Emergence and Emergency: Theoretical and Practical Considerations in Agostino Di Scipio's Works†

Abstract

Agostino Di Scipio refers often to system theory and transfers some of its models into his concert pieces, as well as into his installations and, recently, sounding objects. Some of these references are discussed in this paper, along with their musical implementations. In Di Scipio's Audible Ecosystemics series (2002–2005), the concept of emergence is central, meaning the unforeseen arising of higher level properties of a system from lower level processes. In the interactions between the system parts, however, sometimes lack of control creates emergency situations: to cope with the latter, Di Scipio includes self-regulating protection mechanisms in the compositional processes he designs.