AAVV – UltraUltraRed

UltraUltraRed_WEB

CD + booklet – Viaindustriae

The subtitle provides a good explanation of this work: “10 hypotheses based on 10 preliminary theses concerning activism and sound”. This hybrid-publishing project is the result of a series of workshops about new radios and is presented in the form of a manifesto by the American collective Ultra-red. There is a booklet and a CD that detail proposals developed by various young artists. This project was the final act of a workshop called “MEDIA azioni / azioni RADIO” (MEDIA actions / actions RADIO), which began with a basic theoretical text and lasted six months, during which time a database of sound fields and texts/tracks was created. The release also includes the first Italian translation of the main source text (by Dont Rhine and Robert Sember) – an “upgraded” translation, which presents translations/interpretations by several researchers who share the aims of the manifesto. The manifesto is based on 10 necessary points for investigating sound landscapes, activism-related social research, field recordings and the creation of theories of silence, environmental and sociological recordings, politics, pop music and the role of the popular songs in civil protest (here are just some of the most basic research topics. The tone and form of the manifesto is dogmatic and reveals an activist approach, but the manifesto clearly raises some theoretical questions. It claims that sound is at the same time both the object and the subject of activist investigation; no matter if analogue or digital. It also claims that the experience of listening constitutes a method for interpreting the contemporary. Similarly, silence is the object-cause of the desire for listening. As you can see, the themes are numberless, and political rather than artistic perspectives underpin the project. Some may have doubts about adopting such an approach, but we aren’t taking this work for granted.