Papers by Guglielmo Bottin
Imago, 2025
Chiara Fumai's performative work has had a wide resonance in the contemporary art world; however,... more Chiara Fumai's performative work has had a wide resonance in the contemporary art world; however, scholars have largely overlooked her early involvement with music as a DJ, while it was a lecture-performance based on vinyl records that brought Fumai international recognition. The artist combined her knowledge of the development of italodisco with the biography of the singer Nico Fumai (the name of her actual father). I first examine Chiara Fumai's efforts as a DJ and founder of a record label. Then, the entirely fictional (but plausible) story of Nico Fumai will be explored in depth. The music and visual materials produced by Chiara Fumai as evidence of Nico Fumai's career will be traced back to their original sources, showing the actual songs and record covers that Fumai appropriated and attributed to her father, leveraging the relationship between the inauthenticity of italodisco and the verisimilitude of her lecture.
Sentire il groove: aspetti percettivi e partecipativi
Scenari, 2024
The study of groove is part of a general re-evaluation of rhythm that took place towards the end ... more The study of groove is part of a general re-evaluation of rhythm that took place towards the end of the 20th century. The phenomenon of groove is commonly associated with pleasurable involvement and synchronization with musical rhythm, inducing responses that are expressed in body movements and psychological entrainment. In syntactic/structural theories, groove is believed to emerge from a combination of cyclically repeated rhythmic lines, while in processual/performative interpretations, it is considered in terms of a musician’s embodied rhythmic sensibility or as the result of interplay in ensemble performance. Whether groove is considered in terms of ‘text’ or performance, scholars often refer to a unified set of parts, similar to the psychological concept of Gestalt. This essay aims to place groove among the pillars of a more general aesthetic theory of popular music, evaluating both the expressive-performative and deliberately machinic aspects of programmed and electronic popular music. Thus, groove is seen as an aesthetic trait aimed at encouraging direct and immediate participation, which occurs through active and embodied experiences and not through formal intellectual contemplation.
Testo e Senso, 2024
L’articolo presenta diversi casi di collaborazione e affinità elettiva tra Giovanni Testori e com... more L’articolo presenta diversi casi di collaborazione e affinità elettiva tra Giovanni Testori e compositori della scena milanese (Suligoj, Carpi) e con lo chansonnier monegasco Léo Ferré, sia per quanto riguarda la messa in musica di poesie e testi teatrali, sia come la scrittura da parte dello stesso Testori di note di copertina a corredo delle opere dei suoi amici musicisti. L’insieme di queste pratiche costituisce un interessante caso di polimedialità nella produzione testoriana.
Comparatismi, 2024
Secondo Alessandro Mendini, la dimensione privata dell’abitare è uno dei contesti in cui si manif... more Secondo Alessandro Mendini, la dimensione privata dell’abitare è uno dei contesti in cui si manifesta maggiormente la contraddittorietà insita nella società e nella cultura postmoderna di massa, che egli preferisce chiamare ‘neo-moderna’. Nel 1983, Mendini pubblica la raccolta Architettura Sussurrante, un disco che raccoglie brani musicali e di sound art creati a partire dai suoi scritti sul ‘cinismo abitativo’ e sulla ‘infelicità’ del progetto domestico. Prendendo spunto da questa singolare operazione discografica, si ripercorre l’evoluzione del pensiero critico del designer milanese, con particolare attenzione alla progettazione e al valore degli spazi abitativi e degli oggetti domestici. Il primo brano del disco, Casa Mia, include frammenti di Casa non casa, un editoriale pubblicato per la rivista “Modo” nel 1979. L’album, realizzato in collaborazione con i Matia Bazar, la compagnia teatrale Magazzini Criminali e altri artisti, viene ristampato nel 2019 con l’aggiunta del compact disc Extrasussurrante, contenente versioni precedentemente inedite e nuove rielaborazioni. Attraverso un’analisi storica e culturologica del percorso progettuale di Mendini e dei suoi scritti messi in musica, si offre una prospettiva critica sul rapporto tra la dimensione intima dell’ascolto e la messa in dubbio della funzione della casa che, da asset familiare, simbolico e di rifugio, si rivela portatrice di un minaccioso disincanto rispetto alla sfera privata dell’abitare. In anni recenti, Mendini tornerà nuovamente su questi temi cercando di offrire soluzioni per una casa più ‘emozionale’.
