RDM Records | Electroacoustics & Experimental Music

This is the PLANNING STAGE of a critical literature series project.

This plan has originally been written in Italian by native Italians writers, and it is going to be translated in English. We also plan to publish the series in both languages as we write in both languages and candidatures from all over the world are open. Contact us to learn more.

Arts and Technologies is a project for a technical-scientific periodical concerning the analysis and critique of the work of art in all its forms, with specific reference to technology and research. It is posited that these two spheres are profoundly interconnected and, in the present day, determine the nature of every art form.

The editorial project is grounded in the epistemological concept of the work of art—defined by its historical-artistic, cultural, and aesthetic values, and by reflections on the conditions of knowledge, the means of production, and the modes of signification. This concept is thus emancipated from traditional categories and genre definitions of artistic practice, as it concerns the formal and compositional processes which—from the perspective of technical and expressive research—primarily entail an analysis of systems of thought and their structuring for creative ends.

Our research pathways concern the concepts and fields of interdisciplinarity and meaning in relation to new technologies—specifically what is understood in the musical field as the electroacoustic sense.

Since the emergence of technologies, and following the thread of their development, a radical paradigm shift has occurred at the core of the constitutive processes of the work of art in all its forms. This has reached a point where even those who do not engage with art in a direct relationship with technology—even those who do not compose electronic music—nevertheless operate, both actively and culturally, within a technological cultural logic, as the latter is inherent to the contemporary historical and social context. This is more evident than ever in the fields of photography and electronic music, whose histories are characterized internally by the historical transition from the analog to the digital, and externally by their emancipation from the more ancient domains of painting and instrumental or orchestral music. However, electronic music is an even younger art than photography; as such, its independence as a technological art and a singular, autonomous site—with its own spheres and techniques, its own stylistic and formal apprehensions—remains a subject of ongoing discourse; for reasons we intend to observe, investigate, and expound upon throughout our editorial activity.

Cognitive research is firmly intertwined with technology when the latter is employed functionally within creative processes, effectively integrated into the artistic act. Just as photography and cinema established themselves as autonomous and singular sites, electronic music likewise asserts itself as such. The primary evidence for this lies in the recognition, within instrumental music, of the influence exerted by technologies since their earliest appearance, in terms of both composition and orchestration.

In painting and literature as well, the paradigm shift is structural, as it resides at the foundational level of thought and the syntactic processes of constitution. It is pertinent to note that painting today subsists on digital imaginaries, in the sense that it cannot transcend a confrontation with them; just as literature subsists on cinematographic imaginaries. Finally, it must be said that the "fermenting crucible" of today is undoubtedly the audiovisual world.

In this sense, the project is dedicated to the contemporary period of art beginning with the historical emergence of technologies. It is organized into sections or paragraphs, each authored by an editor and/or correlated to a specific work of art by virtue of technical-analytical or essayistic-philosophical thought. The content of these sections will vary periodically in relation to the works, authors, exhibitions, concerts, or performances examined by the editor in light of their own analytical and critical reflections.