escalating inter-activity:  brieftopic glimpse in site-specific post-human improvised music

Barbierato Leonardo

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.

Leonardo Barbierato is an italian musician working on site-specific improvisation. After graduating in Biology and in Jazz, he is currently a PhD candidate at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and RomaTre University. His research project, patterns for transcendence, focuses on the interrelations between electro-acoustic improvisation and cultural/natural ecology.

Leonardo Barbierato är en italiensk musiker som arbetar med platsspecifik improvisation. Han är utbildad i biologi och jazz och är idag doktorand vid Conservatorio Santa Cecilia i Rom och RomaTre-universitetet. Hans forskningsprojekt, patterns for transcendence, fokuserar på samspelet mellan elektroakustisk improvisation och kulturell/naturlig ekologi.

https://leonardobarbierato.com/

mail: leobasrbierato@gmail.com

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Barbierato Leonardo - escalating inter-activity: brieftopic glimpse in site-specific post-human improvised music - 2025