possession, The University of Chicago Press, 1985.
- Donald Tuzin, Miraculous Voices: The Auditory Experience of Numinous Objects, The University of Chicago Press, 1984. - Tsunoda Toshiya, “About My Field Recording”, Reductive one, June 2014. - Albert Mayr, “Sketches for a LowFrequency Solfège”, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 7, Time and Rhythm in Music, Spring 1985, pp. 107-113. - William W. Gaver, “How do we hear in the world?: Explorations in Ecological Acoustics”, Ecological Psychology, 5(4) 1993.
At the beginning of the module, we spoke about the inner ear and outer ear, how our sound perception works, how we hear and orientate ourselves in space thanks to sound. Sound recording has a strong western cultural history, based on technical tools and technological developments.
Raymond Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Destiny Books, Rochester, 1993. Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Duke University Press, 2003. Jakob von UexkĂźll, Theoretical Biology, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1926. Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, The Mit Press, 2002.
We focused on technical details about microphones, how they work and the difference among them.
ident
coincident / near coinc AB / XY
a specific kind of Each situation needs what you want to on equipment, based u want to focus on. record, which sound yo
Participants introduced themselves and their practice, explaining why they are interested in sound.
Talking about natural soundscapes, the mentors introduced us to two important French composers: Luc Ferrari, (Presque rien, Music promenade, 1964-69) pioneer in musique concrète and electroacoustic music. Bernard Parmegiani, (De Natura Sonorum, 1975) known for his electronic or acousmatic music.
Further reading about different cultural approaches to sound and music: John Blacking, How Musical Is Man?, University of Washington Press, 1974.
www.adamasnan.com
Preparatory materials by Adam Asnan - sugg
ested listening:
Bomonstre & Boris Jollivet - Ô Saisons, Ô Trom bones: Sites Sonores Du Haut-Jura - Hiver - Tiendrons-Nous Sur La Page Glace De L’Hiver (2009) Brady Cranfield & Jamie Hiller - Night Shift
(2012)
Michel Chion, Lionel Marchetti, Jérôme Noet inger - 120 Jours - Danse de l’usure (1998) Folklore Marocain - Ahouach Timghidcht (19??
)
7)
Jan Eerala - The Wind Room (201
Urbanas (1997)
Jean Baptiste Favory - Leyandas
3)
Lethe - Catastrophe Point 5 (200
(2012)
Magnus Bergsson - State Opening
IMMXV (2015)
Mario De Vega - Absentia MXMMXI
humara (tape 4) excerpt (2004)
NPR NGS Radio Expeditions - Tara
3)
Pierre Henry - Cortical Art III (197
Jean-François Augoyard, Henri Torgue, Sonic Experience: A Guide to Everyday Sounds, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006
We spoke about sound effects like resonance and metamorphosis, and how our listening perception is able to select specific sound figures in each environment.
How does background sound act on figures?
Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, Routledge, 2011.
Talking about sound perception and Ingold’s four objections to the concepts of soundscape, we mentioned the concept of the fold by Deleuze, and the world conceived as a continuum, a complex of interconnected forces and lines. This conception is different from the idea of the world made of objects.
Tim Ingold about thinking through making: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Ygne72-4zyo
Felix Hess about his art works:
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rMnFKYHzm2k
Manuel DeLanda about material affectivity: vimeo.com/107274730 Jane Bennett about hoarders:
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=q607Ni23QjA
We spoke about different conceptions of space. In the Western perspective, the map is the structure to think about the territory, and it is a tool of power. In other cultures, like Inuit, the space is not planned before, but you it is known and thought through making, walking and directly perceiving it. More references: William Buxton, Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan Kaufmann Publisher, Burlington, 2007. Doreen B Massey, For Space, SAGE Publishing, 2005. Franco Farinelli, Christina Chalmers, Blinding Polyphemus: Geography and the Models of the World, Seagull Books, Calcutta, 2017.
We did some listening sessions in different environments: an abandoned factory, the forest, the river, the UNIDEE studio... We went to the Bessa Natural Reserve, a park near Biella. It was a morainic area, and a rich gold mine during the Roman period. The gold area, dating back to II-I century BC, is made of two fluvial terracing covered in pebbles, sand and gravel, wastes of the mining activity.
