photo by Vera Marmelo
info
LISBOA SOA, documentation images
FRAGMENTS FROM THE NO-TAV STRUGGLE – radio piece
HURLING INTO THE UNKNOWN
A microphone is suspended in mid-air from the top of a building. As winds blow, the microphone begins to swing and touches the wall from which it hangs.
Video documentation #1 (PSSWRD: “HITU2023″).
Video documentation #2 (PSSWRD: “HITU2021″).
DRIFTING
A loudspeaker oscillates at the mercy of the waves. When the waves touch the loudspeaker, they set it in motion and thus modulate the white noise that is being played back.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “D2023″).
OBSTRUCTIONS
A loudspeaker diffusing white noise is installed on the side of a road. When a car drives on the road, it intersects the projection of white noise generating cuts in the propagation of sound.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “O2023″).
FRAGMENTS FROM THE NO-TAV STRUGGLE
The work consists of a series of stories, personal reflections, and direct experiences from the No TAV struggle, an Italian grassroots movement that has opposed the construction of the second high-speed train line between Turin and Lyon since the early 2000s.
Through the voices of various people involved in the movement, the work brings together some of the central themes of the No TAV struggle, including: the technical flaws and deficiencies of the high-speed project; the relationship between struggle, community and personal growth; and the military defense plan put in place to protect the TAV construction sites.
The first three episodes of the work were broadcast in May 2023 by RAI, the Italian National Radio. The broadcast of the fourth episode was canceled shortly before airing. For this reason, the four episodes are now published in entirety, restoring the integrity and scope of the work. The fourth episode is presented in a longer version than the one originally made for RAI.
The title “(Valsusa Outtakes) Fragments from the No TAV Struggle” refers to the fact that the audio recordings included in the work were taken while I was making field recordings for an archival project on No TAV protest songs (currently in progress). Due to the contents of the recordings, which are not directly related to protest songs, I’ve decided not to include them in the archival project and instead use them for creating a new work.
An English translation of the work is in progress.
COMING INTO BEING
photo by Michela Di Savino
The point of departure for this work is a series of listening exercises for exploring the relation between sound, space, and movement. After having presented the exercises as pedagogical tools for more than ten years as part of my workshop practice, I’ve decided to use them as source material for developing choreographed actions and performances.
Exploring the interdependence between touch and sound and the capacity of the body to filter and modulate the propagation of sound in space, the work reflects on the active role of the listener and on their agency to act upon and intervene within the acoustic field.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “LAI2021″).
BISOGNA CANTA’ SEMPER / We Always Have To Sing
Here’s the book chapter I co-authored with Lorenzo Pedrini about the social logic behind the chants of Brescia 1911 football supporters. The essay has been published in the book “Le Strade della Teppa”, RedStar Press, 2022.
UP IN THE VALLEY – documentation video
IGNITE
IGNITE
An incendiary mixture consumes the membrane of a loudspeaker, devouring its insides.
WHEN SOUND ENDS
This book is a translation of a series of actions that I conceived and performed as part of the project When Sound Ends.
Primarily intended to be experienced live, the actions and associated artifacts act as witnesses – often silently – to the impermanence and fragility of the body. The presence, absence and loss of sound become a metaphor for the human condition.
This book in turn functions as a sort of remembrance which allows these actions to live on in another medium, in another body.
design: Davide Tidoni
hand-binding: Tatsuya Inuikawa
dimensions: 108×150mm
number of exemplars: 10
year: 2022
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net
The book exists in 10 different exemplars, each with a different number of pages. Each exemplar bears unique burn marks.
RADICAL MURMUR
Here’s the interview I made for Radical Murmur, a podcast produced by TRASHLINIE in collaboration with rekto:verso, Gonzo (circus), and COLLATERAL.
WHEN SOUND ENDS – book format
TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF ULTRAS’ CHANTING
Here’s an essay I co-authored with sociologist Lorenzo Pedrini summarizing the main findings of my field research project with the ultras group Brescia 1911.
WE SPEAK THE AIR WE BREATHE – documentation video
who will guard the guards?
WHEN SOUND ENDS
This series of works explores themes of corporeality, in relation to sound production and audition, touch, and loss. The loudspeakers, microphones, enclosures, and membranes presented in this exhibition are in varying states of disrepair; most are no longer capable of producing sound and thus are poignant objects for meditation on impermanence, bodily frailty, and death. Each of these corpses bear visible marks of violence, traces of past collisions and other wounds which emphatetically encourage viewers to visualize this encounter and the consequential loss of capacity.
See more documentation about the overall project: whensoundends.davidetidoni.name/
ATTACK / DECAY – documentation video
WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN ART AND POLITICS?
