Up In The Valley is a self organised workshop led by Davide Tidoni that took place in Valle Sabbia (Brescia, Italy) from 2013 to 2019. The workshop consists of a series of listening exercises and performances specifically designed for mountain locations. Activities are presented as part of different walking excursions and explore acoustic principles such as propagation of sound over long distance, directionality and movement of sound, reflection, and the threshold of audibility. See logistics and documentation images from previous editions.
A choreographed sequence of white noise makes audible how sound propagates and interacts in relation to the architecture of the place.
The title of the work refers to the condition of interdependence that permeates all relationships. Streams of white noise become modified in relation to the surrounding physical space which sound encounters as it propagates. As we breathe the air we speak… drawing air inwards into our body and exhaling it outwards from our lungs back into surrounding space.
The performance in the video happened in 2021 but its first versions and research date back to 2014.
Performance: Davide Tidoni
Performed by Abigail Aleksander, Amber Meulenijzer, and Franziska Windisch
Video: Sander Tas with Davide Tidoni
Sound: Davide Tidoni
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.
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.
The work presents several actions Davide has performed with microphones. These actions reflect on the materiality of the sound devices and explore their corporeal aspects, as sounding bodies that he interacts with in unexpected ways. The actions are developed with a direct dramaturgy, each ending with the death of the microphone and consequent absence of sound. Examples of actions include burning a microphone, leaving it on the rail tracks, launching it into the air with a firework, hitting it with a slingshot, … Davide’s actions explore the ephemeral nature of corporeal existence through the presence, absence, and disappearance of sound as a metaphor for life and death.
VIDEO LIST:
Departure [02':40'']
Cut-off [01':38'']
Falling Apart [03':24'']
Until When It Dies [06':10'']
He Hears The Silence So Loud [02':19'']
Untitled [03':08'']
My Target Is Your Eyes [02':34'']
As The Sound Burns [03':38'']
Davide Tidoni: locations, actions, sound, video, editing.
Videos produced by Overtoon and Davide Tidoni.
Thanks to sander, flo, FS, SNCB, a bas la maxi-prison, paolo ruaro, martino, loes@nadine, giammo, eugenio, almarosa, marzi, bam bam bam bam !!!
Two microphones are used as a pair of drumstick to play the snare drum. The recordings explore the physical properties and affordances of the microphone as an object. The work is part of a series of actions that investigate the practical materiality of the microphone and violate the basic rules and principles of audio technology. More actions here.
Forget the Theater – Go to the Stadium documents all of the times that the italian word “dai” (in english “c’mon”) was used by the leaders of the ultras group BRESCIA 1911 during Brescia vs. Catania, 2015. The word “dai” is commonly used as an exhortation to urge the group to participate in the chanting. The title provocatively criticises the supposed participatory nature of many performance-art works. I’ve always found greater participation from the ultras supporters than any other artistic project.
ULTRAS KARAOKE is the karaoke version of a series of football supporters’ chants. The lyrics of supporters are superimposed with a midi-track of the original songs the chants are based on.
The project THE SOUND OF NORMALISATION is a collection of audio recordings that documents the sound culture of the Ultras group BRESCIA 1911 in relation to modern football and the wave of repressive measures targeted at organized supporters groups. The recordings were taken over a period of 15 years and cover: 1) creation, uses and meanings of the chants 2) group principles and collective identity 3) audience participation and the process of social exclusion from the stadium 4) police repression and the political implications of the chants 5) the evolution of the drumming in relation to the drums ban-order of 2007. Each recording comes with a short introductory text and is presented as a video with subtitles. The work has been published in 2018 by SARU, Oxford Brookes University.
Since early 2000 I’ve been researching football supporter subculture, audience participation and crowd regulation. The overall research concerns the nexus of public space, social performance and surveillance in contemporary Italian football. — The aim of the research is to trace mechanisms of social interaction and aesthetic creation in football supporters’ subculture via an examination of the sound practices shared by the group Brescia 1911. Relations between sound production and space construction are investigated especially in the light of dynamics of social control adopted in football grounds in the last years. — The research contributes to a better understanding of sound’s function in group formation and collective identity as well as how sound performance and social repertoire evolve in relation to public security measures and space control.
In 2015, a first concrete materialization of the project has been exhibited at ARGOS, centre for art and media, Brussels. In 2018, the final version of the project has been presented at GET SOME CHALK ON YOUR BOOTS! an exhibition and conference organized by SARU at Oxford Brookes University.
audio recordings, videos, & texts: Davide Tidoni
design: Marzia Dalfini & Davide Tidoni
offset printing
binding: thread sewn, open spine binding with glued on boards
pages: 60
dimensions: 15×21x1cm
publisher: SARU Oxford Brookes University
number of copies: 300
year: 2018
orders: write to baitabaita AT riseup DOT net
A MICROPHONE IS TREATED WITH HOT WAX DROPS AND EVENTUALLY SET ON FIRE…
the mic is exposed
no armor to wear
facing the world
a punch in the chest
each touch is a mark
each flame is a trace
its body a map that accumulates
the sound it makes
a desperate cry
feeling all those blows
until it dies
A selection of firecrackers, fire fountains and fireworks are light up from within a drum set. The explosions grow up to the point where they cannot be contained anymore. The drum set gets on fire and burns down. The piece reflects on the dramatic end of a body (drum set) that has been fed with fear and doubts about realizing his/her right to self-empowerment and freedom.