A long time ago, primates used both hands and feet to perceive the space, to know better the territory. As we can see in this image about the evolutionary process, hands and feet were at the same level, very close to each other and to the ground.
We made some practical exercises about walking and attentive listening, discovering the place and its affordances.
Erin Manning. “The Dance of Attention.” Inflexions 6, “Arakawa and Gins” 347 (January 2013). www.inflexions.org
to think through making See also: - Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience, University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
On Revolution, Desire, Mediation. A short interview with Attila Faravelli and Enrico Malatesta.
1. In 2017, UNIDEE - University of Ideas programme has proposed an interdisciplinary approach to examine three macro-themes which are central to contemporary socialpolitical debates: Revolution, Desire, Mediation. UNIDEE’s director Cecilia Guida has invited you to present a weekly educational module on these key words, with a strong interaction between critical theory in the social sphere and participatory art practices. How does your artistic practice relate to contemporary forms of protest in regards to the concept of revolution? AF: I once read that Ivan Illich tried to learn Chinese in order to kind of subvert the logical structures that lie dormant in our thoughts. I’m convinced that a very effective form of ‘revolution’ consists in rethinking some fundamental concepts which we take for granted and which deeply inform the way that we live, the technologies that we use, our artistic practices etc. I’m convinced that questioning trivial aspects of our lives can sometimes be more revolutionary than undertaking some majestic operations which are explicitly revolutionary but may end up being well rooted in the cultural premises that have actually produced what we are now. To give you a trivial example of something that we’ve been discussing during the module, thinking about our feet and the way we walk, thinking about how our culture is a culture of people who sit on a chair for most part of their lives and as a consequence conceive human perception as something like a series of pieces of information collected from a static position, or studying the cultural history of sound reproduction which, in the original intentions of who invented it, is a way of reifying sound, from that point on thought of as a signal instead of as an event.
EM: I personally think that my work has to be mainly based on revealing a revolution of the world of tools / materials against my human world. I am more and more trying not to use my objects as instruments to control but, rather, to create a temporary zone of connection with objects through sound, which has become a space of interaction. As a classically trained musician, I needed years in order to understand that, in my daily practice, I was dealing with “beings” and not just with tools usable for specific cultural purposes; rather, I’ve tried to activate a relation with them starting from what is on their surfaces, their responses to environmental conditions and their material’s vitality. I don’t try to control them in order to reach a specific sound or musical performance. I think that, as a practice, we can reach forms of respect though listening to the otherness, which is extremely revolutionary because it doesn’t produce results, but it opens the attention to what surrounds us in its ongoing, as a multiplicity of under-construction trajectory made of different kind of beings. From personal experience, I recognize that I don’t produce sounds with tools but, rather, I “share” the sounds with them, which is definitely revolutionary. 2. Thinking about desire, in the sense of movement towards someone or something that is missing, what is its role within the framework of your art practice? AF: I don’t think much in terms of desire, as I feel like it presupposes separate entities and subjects which get attracted to one other in order to kind of fill a shortage of something, like if there were an archipelago where every island is autonomous but from time to time you have to get mangos
and bananas from another island because the one where you are only produces coconuts and pineapples. I think that the words ‘resonance’ or ‘sympathy’ are rather more correct at describing the kind of opening that is already and always there between people and things, and thanks to which desire itself can occur. For example when I, a human being, sit on a stone, a mineral, why should I think about this action as a form of filling my desire to find rest on it simply because I miss the ability of resting just standing like a horse, when I could simply think that I have the ability to ‘resonate’ with something which is completely different from me because both me and the stone are part of the very same dynamic flow of materials and forces. The term ‘desire’ describes an original separation which can be resolved or not, like if it were a choice, whereas sympathy-resonance talks about a condition which is already there, where everything and everyone is already sharing the very same ‘plane of existence’ and it’s more a matter of taking care of the opportunities that all that implies. EM: I agree with Attila and I think that he explained very well my feeling too about the word “desire”. To desire is somehow related to creating a sort of expectation which is not useful (personally speaking) in order to broaden the capability of moving toward the otherness. Talking about sound (thinking of myself primarily as a listener), I am more inclined to try to let things come to me, to wait for them and try to really feel what these things are producing around me. I don’t desire to be reached, I just try to expose myself to the possibility of sympathize with things through sounds and that consists, basically, in maintaining a continuous interchange with what surrounds my body without
forcing my experiences to have a specific shape according to what I desire and what I do in order to fill the separation that desire in itself implies. 3. How did your practice as artists and mentors mediate and translate reality in the case of UNIDEE’s module? AF: Sharing the same space for almost one week with the participants successfully promotes a continuous mediation between the participants and the mentors, where the discussed topics are more like a mere work of architecture which gets then inhabited and explored in concrete. EM: UNIDEE’s module is a perfect context to understand how much mediation is a “tool” that we can procure for ourselves in order to redefine personal practices according to the contributions of the people we’re interacting with. Translating the state of my knowledge and research in a way which has to be useful and used also by other people for their own interests implies exposing the contents on which I am working to the possibility to be informed by the others. That creates a shareable space through which I can develop thoughts and practices mediated by the distances that exist between me and who is studying with me.