L'Avventura, 2024
The steady collaboration with director Aldo Lado provided Ennio Morricone with several opportunit... more The steady collaboration with director Aldo Lado provided Ennio Morricone with several opportunities to score the distressing moods and psychological tension that are typical of the Italian giallo genre. This paper provides an analysis of Morricone’s score and its use in Lado’s second film, Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l’ha vista morire?, 1972). The film’s focus on the format and semantic contrast between sounds and images relies heavily on Morricone’s music for children’s choir, conveying both the carefree world of childhood and the madness of a homicidal maniac. Moreover, several scenes in the film seem to suggest that what we see may be entirely deceptive and that the key to the mystery is carried by music. An in-depth analysis of the main musical themes reveals a compositional process involving post-recording tape cuts and a radical sound montage that simultaneously overlaps two pieces of music, with song lyrics and musical sounds moving from the extradiegetic to the internal narrative level.
Architecture and History. A polyphonic encounter with Carlo Ginzburg, 2024
Fedeli a Berlino. Influenze della Neue Deutsche Welle nel post-punk emiliano dei CCCP
Engramma, 2024
The essay focuses on the influence of Berlin’s cultural scene in CCCP's music, tracing cover vers... more The essay focuses on the influence of Berlin’s cultural scene in CCCP's music, tracing cover versions, quotations, and direct references to German punk and post-punk in the Italian group's early repertoire (1982-1985). CCCP’s songs are in fact rooted in Massimo Zamboni and Giovanni Ferretti's experiences in Berlin and conditioned by the cultural, social, and artistic processes acting around the band in its starting years. Neue Deutsche Welle’s ‘subversive’ communicative strategies, cleverly adapted to the Italian context, sometimes clashed with the ideology of the country’s own punk movement. However, for the same reason, CCCP soon attracted the attention of the press and media, allowing the band to reach a much wider audience that sometimes misunderstood them, and other times appreciated their inherently ambivalent musical and performative endeavors.
Music and the Moving Image, 2024
The relationship between film and music provides a domain for the investigation of the effects of... more The 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 article presents the results of an experiment on the role of music in the semantic appraisal and interpretation of ambiguous film clips. Psychomusicological 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 twenty-two music tracks (n=107) and twelve 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.
Vesper, 2023
Taking its cue from the lemma 'vespertine', this contribution analyses the crepuscular characteri... more Taking its cue from the lemma 'vespertine', this contribution analyses the crepuscular characteristics and the many antinomies in Björk's eponymous work. The 2001 album - recently adapted for music-theatre - deals with the theme of sensuality in its multiple aspects, with narrative and sound modalities that range from the celestial, to earthly carnality, to a bewildering intimacy that opens to the uncanny. Between declamatory singing and an instinctive, suffocated vocal persona, Bjork alternates trumphant atmospheres with hypnagogic soundscapes, authorship with appropriation, disjointed electronic rhythms with thick and uniform layers of strings and choirs, paroxysmal performativity with a sense of isolation in private, recondite spaces where physical and immaterial worlds merge. These sound and narrative juxtapositions present a double reflection that, like the threshold of twilight, alternately opens up to light or darkness.
