There are moments within a performance where destruction and deviation from reality allow an alternative scenario to reveal itself. I argue that these moments can be called ‘brieftopic’, fleeting glimpses into a possible future (Behzad Khosravi Noori, 2024). But what are the connections between reality, deviation and alternative scenario? How can this brieftopia, which materializes for brief moments within a performative event, reverberate outside of it, propagating at a social and political level? During the site-specific improvisation series [in situ], it became evident to me that this brieftopia is tied to an artist’s relinquishment of control, leading to a decentralization of the performance. By introducing the case study, specifically the [in situ] performance held in September 2023 at the Maremma National Park, we will see how unforeseen, unpredictable, and non-linear interactions between myself, the audience, and the non-human components of the ecosystem in which we were immersed, shaped the performance itself, steering it in an unexpected direction and removing it from the continuum of artistic intention, audience perception, and everyday life reflection. In this brieftopia, in a sense, it is existence itself that is reduced to rubble, not for the love of rubble, but for the way out that passes through it, paraphrasing Walter Benjamin.
This exposition is structured isomorphically to [in situ], not so much in its performance but rather at the ideational and analytical levels, meaning in the moments preceding and following the performance, as it will become evident through the exposition. In this page, I am creating order to allow you, the reader, to (dis)orient yourself in the next section, in the same way that I studied and exercised control over the space before the performance in order to lose control during the improvisational event. It is precisely within this frame, enclosed between ideation and analysis or between introduction and conclusion, that it becomes possible to reorganize reality into alternative scenarios. In this hierarchical and organized Net, a rebellious and non-hierarchical Web (or counter-Net) can emerge (Hakim Bey, 1985).
After the introduction, you will be able to follow various paths through media and texts freely and beyond my control, arriving at your own conclusions.
According to Claire Bishop, the participatory nature of some contemporary and 20th-century artworks is inextricably linked to their political nature (Claire Bishop, 2006). From the Dadaist events described by André Breton as «Artificial Hell» (André Breton, 1921) to Yeon Sung’s performance Cycling the Unknown: BYOB (2024), the performative nature refers not only to a relational aspect that is exhausted in individuality but to a collective participation that reflects and is reflected in the social context in which it occurs. It is easy to see in the Dadaist events of 1921 a reflection of the political tensions of the time: an example is the mock trial of Maurice Barrès, where the audience becomes the jury that scrutinizes the conservative and nationalist ideas of the French author. In these glimpses, the performance becomes brieftopic, suggesting momentary alternative realities that can become experiential knowledge for those involved. Their ephemeral nature contains a depth that goes well beyond the temporal constraints of the performance.
In the contemporary world, we are now accustomed to engaging with brief phenomena. Social networks are characterized by brief, fragmented communication, and this mode of communication is also reflected in politics. In a late-capitalist culture, hyper-politic ages (Anton Jäger, 2024) that promotes speed and dynamism, linked to a loss of attention (Nicholas Carr, 2010), brieftopia becomes a potential trigger for change. Recalling Mark Fisher, is it possible that these temporary bursts of alternative realities make it easier to imagine the end of capitalism than the end of the world? Do they allow us to see the «failure of the future» from another perspective? (Mark Fisher, 2009). A potential revolutionary, scandalous political power is hypothesized, which, according to Marcuse, does not necessarily hide behind ideological intentions but emerges from the ability to distance oneself from ordinary experience (Herbert Marcuse, 1978). Thus, if on the one hand art remains tied to the «horror of reality», on the other hand, it escapes it, contradicts it (Theodor Adorno, 1967). Art is «escaped from reality, at the same time, permeated» (Vincenzo Trione, 2022).
Moving from a general artistic context to the context of site-specific improvisation [in situ], I experienced this departure from ordinary experience in the unpredictable relationships that the artist establishes with the audience and other performative elements after planning the performance.
Unpredictability and indeterminacy in the musical environment are often associated with John Cage, who, however, had an ambivalent attitude towards improvisation throughout his career. In the 1970s, when he most engaged with improvisation, Cage always denied the personal and experiential contribution of the players. In fact, in works such as Child of Tree and Inlet, the performers were constrained by their lack of knowledge of the instruments or by the inability to control them, and for this reason, players cannot rely on personal taste and memory (Sabine Feisst, 2009). However, although this was Cage’s declared intention, I believe that the memory and taste of the performers cannot be cancelled. Even in the case of Inlet, where the performers play uncontrollable conch shells filled with water, their prior musical (or perhaps more accurately, life) experience will certainly influence the way they explore the instruments. While sharing Cage’s idea of indeterminacy, [in situ] does not lead to impersonality as we will see, but shifts the focus from individual subjects to the relationships between them.
Many more recent artists have interacted with environmental sounds during their improvisations, often using the field recording technique, including the noise collective SHLUK, Marinos Koutsomichalis, Barre Phillips, Marc Pichelin, Kristof Guez, Glenn Whitehead and Jean Pallard, to name just a few. Their work traces a path closely aligned with my own research, although I have not used field recording, and the focus of my work is likely more performative than compositional.
During [in situ], the performance is structured to be suspended between the rules of art and those of everyday life, as we will see later. What is traditionally considered a spectator emancipates and becomes an actant (Jacques Rancière, 2008; Bruno Latour & Steve Woolgar, 1986), and the artist systematically loses control of the performance. This loss of control does not determine the success or failure of the performance (Erika Fischer-Lichte, 2008), but brings the performer, the audience, and the objects of the performative system into unexplored phenomenological spaces and redefines the relationships between the elements of this system. «If the performer can ‘allow the moments of disorientation to gather’, they can become something to ‘think with’, perhaps opening up another angle on the world, perhaps suggesting ways of living and performing otherwise» (Jennifer Torrence, 2024). Moreover, disorientation produces a state of alertness because one is entering the unknown, embracing unpredictability: «There is no option for auto-pilot or a habitualized order of things. Such disorientation is fascinating in its potential to open up a ‘terrain for transformative encounter’» (ibid.). This aspect of disorientation is already present, albeit latently, in all improvised music performances. The experience of listening to music clearly defined as improvised causes high empathy and a dramatic experience because there is a sense that both the audience and the improviser share the same space-time: «the sense that the improviser is working, creating, generating musical material, in the same time in which we are co-performing as listeners» (Vijay Iyer, 2004). In summary, there is an elusive yet consistent connection between the disintegration of reality, the disorientation caused by the suspension of artistic control, and the momentary emergence of alternative scenarios. In the following sections it will be discussed how these aspects are manifest in the [in situ] performance.