ATTILA FARAVELLI AND ENRICO MALATESTA Attila Faravelli (Milano, Italy, 1976) and Enrico Malatesta (Cesena, 1985) are sound artists and long term collaborators. They first met in 2012 to compose and perform music for a contemporary dance play (Teatro Valdoca, Cesena, IT). This initiated a series of diverse collaborations ranging from electroacoustic music releases (www. balloonnneedle.com) to research projects about the perception of a surfaces’ irregularities (auraltools. tumblr.com/bilia) and the use of an everyday-life-use object to produce sound (www.lateraladdition.org/#24). In their collaborative works they explore the relationships between sound, space and gesture, with a focus on producing complex sonic information through simple actions and tools in contrast to the conception of music as a fully intentional human output. In 2013, together with Nicola Ratti, they founded Tilde, a collaborative project created with the aim to explore, through sound actions, the possibilities of listening and practice of the space. Attila Faravelli and Enrico Malatesta have presented their work in festivals and leading art institutions and universities throughout Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea.
Among the institutions with which they have collaborated: Brown University (US), Non Event (US), MoMA PS1 (US), AIR Krems (AT), Qo2 (BE), 12th International Biennial of Architecture in Venice, Sounds of Europe project, Seoul Foundation for Art and CultureMullae Art Space (ROK), Academy of fine Arts-Brera (IT), Academy of fine Arts-Bologna (IT), Sapienza Università di Roma (IT), Politecnico di Milano (IT). Enrico Malatesta, as a solo artist, plays percussions and addresses the multimaterial affordances of his instruments. He has been playing and recording with musicians like Giuseppe Ielasi, Renato Rinaldi, Adam Asnan, Alessandro Bosetti, Christian Wolfarth, Ingar Zach, Burkhard Beins, Michael Vorfeld and Seijiro Murayama. Since 2010 he leads educational workshops concerning active listening and body movement. He is currently teaching sonic space design at the Academy of fine Arts in Bologna. Attila Faravelli’s solo music is released by Die Schachtel and Senufo Editions, in duo w/ Andrea Belfi (Tumble) he released on Die Schachtel, on Boring Machines with Nicola Ratti, on Presto!? with the artist Nicola Martini and on Mikroton with Angélica Castelló, Mario de Vega and Burkhard Stangl. He is co-founder of Neither Sound and founder/curator for the Aural Tools
ADAM ASNAN
project, a series of simple objects to document the material and conceptual processes of specific musicians’ sound production practice; Aural Tools are acoustic devices for relating sound to space, the listener, and the body in ways unavailable through traditional recorded media such as CDs or LPs.
Adam Asnan (1983, UK) is an electroacoustic musician and location sound recordist, based between London and Berlin. His work promotes the aesthetic potential of recorded, amplified sound, the auditory ‘image’ and the virtues of both acoustic and synthetic spatialisation. His compositions, live performances and collaborative projects have been presented across Europe, with recordings published by Entr’acte, Senufo Editions, Foredoom, Porta, 1000füssler, Consumer Waste, Second Sleep, Holidays Records, Wasted Capital Since 2013, Reductive Music, Organised Music from Thessaloniki and Intonema. Adam is one third of VA AA LR with Vasco Alves and Louie Rice.
About Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte’s aim is to inspire and produce a responsible change in society through ideas and creative projects. Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto was instituted in 1998 as a concrete action of the Progetto Arte Manifesto, where Michelangelo Pistoletto proposed a new role for the artist: that of placing art in direct interaction with all the areas of human activity which form society. Cittadellarte is dedicated to the study, experimentation and development of practices translating the symbol of the Third Paradise* into realty, implying it into every sector of society. It is a great laboratory, hosting many young artists, which generates unedited processes of development in diverse fields of culture, production, economics and politics. Cittadellarte is a vibrant international network of cultural and social innovators, individuals actively interlaced with their social contexts where they often act as catalyst of change. The interrelationship between people and projects is based on a common vision whose roots lie in an accumulative thought&practice process, developed by a wide range of thinkers, managers, innovators of all field. Pistoletto’s work, from the 60s to today, acts as a pumping brain for Cittadellarte’s communities. Cittadellarte has developed an extensive networks of collaborations with Institutions (various United Nations Agencies, Ministries, Universities and Educational Organizations) global enterprises and local businesses, civil society collectives, organizations and individuals from all fields.
* “The symbol of the Third Paradise, a reconfiguration of the mathematical infinity sign, is made of three consecutive circles. The two external circles represent all the diversities and antinomies, among which nature and artifice. The central one is given by the compenetration of the opposite circles and represents the generative womb of a new humanity”. Michelangelo Pistoletto www.cittadellarte.it www.terzoparadiso.org
About UNIDEE University of Ideas UNIDEE - University of Ideas is a higher educational programme based on a weekly modular format investigating the relationship among visual arts, public sphere and activism by combining critical theory with practice. Through residential dynamics, UNIDEE is designed to form artivators, people who intend to use art as a methodology, practice and language, in order to become agents for the activation of responsible actions and processes in the territories in which they live and carry out their professional activities. For its third year, and with a long history of residency programmes for international students (2000-2013) behind it, the new UNIDEE format proposes for the year 2017 a close examination of three macro-themes: Revolution, Desire and Mediation.
UNIDEE - University of Ideas 2017 Programme directed and curated by Cecilia Guida With the collaboration of Juan Sandoval Under the supervision of Paolo Naldini Programme Coordinator: Clara Tosetti Assistant Director: Annalisa Zegna
@unideeuniversityofideas unidee_universityofideas @unidee_universityofideas @_unidee unideevideo
www.cittadellarte.it/unidee/
UNIDEE - University of Ideas is made possible thanks to the support of: Patrons
Piedmont Region; Compagnia di San Paolo; Creative Europe programme of the EU; CRT Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino; Fondazione Zegna; illycaffè S.p.A.
Production Residency Collaborations & Scholarships RESÒ Network; A.M. Qattan Foundation (PS); Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation (IN).
Institutional Collaborations & Scholarships
ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (D); kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Rīga (LV); Minister of Culture of the Republic of Albania (AL); National Gallery of Kosovo (RS); Jyvaskylan Yliopisto, Jyväskylä (FIN); Austrian Culture Forum Moscow (RUS); École cantonale d’art du Valais – ECAV, Sierre (CH); Fundación Universitaria Bellas Artes, Medellín (CO); Instituto Superior de Arte-ISA, La Habana (CU); École supérieure d’art et design – ESAD, Grenoble (FR); Università degli Studi di Torino (IT); Università IUAV, Venice (IT); Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan (IT); Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma (IT); Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (IT); ISIA-Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche di Faenza (IT); IULM-Istituto Universitario di Lingue Moderne, Milan (IT); SACI Studio Art Centers International, Florence (IT); Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (IT); Queens Museum, New York (US); Center for Fine Arts (Bozar), Brussels (B); Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej Bunkier Sztuki, Krakòw (PL); HYDRO, Biella (IT); Ordine degli Architetti Pianificatori Paesaggisti e Conservatori della Provincia di Biella (IT).
Media Partners
Giornale delle Fondazioni; Roots&Routes.