Chiara Fumai: Cronologia (musicale)
Poems I Will Never Release : Chiara Fumai 2007–2017 , 2021
Cronologia di Chiara Fumai (parte carriera musicale)
La Rivista di Engramma, 2007
L’indagine verte sul rapporto problematico tra l´arte musicale, le mediazioni tecnico-tecnologich... more L’indagine verte sul rapporto problematico tra l´arte musicale, le mediazioni tecnico-tecnologiche e il ciclo invenzione-innovazione: dal difetto di reificazione della musica scritta (i segni musicali non sono la musica, si limitano a transcodificarla) all’avvento del fonografo e della musica reificata ma privata della dimensione temporale e rituale.
Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, 2022
La musica hauntologica, lavorando con materiali e dispositivi propri dell’era della riproducibili... more La 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, in cui si presentano elementi timbrici e stilistici ricorrenti di cui si cerca di fornire una rassegna ragionata.
Parole chiave: hauntology, spettri sonori, composizione come progetto e processo, arte fonografica, archeologia sonora, nostalgia del futuro.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
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 then 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.
Idea Japan, 2007
Wim Crouwel (born 1928) is of the most influential Dutch designers in the 20th century. His typog... more Wim Crouwel (born 1928) is of the most influential Dutch designers in the 20th century. His typographic designs, envisioned through his unique combination of functionalism and aesthetics, have been influential on designers of younger generations.This article is devoted to Wim Crouwel’s representative typefaces: his legendary New Alphabet is also introduced.
Conference Presentations by Guglielmo Bottin
La musica dance ha superato i quarant'anni, oppure i cinquanta, se estendiamo l'orizzonte tempora... more La musica dance ha superato i quarant'anni, oppure i cinquanta, se estendiamo l'orizzonte temporale dai primi brani techno alla disco music. Tuttavia, le innovazioni tecnologiche che un tempo avevano determinato la vitalità delle scene EDM sembrano essersi sostanzialmente arrestate in senso qualitativo. Da tempo si assiste a una diffusione quantitativa e 'filologica' di strumenti, pratiche e stili del passato. Vi è inoltre stato un progressivo riconoscimento culturale dell'EDM, che da musica macchinica e futuristica viene spesso narrata con atteggiamento folklorizzante, tra cui la canonizzazione di 'padri fondatori' e comunità originarie 'autentiche'. Negli ultimi anni vi sono state esposizioni museali come ElectroDe Kraftwerk à Daft Punk (Parigi, 2019), subito portata in Italia da La Biennale di Venezia (2019) e in seguito approdata a Londra (2020). Sono stati creati anche musei permanenti: Our House, aperto ad Amsterdam nel 2021, e il Museum of Modern Electronic Music, inaugurato a Francoforte nel 2022. I primi giorni di vita del Momen sono stati connotati da forti polemiche, scatenate dalla comunicazione ufficiale che invitava gli ospiti a "Francoforte, dove la techno ha le sue origini". La frase pareva ignorare i musicisti di Detroit che hanno contribuito allo sviluppo del genere, documentato e diffuso in Europa dalla stampa musicale e dall'industria discografica britanniche. Vagliando le ragioni storiche alla base delle rispettive rivendicazioni, si evidenzierà anche la collaborazione tra gli artisti di Detroit e gli operatori di Berlino, città ormai da un ventennio consacrata come capitale mondiale dell'EDM.
Anacronismi, ucronie, discronie: la musica nel tempo, il tempo nella musica, 2024
La relazione presenta un'analisi della hauntologia musicale individuando aspetti progettuali e pr... more 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 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.
Dancecult 2023 Conference, University of Huddersfield, UK, 2023
The ‘Italo Disco’ label emerged in the early 1980s as a distinctive dance music genre that achiev... more The ‘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.
Teoria e pratiche del groove elettronico
Giovani Fuori Classe, 2023
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Papers by Guglielmo Bottin
Parole chiave: hauntology, spettri sonori, composizione come progetto e processo, arte fonografica, archeologia sonora, nostalgia del futuro.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
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 then 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.
Conference Presentations by Guglielmo Bottin
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.