The course aims to analyze the relationships between visual arts and musical research in the second half of 20th century. The goal is to intersect different planes to outline a variously branching scenario of the interaction between image and sound, artistic expression and musical creation in the contemporary era. The analysis focuses on research, moments of contact (also at the level of circulation of information and places of theoretical debate), influences, parallel creations and linguistic overlaps that involve the circuits of avant-garde culture and mass cultural phenomena on both sides of the Atlantic.
teacher profile teaching materials
2) F. De Sanctis Mangelli e G. Pedace (a cura di), When Sound Becomes form. Sperimentazioni sonore in Italia 1950-2000, Mandredi Edizioni, Imola 2019
3) Art or sound, catalogo della mostra (Venezia, Fondazione Prada Ca’ Corner della Regina, 7 giugno – 8 novembre 2014), a cura di G. Celant, Fondazione Prada, Milano 2014 [in particolare i saggi: G. Celant, Dal plurilinguismo al multisensoriale; C. Cox, Vedere non è sentire. Sinestesia, anestesia e arte audiovisiva; L. Chessa, Un’orchestra metafisica. Una ricerca sulla ricostruzione degli intonarumori; R. Young, Così brutalmente forzata. La svolta del dopoguerra dalla musica al suono; E. de Visscher, Il silenzio come scultura musicale. John Cage e gli strumenti di 4’33’’; G. Dayal, Musica sperimentale e performance. David Tudor, John Cage e Merce Cunningham; J. Applin, Rumore ottico. Il suono della scultura negli anni ’60; A. Licht, Il rumore della superficie. Rendere l’arte udibile nel XX Secolo; S. Menegoi, Sound Art? Arti visive e suono al passaggio fra anni ’70 e ’80; H. Rogers, Sinestesia distorta. Il video musicale e le arti visive]
4) P. Fameli, Il corpo risonante. Vocalità e gestualità nel Novecento, Campanotto Editore, Pasian di Prato (UD) 2013, pp. 43-84
Not attending will integrate with an in-depth study to be agreed with the Professor.
Programme
The relationship between visual arts, sound and music crosses the modernity and configure a space for linguistic experimentation that the definition of Sound Art only partially describes. Starting from John Cage's experimentation and aesthetic revolution, which broadened the horizon of music to sound-noise, the course intends to analyze moments of collaboration between visual artists and musicians on both sides of the Atlantic with experiences that define the new horizons of the performative, between Happening, Environment and Fluxus, in an expanding network of international relations that gradually becomes global. Specifically, 1) behavioral-performative practices that have focused their poetics on the voice and on bodily sounds will be analysed, also in relation to the use of new technologies or as a possibility of identity self-affirmation; 2) environmental installations that used sound and music in a research scenario that crosses Process Art, Arte Povera to arrive at the contemporary in relation to the ecological question and the environmental crisis.Core Documentation
1) F. Poli (a cura di), Arte contemporanea. Le ricerche internazionali dalla fine degli anni ’50 a oggi, Electa, Milano 2003, pp. 36-221 [PDF scaricabili sul moodle del corso]2) F. De Sanctis Mangelli e G. Pedace (a cura di), When Sound Becomes form. Sperimentazioni sonore in Italia 1950-2000, Mandredi Edizioni, Imola 2019
3) Art or sound, catalogo della mostra (Venezia, Fondazione Prada Ca’ Corner della Regina, 7 giugno – 8 novembre 2014), a cura di G. Celant, Fondazione Prada, Milano 2014 [in particolare i saggi: G. Celant, Dal plurilinguismo al multisensoriale; C. Cox, Vedere non è sentire. Sinestesia, anestesia e arte audiovisiva; L. Chessa, Un’orchestra metafisica. Una ricerca sulla ricostruzione degli intonarumori; R. Young, Così brutalmente forzata. La svolta del dopoguerra dalla musica al suono; E. de Visscher, Il silenzio come scultura musicale. John Cage e gli strumenti di 4’33’’; G. Dayal, Musica sperimentale e performance. David Tudor, John Cage e Merce Cunningham; J. Applin, Rumore ottico. Il suono della scultura negli anni ’60; A. Licht, Il rumore della superficie. Rendere l’arte udibile nel XX Secolo; S. Menegoi, Sound Art? Arti visive e suono al passaggio fra anni ’70 e ’80; H. Rogers, Sinestesia distorta. Il video musicale e le arti visive]
4) P. Fameli, Il corpo risonante. Vocalità e gestualità nel Novecento, Campanotto Editore, Pasian di Prato (UD) 2013, pp. 43-84
Not attending will integrate with an in-depth study to be agreed with the Professor.
Type of delivery of the course
The course is organized in lectures conducted through screened presentations of works and documents and multimedia tools. Some topics are studied in depth through the reading and commentary of critical and programmatic texts, and by listening to musical pieces. During the course, visits to exhibitions and museums and classroom meetings with professionals of the sector are organized. Students will also be involved in the presentation of seminars in the classroom, which will be the subject of further study in the written assignment for the examination.Attendance
The frequency is strongly recommended.Type of evaluation
Attending students can substitute oral exam with a paper pertinent to the course content, selected in agreement with the professor. The paper should be 15,000 to 25,000 characters in length, including spaces and footnotes. It should be sent by mail ten days before the final examitation. For non-attending students: Oral exam on texts of the examination program.