SUPERFICIAL ANNOTATIONS

Professor:Enrico Malatesta

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Superficial Annotations is a training project curated by Enrico Malatesta aimed at investigating the sound and dynamics of active listening applied to the field of performing, sound and visual arts, as well as dance and theatre.

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The course is structured in an intensive way and includes a theoretical part, based on the proposal of stimuli that open the dialogue to the socio-cultural, artistic and ecological implications of the use of sound in public and scenic spaces. Conceived as a moment of discussion and exchange, this section of work develops on broad thematic areas interconnected by the medium of sound, for example:

• Listening to significant musical experiences of the 20th and 21st centuries created in the performance and public art fields.
• Presentation of recent sound studies on aural architecture and in-depth analysis of the link between sound and space in performance practice.
• Study of the critical issues existing between music, sound action, acoustics and silence in the
realization of a performance.
• Presentation of the soundscape and field recording practice; introduction to audio technology as a body of intervention in the listening space.
• Listening to traditional practices in which sound is a tool for modifying the performance space, both on a symbolic level and on an ecological-relational, energetic and aesthetic level.
The practical part consists of active listening exercises (to be carried out individually or in groups) which invite participants to investigate the relationship between sound, space and body. The purpose of this section of work is to promote awareness of the performative space and of one's own movement through the medium of sound and its physical-relational potential.
The proposed exercises allow us to enhance the specificities of each participant by investigating, for example:
• The relationship between the performer's body and acoustic phenomena (reverberations, resonances, echoes, filtering, masking, fracturing) modulated by the various forms of listening.
• The production of sound through the use of the body, voice or objects and in accordance with the acoustic reactions of the performance space.
• The modification of the body as a function of sound and its physical component, exploring different gradations of sound immersion and reciprocity between the movement of the performer and the sound waves.
• The relationship between body and audio technology, enhancing the potential given by the difference between recorded sound and sound produced live.

The ways in which the exercises are conducted critically involve the participants, who are invited to contribute to the subjective evolution of the practices and to the sharing of experiences; the intent is to produce an open and stimulating study device, which is aimed at improving the participants' attentional structure and the ability to transform the listening experience into an active, planning and authorial resource in performance practice.