Where Do You Draw the Line Between Art and Politics? consists of a series of interviews with individuals who have been active in various capacities at the intersection of art and politics.
Between historical documentation, political memory, dialogic reflections, and motivational support, the publication focuses on the experiences, commitments, and feelings that animate and inform aesthetic priorities in social spaces both within and outside of art institutions; a repository designed to inspire and encourage the politicization of aesthetics, as opposed to the aestheticization of politics.
The people I interviewed are: Pietro Perotti, a Fiat worker and self-appointed worker communicator; Lucia Farinati, a researcher, activist and independent curator; two anonymous members of a hacker collective working in the field of technology and urban space; Errico Canta Male, a singer-songwriter; and Mario “Schizzo” Frisetti and Luca Bruno, of the Torino Squatters.
Read the introduction of the book.
design: Marzia Dalfini with Davide Tidoni
producer: a.pass in collaboration with nadine
publisher: a.pass
distributor: a.pass and Compulsive Archive
number of copies: 500
year: 2021
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net
NEW PUBLICATION OUT
WHEN SOUND ENDS – documentation images
ATTACK / DECAY
Attack/Decay is a night walk where participants are invited to explore the acoustics of specific locations by means of a custom built impulse generator device.
The acoustic qualities and the spatial features of the chosen locations serve as a point of departure for developing site related listening pieces.
Through direct experience, the walk introduces participants to primary acoustic principles and spatial listening, framed as a state of interference and interdependency with the propagation of sound in space.
Technical development by Airborne Instruments.
With the support of nadine – laboratory for contemporary arts and the VGC.
HIGH TIDE
photo by Katinka Meersy
A loudspeaker projecting white noise is slowly taken by the high tide. As the tide rises, the white noise gets modulated in relation to the movement of the water. As sound disappears, a feeling of separation and withdrawal fills the people witnessing the loss.
Video documentation (PSSWRD: “HT2020″)
WHEN SOUND ENDS – online archive
Here’s a new page showing documentation material from my actions with microphones and loudspeakers from 2015 until today.
ATTACK / DECAY – night walks
New series of night walks organised in collaboration with WAB. With the support of Nadine and the VGC. Technical development by Airborne Instruments.
NEIDERLANT OU NEIDERLANT
In this project, I asked non-native Dutch residents to sing karaoke interpretations of popular Dutch songs. The songs have also been transcribed by the singers according to the (arbitrary) phonetics of their native tongue, highlighting the difficulties in becoming familiar with the sounds of a new language.
NO-TAV PROTEST SONGS – radio broadcast
Here follows the upload of the radio broadcast I did together with Franziska Windisch about (some of) the NO-TAV protest songs. The conversation has been realised for radio in between spaces and is part of a current research concerning the history of the NO-TAV movement read through its songs. More about the NO-TAV movement in eng and ita.
LUFF FESTIVAL 2019 – documentation images
photo by Romain Gapany
WHEN SOUND ENDS – documentation images summer 2019
ALERT HEARING – susa valley, 12-18 august
ALERT HEARING
The workshop is an opportunity to research on themes such as: sound propagation in outdoor space, long distance listening, and context-specific sound intervention.
The location for the workshop is the TAV construction site in Valsusa (the acronym TAV stands for “treno ad alta velocità”, which in English means “high speed train line”). Heavily contested by the No TAV movement, the construction site has been declared by the italian governement “sito d’importanza strategica” which means “strategic military zone”. The construction site appears fenced and patrolled by police and military forces.
The choice of the TAV construction site as context for the workshop is because of the following reasons:
- the presence of a red zone, prohibiting people’s circulation and action, which makes sound a means for reaching and crossing the construction site from a distance;
- the military forces and the technological surveillance protecting the construction site, which put the participants in a condition of alertness and attentive listening;
- the certainty of having an “audience” listening from inside the construction site, perceiving the sounds from outside as a sinister presence.
During the workshop, each of the participants is invited to develop an intervention and perform it around the area of the construction site.
MORE INFO HERE
ULTRAS KARAOKE – tape release
ULTRAS KARAOKE
Ultras Karaoke is the karaoke version of a series of football supporters’ chants. The lyrics of the supporters are superimposed with a midi-track of the original songs the chants are based on. The chants that appear in this work are sung by non professional singers. Their voices have been recorded in informal studio settings, far from football stadiums. The audio work is the continuation of the homonymous video project that you can find here
recordings & mixing: Davide Tidoni
design: Davide Tidoni
silkscreen: Ilana Pichon
number of copies: 50
year: 2019
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net