Elena Biserna

Walking from Scores

Lecture

Walking from Scores is a collection of around one hundred non-site-specific scores created by artists, composers and collectives involving walking, listening and sound-making in urban space. The project explores the relationship between the aesthetic and the everyday, the dynamics of sound and listening in urban environments, and the porous boundaries between artist and audience.

It draws from two premises: (1) an interest in walking as a relational practice and a way to establish interaction with places and to read and reinterpret urban space, and (2) a focus on verbal notation and text scores as catalysts for action and open invitations addressed to everyone.

The title refers to Ken Friedman’s text Working from Scores (1990), which examined the notion of musicality in visual and intermedia art and questioned ideas of authenticity, intention and meaning. The project is based on the reproduction and redistribution of the collection and its reactivation in context-specific forms.

Walking from Scores is a collection of around one hundred non-site-specific scores created by artists, composers and collectives involving walking, listening and sound-making in urban space. The project explores the relationship between the aesthetic and the everyday, the dynamics of sound and listening in urban environments, and the porous boundaries between artist and audience.

It draws from two premises: (1) an interest in walking as a relational practice and a way to establish interaction with places and to read and reinterpret urban space, and (2) a focus on verbal notation and text scores as catalysts for action and open invitations addressed to everyone.

The title refers to Ken Friedman’s text Working from Scores (1990), which examined the notion of musicality in visual and intermedia art and questioned ideas of authenticity, intention and meaning. The project is based on the reproduction and redistribution of the collection and its reactivation in context-specific forms.

Elena Biserna

An independent scholar and occasional curator based in Marseille. She writes, talks, facilitates workshops and collective projects, curates and sometimes performs. Her interests focus on listening and contextual, time-based art practices related to urban dynamics, socio-cultural processes, and the public and political sphere. She has contributed to numerous international publications and is currently working on the books Walking from Scores and Walking, Listening, Sound-Making.

Author: Elena Biserna
Photo: Matej Tomažin

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