Dynamic Networks of Sonic Interactions: An Interview with Agostino Di Scipio

Abstract

11 The Italian composer Agostino Di Scipio (see Figure 1) is one of the most interesting European personalities today working in the space between computer music and sound art. In his recent work, he creates purely sonic interactions between a source, realtime digital signal processors, and the room hosting the performance. The network of interactions is conceived as a dynamic, self-organizing system, symbiotically connected with the surrounding environment. The following interview addresses such issues and provides an overview of the theoretical and technological background behind them. It also touches on the central role of noise in Mr. Di Scipio’s live electronics compositions and on the degree of freedom allowed to human agents involved in the performance of such works. A list of his compositions is given in Table 1, and a list of recordings is provided in Table 2. Born in Naples in 1962, Mr. Di Scipio first approached composition as a self-taught musician, and later he pursued more formal studies at the Conservatory of L’Aquila and the University of Padua. A former visiting composer in several institutions, including Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia, 1993) and the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, 1995), he is today Professor of Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Naples and instructor in live electronics at Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris. In 2004, Mr. Di Scipio lectured at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at Johannes-GutenbergUniversitat in Mainz. A portrait compact disc, including some of the works recalled in the interview, will soon be released by Edition RZ, Berlin. He is also greatly interested in issues of music theory involving the relationship between art and technology, and he has published numerous articles and essays in international publications devoted to such issues. In 2004–2005, he lived in Berlin as a guest artist of